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Is AI a good study buddy? We asked students

Assistant — Students at the University of Copenhagen are using ChatGPT and other AI tools for study, and for exams. We asked them how

Student of Classical Archaeology, 7th semester

»I use both ChatGPT and Google’s Bard (now Gemini, ed.) to prepare for an oral re-exam in Ancient Greek. I use them to help create clear schemas of grammatical rules, and to check my responses to the exercises that I do. In this way I get a quick and precise answer, and I know what I need to spend more time reading up on. I think the technology is very practical as a kind of study partner, especially when it comes to a dead language where there is not that much newer literature.«

Anonymity

As the use of ChatGPT and similar technologies is generally considered cheating, we have chosen to publish the statements from the students anonymously. The University Post is aware of the respondents’ identities.

Student of history, 1st semester

»I have used ChatGPT to review my exams and to find comma errors, missing present tense ‘r’s, and spelling mistakes. ChatGPT does however have a tendency to rewrite the text. There were some research results where ChatGPT invented its own ones, which was very strange. You have to therefore be very specific in your questions, in my experience, as ChatGPT otherwise comes up with some strange solutions.«

Student of law, 3rd semester

»I have just had a subject where we used many international treaties and conventions. For that, I used ChatGPT to create tables of contents by inserting the text and asking it to group the provisions by subject. In this way, I got an overview that gave me the information I needed. And for the exam itself I could very quickly find the provisions in the treaty that were relevant to the question I was asked. This was actually really effective.«

Student of political science, 1st semester

»I have used ChatGPT during my exams and it has been a great help. I think it’s particularly good to use when you’re chasing interesting angles on exam questions, because it can generate some ideas that I hadn’t necessarily thought of myself. I have also used it to produce a couple of catchy opening sentences in the beginning of my assignments. It is highly recommended. All in all, I think it’s a great extra tool to have at an exam, even if you are probably not allowed to use it.«

ARE YOU ALLOWED TO USE IT?

According to the UCPH regulationsChatGPT and similar applications of Large Language Models (LLM) that can generate text and code are not permitted at exams. This is unless it is explicitly stated in the exam regulations of the course description.

If the exam regulations are changed, students should keep in mind that ChatGPT is the source. This means that the same requirements apply for using quotation marks and source referencing as with all other sources. Otherwise, it will be considered plagiarism.

Read the full regulations on KUnet.

Student of physics, 5th semester

»On the course Introduction to Nuclear and Particle Physics, you had to answer a number of revision questions that didn’t actually have to be handed in, but to show whether you knew the material. These were mainly conceptual questions, and if you had followed the course, you would have been well aware of the answers. But with so many questions on top of the exam preparation itself, I used ChatGPT to answer these revision questions. I knew the answers, but it saved me a lot of time not having to search the book, formulate an answer, and write it down. This freed up time for me to study for the right exam.«

Student of biochemistry, 1st semester

»I quickly found out that I could use it for the math part of my studies. We have various programmes that can do mathematical calculations. But with these you don’t get the actual calculating process. So what I do is put the question and answer in to ChatGPT and ask it how you get from the question to the result. This is really smart.«

Student of mathematics-economics, 3rd semester

»We just had an exam where we had to set up different codes in the statistics program R. ChatGPT couldn’t answer the exam question for us, but we have used it a lot to ask for asking advice. It has been helpful with suggestions for functions in R, which I was not yet aware of. It’s generally also good if you’re a bit stuck.«

Student of medicine, 4th semester

»We use it a lot when we can’t find the answer in either the books or the lecture slides. It could, for example, be the difference between adrenalin and noradrenalin. ChatGPT is good at explaining that. There are generally many difficult concepts on the medical programme, and ChatGPT is really good at explaining them in a simple language. It’s a bit difficult to google, for example, ‘What is the cause of clonal expansion of B cells?’, but it can provide a pretty good answer to that.«

Student of sports science, 3rd semester

»I mainly use it in the natural science subjects. Instead of reading an entire chapter in our book, I ask ChatGPT to explain a key concept such as energy turnover. It is generally best for assignments where there is a clear answer. If we are asked something simple like ‘What is ATP?’, I might just copy in the answer directly. It is also good at tailoring bespoke training plans and can easily differentiate between someone who has to run faster, and someone who has to lift a heavier weight.«

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