Adaptive Tutor That Starts Where You Are
The AI tests what you already know before teaching, then builds a lesson from your actual gaps. This avoids generic explanations that are too easy or too hard.
Worked in our testIt gave five numbered diagnostic questions, each with a one-line reason, asked for confidence and reasoning, and stopped to wait. Its flaws are small. It added a closing paragraph, and the "Reason" lines are italic sentences that run long. Question 4 also asks two things at once, which stretches "short". It used "working capital" in the reason line without explaining it, though that is only a mention.
The prompt
Act as a patient one-to-one tutor who teaches by finding out what I already understand before explaining anything.
Task: Help me reach this goal: {learning_goal}. My background: {my_background}.
Steps:
1. Identify the 4 to 6 prerequisite ideas my goal depends on, then ask me one short diagnostic question per idea. Ask me to say how confident I am and to explain my reasoning. Then stop and wait for my answers.
2. After I reply, show a short dependency map from my starting point to the goal, marking each idea as solid, shaky or missing.
3. Teach one step at a time, starting with the earliest gap. For each step, ask me to predict an outcome first, then explain, then check my understanding with one question.
4. If I show a misunderstanding, repair it before building on it.
5. Finish with two varied practice problems that do not name the idea needed.
Output: For this first reply, give only the list of diagnostic questions, numbered, with a one-line reason for each. Use plain British English and no explanations yet.
Change the parts in curly braces. Use it when learning a topic with several linked ideas, such as finance, statistics or a programming concept, and you are unsure where to begin.
What happened when we ran it
We sent
Act as a patient one-to-one tutor who teaches by finding out what I already understand before explaining anything. Task: Help me reach this goal: Understand why a business's cash flow can be negative while the company is still profitable, so I can read my own accounts properly. My background: I run a small bakery with two shops. I can read a basic profit and loss statement and I use accounting software for invoices, but I have never studied accounting and I am unsure what 'working capital' or 'accruals' mean.. Steps: 1. Identify the 4 to 6 prerequisite ideas my goal depends on, then ask me one short diagnostic question per idea. Ask me to say how confident I am and to explain my reasoning. Then stop and wait for my answers. 2. After I reply, show a short dependency map from my starting point to the goal, marking each idea as solid, shaky or missing. 3. Teach one step at a time, starting with the earliest gap. For each step, ask me to predict an outcome first, then explain, then check my understanding with one question. 4. If I show a misunderstanding, repair it before building on it. 5. Finish with two varied practice problems that do not name the idea needed. Output: For this first reply, give only the list of diagnostic questions, numbered, with a one-line reason for each. Use plain British English and no explanations yet.
The model replied
Here are five diagnostic questions. For each, please tell me how confident you are (for example: guessing, unsure, fairly sure, certain) and explain your reasoning, even if it's rough.
1. **Profit versus cash.** In your own words, what is the difference between the profit your bakery made last month and the cash in your bank account at the end of it?
*Reason: this is the core distinction the whole goal rests on, and I want to hear your starting intuition.*
2. **When a sale "counts".** Suppose you deliver a large wedding-cake order to a café on 28 March, and they pay on 15 April. In which month does the sale appear on your profit and loss, and in which month does the cash arrive?
*Reason: this tests whether you see that recording a sale and receiving money can happen at different times.*
3. **Matching costs to the period.** You pay £1,200 upfront in January for a year's insurance. How much of that would you expect to see as a cost on your January profit and loss, and why?
*Reason: this shows how you think about spreading a cost over the time it benefits, which is the idea behind accruals.*
4. **Money owed to you and by you.** If customers owe you £3,000 for deliveries, and you owe suppliers £2,000 for flour and butter, what would you call each of those amounts, and how would you describe your position overall?
*Reason: this checks your familiarity with money owed in and out, which feeds directly into working capital.*
5. **Spending that isn't a running cost.** You buy a new £6,000 oven. Do you think the whole £6,000 reduces your profit this month? Why or why not, and does it affect your cash?
*Reason: this tests whether you separate buying long-lasting equipment from everyday expenses, a common cause of profit and cash diverging.*
Take your time, and if you have no idea on any of them, just say so. That is useful information and not a problem.
Run on Claude Sonnet 5.5, 30 Oct 2026. Automatic check: 4 out of 5.
Mentioned for
Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini
Where it came from
Found on GitHub, shared by amosblomqvist: amosblomqvist/learnharness.
This is our own version of the idea, written and tested by us. The original may differ.