How to Use LSBot-Guided Review
To help you get the most out of this book, we've provided a guide to help you review the core concepts using LSBot. Think of this as a "self-reflection loop" rather than a test. This guide will help you determine how well you’ve retained what you just read, identify "fuzzy" concepts that might need a re-read, and help you turn passive reading into active knowledge.
By explaining these concepts in your own words, you’ll strengthen your mental models and become more comfortable leveraging AI as a personalized tutor.
Using this guide is 100% optional. If you’re a Launch School student and would like to skip this review, you can feel free to continue on with your progress in RB101. Many of the topics reviewed here will be reviewed again during RB109 as you prepare for the assessment.
For best results, ensure that Deep Dive is turned on. This allows LSBot to reference the specific context of this book when providing feedback and generating examples.
Watch this video for an overview of how to use this guided review before getting started:
Types of Prompts
For each topic covered in this book, we’ll choose one or more LSBot prompt types that best test your understanding of that topic. With practice, you’ll learn to choose these prompt types on your own. For now, pay attention to why a particular prompt type is used for a given topic.
- Compare / Contrast: Explain the difference between two related concepts to test precision and clarity.
- Explain a Concept: Explain a single concept clearly, as if answering in a technical interview.
- Demonstrate a Concept: Write a short code snippet from scratch that demonstrates a specific idea.
- Identify a Concept: Given a code snippet, identify the concept being demonstrated by it and explain why.
- Reading Code: Read a code snippet, predict what it does, and explain why, without running it.
- Debugging: Identify and explain a bug or unexpected behavior in a short snippet.
- Tool / Method Selection: Choose an appropriate method, operator, or construct for a small problem and explain why.
- Targeted Quiz: For some concepts, asking LSBot to quiz us on that topic is the most straightforward approach.
If you struggle with a topic
Sometimes LSBot’s critique is enough to clear up your understanding. Other times, you might still feel fuzzy or unable to complete a task. When that happens, try these follow-ups to revisit a concept with more depth:
- Chapter Reference: “I’m struggling with [Concept]. Where in this book can I review it?”
- Concept Explanation: “I’m struggling with [Concept]. Can you explain it to me?”
- Step-by-Step Example: “Can you give me a step-by-step example showing [Concept] in action?”
- Common Pitfalls: “What are common mistakes students make when learning [Concept] and how can I avoid them?”
In the next chapter we’ll review the topics covered in the “Getting Started” section of this book. Note that this review assumes that you’ve read the entire book. If you’ve only read a specific section and go to its review, you may have trouble with the questions. The point of this type of review is to help you not only understand a topic at its face value, but to start building understanding of how concepts relate to one another.