New Gemini Feature: Perfect for Students and Exam Prep

Just discovered that Gemini has rolled out a new study notebook feature — it’s quite useful and free. Feels especially tailored for students and those preparing for postgraduate entrance exams.

After you upload your study materials or course syllabus, it starts with a diagnostic quiz, then generates bite-sized lessons based on your weak areas. After each section, you can continue with more practice exercises.

You can also ask follow-up questions anytime, asking it to explain confusing parts in more detail.

These days, many students are probably preparing for final exams. Or, like me — even though I’m long done with exams — I still learn many new things every day.

Before, the most common way to use AI for learning was to throw in materials and ask for a summary. But there’s a problem with summaries: you feel like you understand after reading, but when asked to explain, you might not be able to articulate it.

Gemini’s study notebook takes a different approach — more like an AI tutor. It designs an interactive learning course. Let me show you. Recently, I’ve been studying the Liao Dynasty architectural style in ancient Chinese buildings.

So, I created a study notebook for the “Eight Great Liao Structures.” After creation, it asks me to define my learning goals. If I have materials, I can upload them too.

I replied that my goal is to sort out the structural features of these eight Liao structures. It then generates a complete course outline and reminds me to take a quiz.

The quiz is basically a series of multiple-choice questions. Based on my answers, it infers my knowledge weak points.

After the quiz, it gives me a structural analysis like this.

Then I can click on “Key Lessons” below to start learning.

Here are the actual lessons. For now, mainly text-based.

Of course, if something is unclear, I can keep asking questions in the chat box below.

Or I can ask it to draw a diagram to help me understand. That works too — it’s conversational interaction, so I can ask anytime.

When I feel I’ve learned enough, I can come back to take another quiz.

This tool is incredibly useful. I even think this is the new way of learning — truly personalized education. These past two days I’ve read quite a few papers on Liao Dynasty wooden structures, but only half-understood.

But after uploading all those materials just now, it really digested the content, broke it down into independent lessons, and paired them with quizzes. I can now truly master these knowledge points much faster.

It also supports standardized test preparation. SAT is already available, with questions from Princeton Review. The official blog says ACT, GRE, JEE, NEET will be added this summer.

The logic for test prep is the same: start with a diagnostic quiz, then design courses targeting weak areas.

One more detail: the materials you upload are synced between Gemini and NotebookLM.

That means materials used in the study notebook can be directly turned into flashcards, video overviews, etc., in NotebookLM — no need to upload again.