What variables need to be customized?

COURSE: The course name and level. LECTURE_TOPIC: What the lecture covered. RAW_NOTES: Your notes exactly as you took them, abbreviations and all. EXAM_FORMAT: How the course is examined.

Claude Education beginner

Lecture Notes Organizer

Added Sep 29, 2026

You are a study-skills tutor who turns rough lecture notes into clear study notes without adding anything the lecture did not cover. Here are my notes from a [COURSE] lecture on [LECTURE_TOPIC]: [RAW_NOTES] The exam for this course is [EXAM_FORMAT]. Please produce: 1. Cornell-style study notes: a cue question for each concept, followed by organized notes that answer it, grouped by concept rather than in the order I wrote them 2. Every definition, formula, and worked example from my notes, rewritten clearly and kept exactly as accurate as the original 3. A gaps list: anything my notes mention but leave incomplete, contradictory, or unclear, marked for me to check against the slides or textbook instead of filled in by you 4. A five-sentence summary of the lecture in plain language 5. Eight self-test questions in the style of my exam, with answers taken only from my notes 6. Any links to earlier topics that my notes explicitly mention, and what I should review for each Do not introduce facts, formulas, or examples that are not in my notes. If you think something important is missing, put it in the gaps list as a question.

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About This Prompt

This prompt has Claude turn rough, out-of-order lecture notes into study notes you can revise from. It reorganizes the material into Cornell-style cue questions and answers grouped by concept, rewrites every definition, formula, and worked example clearly without changing what they say, and adds a plain-language summary and self-test questions in the style of your exam. Anything your notes leave incomplete or unclear goes on a gaps list for you to check against the slides or textbook, and Claude is told not to add facts, formulas, or examples the lecture did not cover. It suits students who take fast, messy notes in class and want them in revisable shape the same day.

Variables to Customize


[COURSE]

The course name and level

Example: Intro to Macroeconomics (ECON 101)


[LECTURE_TOPIC]

What the lecture covered

Example: fiscal policy and the spending multiplier


[RAW_NOTES]

Your notes exactly as you took them, abbreviations and all

Example: fiscal policy = govt spending + taxes to shift AD expansionary vs contractionary multiplier!! 1/(1-MPC) MPC = change in C / change in income ex: MPC .8 -> mult 5, govt spends 10B -> GDP up 50B tax multiplier smaller?? (prof said why, missed it) crowding out - govt borrowing raises interest rates -> less private investment automatic stabilizers e.g. unemployment benefits, progressive tax lags: recognition, implementation (congress slow) review AD/AS from last wk


[EXAM_FORMAT]

How the course is examined

Example: multiple choice plus two short-answer problems

Tips for Best Results

Run this on the day of the lecture while you still remember what your abbreviations mean, and answer the gaps list before the next class.
Paste your notes unedited. The prompt is built to work with fragments and question marks, and tidying them first can hide the gaps you most need to check.
Use the self-test questions a few days later rather than straight away. Recall after a delay is what shows you what has stuck.

Example Output

**Cornell notes**
Q: What is fiscal policy?
→ Government spending and taxes used to shift aggregate demand (AD). Expansionary policy raises AD; contractionary policy lowers it.

Q: How large is the spending multiplier?
→ Multiplier = 1 / (1 − MPC), where MPC = change in consumption ÷ change in income.
→ Lecture example: MPC 0.8 gives a multiplier of 1 / 0.2 = 5, so $10B of new government spending raises GDP by $50B.

Q: Why might fiscal policy achieve less than the multiplier predicts?
→ Crowding out: government borrowing raises interest rates, which reduces private investment.
→ Lags: recognition lag, and implementation lag (Congress is slow to act).

Q: What stabilizes the economy without new legislation?
→ Automatic stabilizers, for example unemployment benefits and progressive taxes.

**Gaps to check**
- Your notes say the tax multiplier is smaller but not why or by how much. Check the slides for its formula.
- Only two lags are listed. Did the lecture mention any others?
- "Review AD/AS from last week": the multiplier questions assume you can show a shift in AD on the AD/AS graph.

**Self-test (first 3 of 8)**
1. If MPC = 0.75, what is the spending multiplier? (Answer: 1 / 0.25 = 4)
2. Which is an automatic stabilizer? a) a new highway bill b) unemployment benefits c) a one-time tax rebate d) a defense contract (Answer: b)
3. Short answer: explain how crowding out reduces the effect of expansionary fiscal policy.

study-skills note-taking active-recall summarization exam-prep