K14

Context provisioning

Give it your actual syllabus, notes and marking criteria, so it's answering about your course rather than about the subject in general.

When to use this: Before you start studying
Learning impact: Clear help, modest gain
Learning evidence: Credible with caveats
Where you are with the topic: Building understanding
How often to use it: Build and keep as a habit

When to use it

Answers feel generic, as if they ignore your course.
You are about to study from a syllabus, notes, or rubric you could paste.
Notation, level, or marking criteria in your module differ from “the internet default.”

What to ask AI

Type something like: “Here’s my syllabus section [paste] and my lecture notes [paste]. Answer within this scope, using this notation, at this level.”

Tell it to flag anything outside the syllabus instead of inventing coverage.

Keep the hard part on your side: you supply the materials and still verify high-stakes claims.

How it helps

Without your materials, you get a tour of the subject in general.

With them, you get help aimed at your course.

Context provisioning is grounding: syllabus, notes, and marking criteria beat generic fluency.

It reduces irrelevant invention, but it does not replace checking.

How to run it

Paste the smallest relevant slice: one syllabus section, one lecture, the rubric rows that matter.
State notation and level constraints explicitly.
Ask it to refuse or flag out-of-scope requests.
Ask a question that can only be answered from your material, to test whether context landed.
Re-paste when the session drifts or a new topic starts.

Example exchange

You

Here’s my syllabus paragraph on the multivariable chain rule and my lecturer’s notation sheet. Please answer only inside this scope, if I ask outside it, say so. Does my syllabus require the full proof for the midterm, or only computational use?

From what you pasted: computational use is listed under assessable skills; “proof of the general chain rule” is marked as extension. I’m not adding a proof requirement your syllabus doesn’t state.

You

Good. Next, give me two practice items using only our notation.

Here are two items in your notation. Attempt them before you ask for solutions.

Copyable prompt

Here's my syllabus section [paste] and my lecture notes [paste]. Answer within
this scope, using this notation, at this level. If something I'm asking about is
outside the syllabus, tell me.

The Tell

Here is how you know this method has flipped: the answers still feel generic.

Either the context did not land, or you are still asking general questions.

Ask something that could only be answered from your material, such as whether your syllabus requires a derivation or just the result.

Principle evidence

Strength of the underlying learning idea, not a claim about AI products.

The underlying learning idea is rated moderate. Grounding help in the learner’s actual materials reduces irrelevant generality, adjacent to contingent tutoring and grounding that cuts unsupported invention. Principle moderate as hygiene for relevant help; learning-outcome trials for “paste your notes first” remain thin.

AI delivery evidence

Whether an AI tutor delivers this method well is a separate question.

Whether a model faithfully stays inside pasted notes varies. Delivery speculative. You still own scope control and verification.