Quizlet recently started testing a new feature called Q-Chat, which allows users to chat with AI in order to improve their studying experience. As of now, Q-Chat offers a variety of studying options, including “Quiz me”, “Deepen my Understanding”, “Tell me a fun fact”, “Story mode”, and “Practice with sentences”, which vary in availability depending on the subject being studied. Here was my experience using Q-Chat:

I began my journey with Q-Chat by choosing the “Quiz me” option. At first, this option didn’t seem like anything particularly special. It essentially asks users to define the terms in the set, and proceeds to ask for an example of each. Since I was studying Spanish vocabulary, I wasn’t able to get much use out of the “Quiz me” option. However, for subjects where understanding examples is essential to understanding the topic, this could be a very useful tool. If users are unable to list an example, AI can provide an accurate example of the term being studied. In my experience, this was surprisingly accurate, but I did notice that AI tended to consider responses correct, especially when they were slightly inaccurate or even completely wrong. Overall, I found the “Quiz me” option on Q-Chat to be relatively underwhelming. However, the feature is still in the process of being developed, so I think it has the potential to be a useful study tool.

After being underwhelmed by the “Quiz me” option, I was pleasantly surprised by the practicality of the “Deepen my Understanding” option. This feature does exactly what it sounds like: it seeks to help users deepen their understanding of a topic by asking questions that involve applying the terms in a larger context, either within the topic or within the real world as a whole. I think this feature is incredibly useful and is capable of transforming the typical studying experience to prioritize understanding over simple memorization.

On the other hand, I was pretty disappointed with the “Tell me a fun fact” option, although I will admit I had low expectations to begin with. As expected, this feature gives users a fun fact related to the topic they’re studying. When I used the feature, I was often told facts that were only loosely related to the topic I was studying or served no real purpose in the context of my studying. Although I learned some interesting facts using this feature, I personally found this option to be nothing more than a distraction from actually studying. Overall, I found this feature to be lacking any realistic studying benefits, and I would be unlikely to use it any time soon.

After being disappointed by the “Tell me a fun fact” feature, the “Story mode” option redeemed my trust in Q-Chat. This feature tells users a story that incorporates various terms from the study set. I used this option to practice Spanish, and found it to be incredibly useful. On top of helping build understanding of the terms I was studying in a unique way, it also helped me practice my Spanish reading skills. In addition to being useful, I found this feature to be more interesting to use than flashcards or other traditional study methods. Specifically for foreign language learning, I think this feature is a valuable study tool.

After having a successful experience with the “Story mode” option, I was glad to have a similar experience with the “Practice with sentences” option of Q-Chat. This feature gives users terms from a study set and asks them to use them in a sentence. When I tried out this feature with Spanish vocabulary, I found it to be surprisingly helpful. On top of being able to further my understanding of the words by using them in sentences, I was able to practice using grammar. The most impressive part of this feature was that the AI was not only able to help explain vocabulary from the set, but it was able to correct some of the grammatical errors I made while writing the sentences. Similar to the “Story mode” option, I found this feature to be an engaging and useful tool for studying a foreign language.

Considering that Q-Chat is still in the beginning stages of being tested, it was quite impressive. Although I found features like “Tell me a fun fact” and “Quiz me” to be underwhelming, the “Deepen my understanding”, “Story mode”, and “Practice with sentences” options were incredibly helpful study tools that made up for the other features’ shortcomings. Despite my criticisms of some of these features, there’s no denying that Q-Chat completely upgrades the typical studying experience to prioritize a comprehensive understanding of the material. Even as someone who tends to be hesitant to use AI, I had an overall positive experience using Q-Chat, and truly think the feature is capable of revolutionizing the future of learning.