Ranked: Best AI tutors

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With the development of AI, more and more people have been turning to AI-powered tools to learn about various topics without being restricted by time, location or physical resources. In this article, I will test 3 of the most popular AI tools for students to help you understand your lessons better and ace your next exam.

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Having been a student myself, from primary school to university, I recognize the potential AI could have in making learning easier for today's generation of kids and parents (who help their kids learn).

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Before, we only had textbooks and physical learning materials to study different subjects at home or in a classroom. Today, our technology allows us to access various online educational resources, wherever we are. Recent advancements have also encouraged educators to use AI as teaching assistants to improve teaching methods, prepare quizzes and lesson plans and more.

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If you struggle with understanding lessons in a classroom full of people or maybe you have a child who’s having a hard time keeping up in school, AI tools can offer unique teaching methods that may help.

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In this article, I will be testing three different AI tools for students to find out which one offers the best tutoring experience. To do this, I will give more focus on each tools’:

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• Features
• Limitations
• Accessibility
• Pricing

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Our top choice: ck-12 Flexi

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After testing three different AI tutoring tools, I had the best experience with ck-12 Flexi because of its highly comprehensive and extensive learning features. This AI learning platform also offers learning materials and educational resources that go beyond math and science subjects, like history and English. Even though it has a few drawbacks, such as a lack of interactive content within the tutorials, its AI tutor performed really well in providing informative and insightful learning content. And the best thing about all these features is that they are free to use, even if you don’t register on their website.

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1. ck-12 Flexi (and ck-12's GPT)

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Ck-12 is an online platform that offers free educational resources primarily for K–12 STEM subjects (such as math and science). Their resources include interactive learning materials, textbooks, exercises, simulations and more. Recently, they launched an AI tutor called Flexi 2.0 to provide students with a more personalized learning experience through written conversations. Teachers may also utilize this tool as an AI assistant for all their teaching needs.

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In my experiment, I asked the AI tutor multiple questions about history, science, math and English, expecting it to excel only in STEM-related subjects. However, I was surprised that it gave informative and concise answers across all topics. It was also able to answer questions tailored to different grade levels. Since they have an online database of textbooks, students may also choose whether to have their answers AI-generated or extracted from their textbooks.

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However, I noticed a few drawbacks to this tool. First, I acted as a third grader looking for an illustration of the nervous system, but ck-12 Flexi struggled to provide an image or interactive content, even from its database, to help me understand how it works.

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This AI tool also offers mini quizzes in the middle of your conversation. I tested this by intentionally giving the wrong answers, however, the feature was not as insightful as I thought it would be. It only tells you that you are incorrect without any information on how and why you were wrong or how to find the right answer. However, if you want to dive deeper into your topic and learn the right answers to the quizzes, this AI tool also offers free exploration of their additional learning materials (like books and modules) from their database.

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You can try ck-12 Flexi for free through their online platform. However, it’s also worth mentioning that they have a GPT which I will be testing below.

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ck-12's GPT for ChatGPT

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Even though ck-12 Flexi already has a free platform, they recently released their own GPT that offers the same AI tutor feature within Chat GPT Plus. This GPT is designed as a math and science AI tutor for middle and high school students. But surprisingly, I found out that it covers other subjects than math and science, such as philosophy and English.

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Just like its online platform, ck-12 Flexi GPT provided learning content and tutorials in an in-depth and comprehensive manner. I was also impressed at how easy-to-understand the lessons were. The GPT was using metaphors and analogies to simplify complex concepts, which I think is perfect for middle to high school students. It also offered to quiz me on different math and science topics and I really liked how it helped me understand how to calculate the correct answers after giving the wrong one.

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Apart from math and science, this GPT was also able to provide me with tutorials for learning moral philosophy and improving my English grammar. However, the AI tutor struggled to give me any learning content when I asked about the history of slavery and stated that it only focused on math and science topics.

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2. Khanmigo AI (and the Tutor Me GPT)

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Khanmigo AI is a learning tool and teaching assistant that uses AI to help students and educators with their academic needs. It’s built and designed by educators from Khan Academy, a popular educational platform.

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This tool offers features that can help teachers with their lesson plans, students with their homework and projects, and parents who tutor their children.

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Unfortunately, I couldn’t test this AI tool as it is only currently available for US residents. However, they have released a GPT that I will be testing for now, until Khanmigo AI becomes available globally.

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Tutor Me: Khan Academy's GPT

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If you already have a Chat GPT Plus subscription and are looking for free AI tools to help you study, you can also check out GPTs designed specifically for educational purposes. One of these is called Tutor Me, made by Khan Academy (which is also the creator of Khanmigo AI – mentioned above). This tool uses a Socratic style of teaching and mentoring, which can help students develop and improve their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. 

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The best thing about this GPT that I found was that it does not do the work for you. Instead, it guides you toward finding the answers by asking deep and insightful questions. If you’re not sure how to start learning a topic, this GPT can still help you by giving you the basics of your chosen topic to help you decide how to start learning about it.

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Additionally, Tutor Me provides extensive, important and helpful information that users can easily understand no matter what grade they are in. I was also really impressed by how engaging the responses were and when I was giving the wrong answers on purpose, this GPT was encouraging enough to praise me for my efforts and proceeded to guide me to understand the lessons better. Lastly, users may also attach images, videos and files within their messages so the GPT can use these for more tailored and personalized tutorials.

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3. Synthesis Tutor

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Synthesis Tutor (co-founded by Joshua Dahn of Elon Musk’s Astra Nova School) is an AI tutoring platform that offers a unique approach to learning math and science. Because of its partnership with DARPA researchers, it’s designed to be a superhuman math tutor focusing on developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills through fun and interactive math videos and exercises. This AI tutoring platform is tailored for educators and parents teaching kids ages 7 to 11.

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To start using Synthesis Tutor, you will need to have a registered account and a subscription. The paid plan includes a 7-day free trial, so if you are not satisfied with their learning tool, you can cancel your subscription before the free trial ends at no cost. Afterwards, you may create your student’s profiles in your dashboard and give access to your students so they can start with their tutorials.

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For my experiment, I made separate profiles for a 7 and 11-year-old student. At first, I thought that the tutorials would be adapted and adjusted to the appropriate grade levels of my students, but the tool only gave the same learning content for both profiles. Next, I checked if I could customize the learning materials for my students. Unfortunately, the platform only allowed me to change the AI tutor’s gender, accent, and speaking speed.

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What I liked was how interactive and engaging the learning experience was. Students can interact with the tutor using the suggested prompts and receive immediate feedback. The tutor also explains the lessons through fun and creative activities where the student can actively participate to understand the lessons better. Additionally, I really appreciated how inclusive the tutor was as it consistently asked the students questions, which can encourage students to think critically and express their thoughts and ideas freely.

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You can try Synthesis Tutor by visiting their website.

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Wrapping up

AI learning tools are now changing the way students understand and study different subjects, allowing them to access learning content and materials anywhere, even at home (without requiring them to be in a traditional classroom).

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By testing three different AI tools in this article, I have showcased how helpful they can be for students. It can personalize tutorials, offer different styles of teaching, provide interactive exercises and more.

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ck-12 Flexi is my top choice because it offers features that are comprehensive and extensive enough to cover multiple subjects for different grade levels. They also have a textbook database that they reference in their tutorials. If students want to have a more in-depth studying session, they may also explore their online textbooks and learning materials. Lastly, all these learning features from ck-12 Flexi are free to access and use, which makes it the best AI tool for students for me.

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I hope this article was able to provide you with enough information and proper guidance to find which AI tool will suit your learning needs. Try them out for yourself and see which one will align with your learning goals and priorities.

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