Flyby Tries: Letting ChatGPT Determine My Finals Study Schedule

Like any Harvard student, I was admitted because of my great intellectual vitality, excellent ability to prepare for the challenges life throws at me, and the dedication to stick to any plan once it’s made — you know, showing grit!

Unfortunately for me, none of those skills involves the actual making of a plan. And as final exams roll around (they’re in a week, people: insanity), I have found myself without a study schedule for my exams. I suppose I could do what I did last semester, which is think happy thoughts as I walk into the Science Center for each final.

But it’s a new semester, a new year, and a new me. I wanted to try to have a real calendar this time, partly because I see all the pretty colors on other peoples’ GCals. Being resourceful and ascribing to the philosophy of working smarter, not harder, I had ChatGPT do it for me, for my own good and also because I’m sure many readers have been wondering the same thing.

The basics: I have exams in Ps11 (crying in premed), Math 21b (crying in three psets a week), Psy 18 (crying in… actually, nothing, I love this class), plus a take-home final in Ling 83. I entered my classes, plus the exam dates and the amount of review materials per class, and told ChatGPT to create a study schedule for me beginning Monday, April 21.

Check out the results below!

Seems… doable? Day 3 scares me though, I hate taking practice exams. By Cassidy M. Cheng

Why is there so much work on the weekends? I can't target weak spots in math while also fighting the Sunday Scaries :( By Cassidy M. Cheng

I suppose reinforcement is a nicer word than forced By Cassidy M. Cheng

The little grad cap followed by my final exam date is so ominous. But hey, I'm supposed to confidence By Cassidy M. Cheng

No notes, just more lock-in time. I can already sense the depths of the trenches I'll be in for math. By Cassidy M. Cheng

Honestly, at this point, if I'm not prepared for Psy 18, I'm not sure I'll ever be. By Cassidy M. Cheng

Did It Work?

I attempted to follow this schedule beginning Monday, April 21, through Friday, April 25. It began just fine — on Day 1, I copy/pasted vocab for Psy 18 into Anki, and skimmed old PS11 notes like the formulas would upload themselves into my brain. Day 2 also went fine, though I awakened some exam terrors realizing how much math I’ve forgotten over the course of the semester.

Day 3 was where things went off the rails, though in my defense, it wasn’t entirely my fault. Tragically, the PS11 review exams hadn’t been posted yet, so I decided to do nothing instead. The hour of blissful doomscrolling during the time I should’ve been following my ChatGPT schedule was so nice that, when Day 4 rolled around, I chose to do the same again instead of more Psy 18 review.

By Day 5, I’d convinced myself that, since disaster didn’t strike on Wednesday or Thursday, I could skip Friday, too. And I did, and with that, the weekend came — which made all thoughts of academics evaporate anyway.

So this exercise, while not entirely successful — I still minimally follow this schedule, but have taken a lot of creative liberty in what the definition of “skimming” is — taught me that the second I slack off, I lose my motivation. But while I did follow it, I felt fantastically productive.

A side reflection: I love the emojis that ChatGPT incorporated into the schedule. They take the edge off of the stress and horror of looking at a calendar that means I have to actually sit down and study.

In all, while fully following my schedule was an utter disaster, if you’re like me and have no plan yet, consider letting ChatGPT take the wheel instead! You can show true intellectual vitality by embracing our AI overlords.