Eng Students · For engineering students

Tell any AI tool your syllabus topics before it quizzes you.

Practice questions should come from your syllabus. Type your topics into any AI chatbot first and tell it to stay on that list. Three steps, any chatbot.

26 Oct 2026 · 4 min read · sources read up to 26 Oct 2026

Seen on Instagram: the post this article goes with.

The question

You ask a chatbot to quiz you. Are the questions from your syllabus, the units your university lists for this subject? Or from the subject in general?

Every question on a topic your list doesn't include is revision time spent elsewhere. The fix is free to try and you can do it on a phone: tell the tool your syllabus topics first.

Why a subject name isn't enough

"Quiz me on Digital Electronics" names a subject. It doesn't say which units your university lists, or how deep to go.

Anthropic (the company behind Claude) says in its guide to prompts that the AI lacks your context (the background information you give it), so spell out what you want ^[1]. OpenAI's and Google's prompt guides point the same way ^[2][3]. OpenAI's is written for developers, not for its chat app, so we apply the idea to a chat.

Some syllabi are public, and some tools search the web, so a tool may already know yours. Don't count on it. Typing your topic list tells it which list you mean.

Three steps, any chatbot

1. Type your topic list. Write the unit names and topic headings for one subject in your own words. Nothing else: no name, roll number, marks or messages. Leave documents out: a syllabus file, textbook pages or notes can be someone else's work, so we don't suggest pasting or uploading them.
2. Tell it to stay on your list. Use a prompt like the one below.
3. Answer first, then check. Write your answer, then compare it with your textbook, not with the AI.

Our example prompt for the second step, written for this post and not yet tested:

Ask me 10 questions,
only on the topics
in my list below.
If a topic is not in this list,
say so instead of guessing.
Don't give the answers
until I reply.

The "say so" line comes from Anthropic's advice on reducing wrong answers: let the AI say when it lacks the information instead of guessing ^[4]. That is one company's advice, so treat it as a step to try, not a promise about every tool. The last line of the prompt keeps the roles right: the AI asks, you answer.

Check what comes back

Anthropic says these techniques cut mistakes but don't stop them ^[4]. Google says Gemini, its chatbot, can state wrong things as fact ^[3][5]. Neither Google page tells you to double-check; that part is our advice, backed by Anthropic's point that the tricks don't stop mistakes. If a question is on a topic that isn't in your list, drop it.

On privacy, Google's page for Gemini says people may review chats, and that a work or school account may be subject to different terms ^[5]. We read no other tool's privacy page, so we say nothing about them. Type only your topic list, nothing about you: that is a safe habit anywhere. Use a chatbot you are allowed to use, and follow your college's AI rules.

Why quiz yourself at all

A 2006 study of 120 US undergraduates found that being tested beat rereading short passages two days later ^[7]. It did not use syllabi, AI-made questions or exam marks, so it is a reason to prefer being asked over rereading, nothing more.

What we did, and what we did not

We read; we did not run. On 26 October 2026 we read the six web pages listed in Sources below ^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} and pages 249 to 252 of the study through a university-hosted copy ^[7]. We have not yet asked a chatbot for questions with and without a typed topic list and marked which ones fall outside the list. So this post reports no result, and we do not say that any tool stays inside a syllabus once you give it your topics.

The study's numbers, for the record ^[7]:

Anthropic's usage policy bars submitting AI-assisted work without proper permission or attribution ^[6]. Being quizzed on your own syllabus isn't submitted work. For anything you hand in, say where AI helped if your college's rules ask you to.

Some pages did not open on the day, so we use none of them: OpenAI's help-centre pages and usage policy, an exam reform policy from AICTE (India's technical-education council) and a university question-paper page. We found no source on how semester papers are set, so we make no claim about it. The advice is only this: practise what your syllabus lists.