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Make it quiz you.

Exam prep with AI, part 3 of 6. Free ChatGPT quizzes you on your own notes, tested: fair marks and hints, and a revise list that missed the hinted answers.

7 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · sources read up to 5 Nov 2026

The night before a test, reading your notes one more time feels like revising. Then someone asks one question and the answer isn't there. Being asked is what finds the gaps. This is part 3 of the Field Guide series on exam prep with AI: one job, tested on a real screen, with the catch said plainly.

The job, and what to type

Use only notes you wrote yourself, in your own words. Not textbook pages, lecturer slides or handouts, question papers, a classmate's notes, or notes copied word for word. The notes below are a sample on stacks and queues, made up for this demo.

Quiz me on my revision notes below.
- Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer.
- Use only what is in my notes.
- After each answer, tell me if it's right. If it's wrong, give me a hint and let me try once more before you tell me the answer.
- Stop after 5 questions and tell me which lines of my notes to revise.

My notes:
Stack: last in, first out (LIFO). The last item added is the first one taken out.
Push adds an item to the top of a stack. Pop takes the top item off.
Queue: first in, first out (FIFO). The first item added is the first one taken out.
Enqueue adds an item at the back of a queue. Dequeue takes the item at the front.
Peek looks at the top (stack) or the front (queue) without taking it out.
Popping an empty stack is an error called underflow. Pushing onto a full fixed-size stack is overflow.
Push, pop, enqueue and dequeue all take O(1) time.
Uses: undo in an editor uses a stack. A printer's job list uses a queue.

Why these lines

"Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer" is the line that turns a list of questions into a quiz: you can't read ahead to the answer. "Use only what is in my notes" keeps it to what you wrote. The hint line means a wrong answer gets a nudge and a second try, so you do the remembering, not the AI. The last line asks for the lines of your notes to revise, which is the part you take away.

How it was tested

One run on 6 November 2026, on free ChatGPT in a web browser, signed in to a personal demo account. The chat was a temporary chat set to Unpersonalized, which does not use memory, custom instructions or plugins ^[2]. The five checks, and how each question would be answered (right, wrong, half right), were written down before the prompt was sent.

1. One at a time: it asks a single question, then waits.
2. Only my notes: every question can be answered from the sample notes alone.
3. Marks fairly: right called right, wrong called wrong, and a half-right answer told what is missing.
4. Hint first: after a wrong answer, a hint and a second try, and the hint doesn't give the answer away.
5. Revise list matches: the lines it says to revise are the ones answered wrong or half right first time.

What came back

It asked one question and waited, every time. The marking was fair. "A queue." on its own got "Partially correct", and a follow-up asking what FIFO stands for. When push and pop were the wrong way round, it said so and gave a hint ("Think about which operation adds an item and which one removes an item") without the answer. On the last question it gave the answer only after a second wrong try.

Three of the five checks passed.

The catch

Two checks failed. The bigger one is the revise list. After five questions it named one line, the O(1) line, the only question still wrong after the hint. Push and pop, and FIFO, both needed a second try, and it said those were understood well. Trust that list and those two never get revised.

The smaller one: question 5 asked "what does O(1) mean?", and the notes say the four operations take O(1) time but never say what that means. Its closing reminder also brought in O(log n) and O(n), which aren't in the notes.

The fix, one more message

In the same chat: "Count every question where I needed a hint or a second try as one to revise. Which lines of my notes should I revise now?" It came back with 3 topics: push and pop, FIFO and queues, and time complexity. Those are the right three. It reworded the lines a little, and added the enqueue and dequeue lines, which no question asked about.

One more thing showed up on the free plan. Right after that answer the page said "Context window full", with a button for a new chat and an upgrade offer. Five questions and one follow-up used up the chat. For a longer quiz, start a new chat, or keep to about five short questions.

The stamp

Half works · 6 Nov 2026 · free ChatGPT, in a browser · 3 of 5 checks passed. A fair quiz, one question at a time, with hints before answers. But its revise list counted only the final miss, and one question went past the notes. The follow-up came after the stamp and isn't part of the five checks. One run is one run: try it with your own notes.

Before you use it

For revising only. Never in an exam, and for marked work, follow your school's or college's AI rules. ChatGPT is for ages 13 and over, or the minimum age in your country, and under 18 needs a parent's or guardian's permission ^[1].

The whole quiz, word for word

ChatGPT's turns are unedited from the page text and the screenshots; the tester's turns start with "Me:". Bold and coloured labels are shown as plain text.

ChatGPT:
Let's begin! I'll ask 5 questions, one at a time. If you get one wrong, you'll get a hint and one more attempt before I reveal the answer.

Question 1 of 5

What does LIFO stand for, and what does it mean in a stack?

Type your answer below. 👇

Me: Last in, first out. The last item you push on is the first one you pop off.

ChatGPT:
[Correct! ✓]
Exactly right! LIFO means Last In, First Out. The last item pushed onto the stack is the first item popped off.

Question 2 of 5

What is the difference between push and pop in a stack?

Me: Push takes the top item off and pop adds an item to the top.

ChatGPT:
[Not quite!]
You've got them the wrong way round. Here's a hint:

💡 Think about which operation adds an item and which one removes an item.

Have another try! What does push do, and what does pop do?

Me: Push adds an item to the top and pop takes the top item off.

ChatGPT:
[Correct! ✓]
Well done!
- Push = adds an item to the top.
- Pop = removes the top item.

Question 3 of 5

A printer has a list of jobs waiting to be printed.

Which data structure would it use: a stack or a queue, and what does FIFO stand for?

Me: A queue.

ChatGPT:
[Partially correct ✓]
Correct! A printer's job list uses a queue.

One more part: What does FIFO stand for?

Me: First in, first out.

ChatGPT:
[Correct! ✓]
Exactly! FIFO = First In, First Out. The first job added is the first one printed.

Question 4 of 5

What are the two errors that can happen with a stack, and when does each one occur?

Me: Underflow when you pop an empty stack, and overflow when you push onto a full fixed-size stack.

ChatGPT:
[Correct! ✓]
Brilliant! Both are exactly right.
- Underflow: Popping an empty stack.
- Overflow: Pushing onto a full fixed-size stack.

Question 5 of 5

What is the time complexity of push, pop, enqueue and dequeue?

And what does O(1) mean?

Me: They take O(n) time.

ChatGPT:
[Not quite!]
Here's a hint:

💡 Think about whether these operations take longer as more items are added, or whether they take the same amount of time regardless of the number of items.

Have one more try!

What is the correct Big O notation, and what does it mean?

Me: O(log n). It gets a bit slower as the list grows.

ChatGPT:
[Incorrect]
Not quite! The correct answer is O(1), which means constant time: the operation takes roughly the same amount of time regardless of how many items are in the stack or queue.
- Push: O(1)
- Pop: O(1)
- Enqueue: O(1)
- Dequeue: O(1)

Quiz complete — 4 out of 5 questions correct! 🎉

What to revise

Focus on this exact line in your notes:

Push, pop, enqueue and dequeue all take O(1) time.

Remember:
- O(1): Constant time.
- O(log n): Time grows slowly as the input gets larger.
- O(n): Time grows proportionally with the input size.

You understood the stack and queue operations, FIFO/LIFO, and underflow/overflow well. Just give time complexity another review!

The follow-up answer, word for word

You needed a hint or second try on 3 questions, so these are the lines to revise:

1. Push and pop
- Push adds an item to the top of a stack.
- Pop removes the top item from a stack.

2. FIFO and queues
- FIFO means First In, First Out.
- Enqueue adds an item to the back of a queue.
- Dequeue removes an item from the front of a queue.

3. Time complexity
- Push, pop, enqueue and dequeue all take O(1) time.
- O(1) means constant time, not time that increases as the list grows.

Your revision list: 3 topics. You answered the other questions correctly without needing help, so you don't need to prioritise those right now.

[Page banner shown right after this answer: "Context window full · Start a new chat with an automatic summary of this conversation, or upgrade to continue here with more context available in every chat." with buttons "New chat" and "Claim free offer".]

Next in the series, part 4: weak topics from a marked mock test.