Step 2 — Drop everything into one folder
One folder per class: the textbook PDF, lecture slides, your notes, problem sets, past exams. For YouTube videos or recorded lectures, tap "Show transcript," copy it, and paste it into a text file in the folder — the tutor treats it like any other source.
Why one folder matters: the skill builds one connected map of the whole class — so when it teaches chapter 6, it knows what chapter 3 covered and what the professor emphasized in lecture.
Step 3 — One command builds the brain
Open Claude Code inside that folder and run:
THE COMMAND/understand
It reads everything, extracts every concept, and builds the knowledge graph. Bonus commands once it's built: /understand-chat (2am office hours, answers grounded in YOUR textbook) and /understand-dashboard (a clickable visual map of the whole class).
Step 4 — Paste this. Meet your tutor.
Swap in your class name and paste:
THE TUTOR PROMPTYou are now my personal tutor for [CLASS NAME]. You've just analyzed everything in this folder — my textbook, slides, and lecture materials. Build me a complete course from it:
1) Syllabus first: break the material into 6-10 sections, ordered from foundations to advanced, one line on what each covers.
2) Teach section by section. When I say "teach section N," explain it like a great professor: plain language first, then the technical version, with examples pulled from MY materials (cite the page or slide so I can check).
3) Quiz me after every section — 5 questions, mixed multiple-choice and short answer. Grade my answers, explain every miss, and re-teach my weak spots before we move on.
4) Track everything I get wrong and quietly weave those topics back into later quizzes until I stop missing them.
5) When I finish the last section, give me a final exam: 20 questions covering the whole course, weighted toward what I struggled with. Grade it out of 100 and tell me exactly what to review before the real exam.
Start now: show me the syllabus.
The "cite the page or slide" line is your safety net — every explanation points back to your actual materials, so you can verify anything before it matters on a real exam.
The system — one build, every class, all semester
- New class? New folder → /understand → paste the prompt. Two minutes.
- New lecture drops? Add it to the folder — the brain updates incrementally.
- Exam week: take the 20-question final a few days early — what you miss IS your study list. Re-run old section quizzes (the tutor remembers what you struggled with).
Straight talk: this is a study tool, not a shortcut around learning. AI can misread a formula — the page citations exist so you can check anything load-bearing against the actual textbook. Used honestly, it's the closest thing to a private tutor that costs nothing.