The long-loved educational app Quizlet has been a cornerstone of my academic success since I was about 14 years old. Back then, I had to manually create digital flashcards, which probably took more time than actually learning the material. I hadn't thought about Quizlet since graduating college, but now that I'm returning to grad school, I thought I'd check out Old Faithful. It turns out the learning app is fully AI-ified, and to my surprise, I really love it.
The platform offers far more study tools to get you through class, including the use of generative artificial intelligence to help you excel in class. These tools include practice tests, study guides, “blasts,” and categories. With just a few weeks until we return to the classroom, I decided to try out each of these features to see how artificial intelligence has improved Quizlet.
Get back on track
(Image credit: Muskaan Saxena via Future)
Practice tests are one of my favorite features because you can upload PDF documents or handwritten notes to Quizlet and the AI will generate personalized practice tests based on the content you upload.
I like the idea of getting a practice test that is specific to what I'm studying, rather than searching online for a test that may or may not cover everything I need to study. One of the issues I had with Quizlet before was that I had to create or find pre-made practice tests, and it was very rare to find a complete test that covered a particular curriculum, which forced me to completely skip or ignore irrelevant questions, which affected my score.
I uploaded one of my class's curriculum datasheets and not only was a test instantly created for me to take, but I was also given the option to instantly create flashcards and study guides that distilled the 70-page document into concise, easy-to-understand notes. As far as I can tell, even though the AI simplified the content, nothing important was lost and it was able to expand on information where needed.
(Image credit: Muskaan Saxena via Future)
More to love
I really like Quizlet without the AI, even though it's a bit of a pain to tailor content and prepare it for digestion. It's one of the few places where even an AI skeptic like me can confidently say that AI will dramatically improve the platform and truly improve the learning experience for many people.
These generative AI features are not paid for. This is really shocking to me considering that many AI tools today require some kind of subscription or one-time payment. There is an option to pay for more advanced AI features such as Q-chat, which uses generative AI in a chatbot-like way, acting as an AI tutor to help you revise your notes. This feature is free to try, so I used some of my content and study sets already available on the platform, and to be honest, I'm now tempted to pay for it.
In chat, you can choose the topic you want to discuss and the AI will give you options like “Teach Me,” “Take a Quiz,” “Apply My Knowledge,” or you can ask a specific question and get an answer.
(Image credit: Muskaan Saxena via Future)
Keep in mind that these answers and quizzes are based entirely on the information you provide to Quizlet, so your questions are unlikely to yield the kind of answers you would get from a chatbot like ChatGPT or Google Gemini, but this can be beneficial, as internet scraping bots tend to provide inaccurate or out-of-context information.
We used the tutoring option and found it to be very faithful to a typical classroom setting. The AI tutor provides a brief overview of the content and then asks a few questions to keep the learner engaged and interacting, so you aren't bombarded with a huge amount of text. If you're a bit lost or confused, you can type in your question and the AI will answer it for you with examples from the study material.
While I am grateful to have had access to the new and improved Quizlet right before I started my master's degree, I wish I had something like it when I was attending college online during the pandemic. Having something as interactive as this to help me study during quarantine would have made the time I spent alone at my desk much more productive.
