How I Used An AI Tutor To Prepare For The Regents

Why Use An AI Tutor?

I taught myself math courses many years ahead of my grade, like the time I completed Algebra 1 and Geometry using Khan Academy while still in 6th grade, because I was determined to grow my math skills and put in the hours every day to make that come true. I have always been a student committed to putting in the work to learn new concepts at school and truly master them, which allowed me to get opportunities to learn more. But, I was feeling a little shaky towards the end of my 8th grade year, the school year that just closed, with Regents Biology, not because I didn’t understand the concepts, which I was quite strong in. My struggle was with the new test format that was introduced, its focus on application of knowledge to unfamiliar contexts, and the fact that there were very few practice tests available.

One day, my mom signed me up for an AI tutoring pilot with Aristotle AI. While at first I believed that I didn’t really need a tutor and that it might go too slowly for me, I was willing to put in as much effort as was needed to make the most of this exciting new technology. When they made a Regents Biology course after I requested it, I got right to work. I noticed that the general model wasn’t providing enough structure to prepare to do well on the Biology Regents, so I brought it up at the first check-in meeting that I scheduled to discuss my progress. I worked on the new Biology Regents course along with my math courses since math was one of my passions along with science.

The Need For Structured Support

I found the clear progress tracking, as well as the ability of the tutor to adapt to my performance, very helpful for building confidence in my skills and growing over time. Just because a student is ahead doesn’t always mean they can go off on their own. Sometimes it does, but oftentimes, trying to go ahead can lead to misunderstandings.

At first, I wasn’t too confident in how I would perform in the new and more complex Biology Regents exam, as I didn’t really have much to study off of. But using Aristotle to do extensive exam-style questions for each concept in a structured manner made me realize I had all the necessary content knowledge and I could apply it. So when it was time for the exam, I was able to walk in with confidence and become the only person in my district to score a 100. I was able to achieve one of my biggest academic goals for the year because I worked with a tutor that had a clear structural direction, communicated with my family, and grew confidence through moving along the concept map. But being supported alone doesn’t guarantee high academic scores and skill growth.

Why Study Skills Still Matter

To really reach that goal, you have to dedicate yourself to continuously doing your full practice on the tutor, checking on your own understanding often, and making an effort to communicate your progress. Sometimes it was difficult for me to commit to my daily practice. Making a study plan isn’t easy, especially with summer right around the corner. Sometimes I wanted to hang out with friends, watch TV, or do anything unproductive. But I remembered that I had an important test ahead of me, so that helped me push through and put in my full hours every day, check my progress every so often for updates, and use the site’s features, like subject divisions and practice tests, to their full potential. I used the feedback from previous sessions to inform the next ones, or even to decide to do an extra session if I was having a hard time that day.

I followed a specific schedule each day. Every day, my routine began at around 11 AM with an early math session, which lasted for about an hour as I worked through problems with relative ease, so the explanation was quite minimal to work with my confidence in the topic. Then, I transitioned to work on biology for about an hour or 2, which required some more explanation since the test was focused on application and sometimes I got some of the details of the scenario wrong. Through dedicated practice with Aristotle, I built my confidence and could ace my biology final. To finish my day, I then looked at my progress on the concept maps, as well as the parent dashboard, planning my work schedule for the next day or even coming back for extra practice, like the day before the biology final, where I returned 5 times for extra practice sessions. These were my daily study habits for the 5 days leading up to my biology final exam, an exam that I was very stressed about because I spent so long studying all the biology concepts and didn’t want to fail at the end.

Results And My Experience

I had a clear plan, I put in enough hours to see results but not too much to the point I might have burned out, and I used the progress tracker to move forward at the right time. Because of this, I was able to succeed and feel confident on the big day, and I had an idea of how to manage my time there as well. At my first use of Aristotle, and even before that, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to score well on the biology exam, as well as on the AMC math competitions, which was another goal of mine that I struggled to prepare for. But doing my full practice routine each day, no matter how demotivated I felt that day, helped build my confidence each day as I saw skills on the concept map fill up after each session.

The visual of an empty concept map, a map that shows all the skills in the course and your progress to mastering them, was uncomfortable at first, but I reframed it as an opportunity for massive growth. After about 5 days of practice, my concept map for biology was already far fuller than it was at the start, and Aristotle’s feedback during each one was that I was clearly comfortable with not only each concept on the exam, but also with the application based questions that tripped me up before. I did one final practice test session, and then, I could actually get a good night’s sleep because my worry about the exam was gone.

When I woke up the next day, I did so rested, ate a nutritious breakfast, prepared everything very early, and walked over to the exam room. When they passed out our booklets, I was nervous and struggled a little since the scenarios on the exam are different each time, but with the skills I practiced, I could reason through every question and ended up getting the news that I got every question right, resulting in a perfect score of 100, and that no one else in my district had been able to. I was overjoyed and went to celebrate my success that day, knowing that my dedication throughout the year and my study plan was the main reason for this success.

My Takeaways

What I learned from my experience is that AI tutors are such a powerful tool for students, no matter how they are doing in school. If they put in the necessary work to master study and time management skills, then they can fully enjoy the increase in confidence and test scores that working with a tutor can unlock. Focusing on the opinions of actual student users is important to any new technology in education, because students like me are the ones most affected by these technologies at the end of the day.

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