Ask AI for Hints Instead of Answers: A Prompt Guide

Left alone, a chatbot answers the question it was asked. Told once, at the start, what kind of help is wanted, it behaves quite differently for the rest of the session.

The setup line

Paste this first, every time:

For this whole conversation: never give me a final answer. Ask what I have tried, then give one hint at a time. If I ask for the answer, ask me a question instead. Keep replies under three sentences.

The three-sentence limit matters more than it looks. Long replies contain the answer somewhere inside them.

Nine prompts worth teaching

When stuck at the start: “What is this question actually asking me to find?”

When stuck in the middle: “I got to here and stopped. What should I look at next? One hint.”

When the answer is wrong: “I got 42 and the book says 46. Tell me which step to check. Do not tell me the right answer.”

When a method makes no sense: “Explain this a completely different way. I did not understand the first one.”

When there is no method: “Give me three things I could try first. Do not tell me which is best.”

When checking work: “Here is my working. Point at the first line that is wrong, without correcting it.”

When practice is needed: “Give me three more problems like this one. No answers.”

When it is all too much: “Break this into the smallest first step I could do in two minutes.”

At the end: “Ask me one question to check I actually understood this.”

What a good hint looks like

A hint names where to look without saying what is there. Look at the units in the second line is a hint. You need to convert grams to kilograms is the answer with a hat on.

The test is whether your child still has something to do after reading it. If the next step is mechanical, the hint went too far. A good session has three or four hints, each one narrower than the last, with your child doing a piece of work between each.

Watch for the reply length creeping up. Once answers run past three sentences, the answer is somewhere inside them, and children find it.

Check it before you use it

• Did it slip back into answering? Models drift over a long session. Re-paste the setup line.
• Arithmetic in any hint. Check it. Hints containing wrong numbers send a child down a bad path.
• Is the hint a hint? “Try dividing 144 by 12” is an answer wearing a hat.

Keep the human part

The best hint is a question from a person who can see your child’s face. Use this when you are not available or the subject has outrun you, which is most parents by year six.

If it is not working

If the model keeps answering despite the setup line, start a fresh conversation rather than arguing with it. Context accumulates and a session that has drifted rarely comes back.

If your child games it by asking the same question five different ways until the answer falls out, that is worth naming rather than policing. Ask them what they are actually stuck on; usually it is one specific step, and asking about that step directly is both allowed and faster.

One thing to watch

Agree with your child’s teacher what is allowed before setting this up, and hold that line. Our guide to homework help without doing the homework covers where the line usually sits.

Related: math help that explains its working covers the tools built for this.