Turn class slides and notes into a compact certification exam study guide with a Claude project

Posted

Sep 17, 2026 by Obsvra (@Obsvra)

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Last checked

Oct 21, 2026

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Method:

How we verify

Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.

Beginner-friendlyNo logins, payments or coding needed. Low risk: paste the prompt and you should get something useful.

Outcome

Obsvra, preparing for a certification exam, gave a Claude project the class slides as PDFs and a transcription of notes taken in class, marking which parts were most likely to come up in the exam. With project instructions to focus only on likely exam material and a prompt asking Claude to pair the notes with the slides, it produced a clean, compact study guide that cut each 2-hour exam prep session down to 2–3 pages of notes.

AI tool

Claude

Exact prompt as published in the source.

What the prompt labels mean

You are putting together an exam study guide. Your focus is not on a complete understanding of the course content, but to look for the information most likely to appear in exam questions and to summarize it in a concise, easy to digest manner to be used as a study guide. Do not add commentary or extraneous information, the focus here is specifically exam preparation.

The following fragments are my notes from the live sessions (that follow the slide decks) taken as the instructor went over them. In theory, these are the key elements I should be focusing on for the exam, as I was doing a review pass of the sessions from replay to specifically focus on things called out as likely exam topics.

Please try to pair the fragments up with the slides and develop short, succinct explainers on the relevant topics (this may require some cross-referencing within or between lessons to keep each topic complete.

My notes are in order of the slides

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Turn course slides and my class notes into a short study guide focused on what's likely to be tested.

Fill in before running:
- Slides or course materials: [ATTACH]
- My notes, in slide order, with likely exam topics marked: [ATTACH]
- Exam name and format: [DETAILS]

Rules:
- Match each of my notes to the slide it belongs to.
- Write a short explainer for each topic, cross-referencing other lessons where a topic would otherwise be incomplete.
- Leave out commentary and anything unlikely to be examined.
- Keep definitions, numbers and terms exactly as the course states them.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.
- Finish each session's section with 3–5 practice questions on the topics marked most likely.

Output: A study guide of a few pages per session, in slide order, with headings I can scan.

You'll know it worked when: I can revise each session from the guide alone and it matches the course material.

Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Turn course slides and my class notes into a short study guide focused on what's likely to be tested.

Fill in before running:
- Slides or course materials: [ATTACH]
- My notes, in slide order, with likely exam topics marked: [ATTACH]
- Exam name and format: [DETAILS]

Rules:
- Match each of my notes to the slide it belongs to.
- Write a short explainer for each topic, cross-referencing other lessons where a topic would otherwise be incomplete.
- Leave out commentary and anything unlikely to be examined.
- Keep definitions, numbers and terms exactly as the course states them.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.
- Finish each session's section with 3–5 practice questions on the topics marked most likely.

Output: A study guide of a few pages per session, in slide order, with headings I can scan.

You'll know it worked when: I can revise each session from the guide alone and it matches the course material.

Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.

Source

https://x.com/Obsvra/status/2100632009110347899