AI Learning · 3 MIN READ
Chat with Your Study Notes: Ask Questions About Your Own Material
How to use an AI chat grounded in your own notes: explain, simplify, shorten and quiz yourself on the material, plus how to keep answers honest.
On this page
Open the chat from inside a set of notes, and the assistant answers using that content instead of guessing. Use it to explain a confusing paragraph, get a shorter version, simplify a concept or generate practice questions. CastIQ's Ask IQ can be opened from a workspace for exactly this.
A general chatbot knows a lot about everything and nothing about the chapter in front of you. Ask it about "the second method" in your notes and it has no idea which one you mean. A chat tied to your own material fixes that: the conversation starts from what you are actually studying.
How it works in CastIQ
Every set of notes, quiz or other output has an Ask IQ option. Opening it from there links the chat to that content, so references like "this" and "it" point at your notes. The chat can also help outside a workspace, for general study questions and for questions about exams and the syllabus.
Prompts that work well
- "Explain the part about [topic] as if I am new to it."
- "Make this shorter, keeping only what would be asked in an exam."
- "Give me five questions on this, with answers hidden until I ask."
- "What are the common mistakes with this topic?"
- "Compare these two ideas in a table."
Keeping answers honest
Check against the source
An assistant can present a wrong answer confidently. For anything you will be marked on, confirm the key facts in your notes, textbook or syllabus.
- Ask it to point to the part of your notes an answer came from.
- If an answer contradicts your notes, assume the answer needs checking first.
- Use it to explain and test, not to avoid doing the thinking yourself.
For turning the same material into questions you answer yourself, see MCQ practice from your own notes.
Example: a ten-minute conversation about one chapter
- "Explain the difference between mitosis and meiosis in simple words." You read the answer and check it against your notes.
- "Make a table comparing the two." You copy the table into your notes if it is correct.
- "Ask me three questions on this, and wait for my answer." You answer in your head before reading the next prompt.
- "I got the second one wrong. Why?" You read the explanation and write it in your mistake log.
Notice what is happening: the assistant is a partner for explaining and testing, and you are still the one doing the recall. That is the difference between using it to learn and using it to avoid learning.
What chat is not good at
- Verifying itself. It can state a wrong answer with confidence, so check important facts.
- Knowing what you were taught. It only knows the notes you connect it to, not your teacher's exact emphasis.
- Replacing practice. Asking for an explanation is easier than solving the problem.
Combine chat with practice
Use chat to understand and a quiz to test. After a conversation about a topic, build a short quiz on it from your notes. For syllabus questions, check the official source as described in using the syllabus as a checklist, and keep the principles in using AI for studying honestly in mind.
Stuck on a paragraph in your notes?
Ask IQ about it →Study smarter with CastIQ
Turn videos, PDFs and notes into notes, quizzes, flashcards and more.
Try CastIQ Free →Frequently asked questions
When opened from a set of notes it uses that content as its main context. For general questions it answers from its general knowledge.
Yes. Ask for a shorter or simpler version and it can write out the revised text.
Chat messages come from your plan's allowance, so heavy use can run out sooner on smaller plans.