8 Proven Ways to Write ChatGPT Prompts for High Schoolers

ChatGPT is part of our everyday lives now, especially as high school students. While many initially discouraged the use of this powerful chatbot, it slowly seeps into our daily routine.

ChatGPT has been especially notorious in educational environments. With its debut in late 2022 by OpenAI, it has gained widespread popularity due to its diverse conversational abilities.

Maybe you asked it to write a poem, or essay for your English class. Conversely, you were stuck on a hard math problem and needed assistance. ChatGPT could do literally anything you prompted it to. It revolutionized AI and LLM’s, setting a precedent for future models.

However, if you’ve used ChatGPT before (which I’m sure you have at some point), you probably know that it can give very vague or downright incorrect answers.

Additionally, with many of the chatbot’s features locked behind a monthly subscription, it’s difficult to extract its information efficiently. As high school students, we don’t always have the most straightforward requests.

In this guide, I will show you how to craft compelling ChatGPT prompts for high schoolers that increase response quality and efficiency. You’ll become a prompt engineer in no time!

Give the Necessary Context/Background Information

So as a high schooler, how do you write ChatGPT prompts that actually work?

Though ChatGPT will spit out an answer no matter what, the quality of that answer will vary depending on how you prompt it.

Chatbots rely on data, and data only. That means, it doesn’t have the cognitive capabilities of a human. So, whatever you want it to do, clearly and concisely explain your thought process. 

If you give it an open-ended prompt, it can produce biased or inconsistent results. This will lead you to follow-up, which will exhaust your daily limit quicker.

Basically, specify WHAT you’re doing and WHY you want to do it. ChatGPT doesn’t understand your motives or what you’re trying to achieve.

For example, let’s say you need to write an argumentative essay for an English class about school uniforms. You might type something like this initially:

Prompt: Write an introduction to an argumentative essay about school uniforms.

Then, you might get something like this:

Optimized Prompt: Write an introduction to an argumentative essay about school uniforms under 250 words using language appropriate for a high school student.

Alternatively, let’s say you were stuck on a particular math equation for a homework assignment. Consider the following:

2x^2 – 5x – 3

For simplicity, you might quickly type something like this:

Prompt: Solve this: {equation from above}

Since the prompt is straightforward, it will assume that you already understand the concept. It performs a few intermediate calculations and outputs an answer.

Optimized Prompt: I am a high school student struggling with algebra, specifically quadratics. Please explain this math problem to me by explaining each step while clearly articulating the concepts.

As you can see, a prompt like this produces a more detailed response. It also caters to the individual’s preferences. 

ChatGPT doesn’t understand the intent or purpose behind your prompt. So, using specific context, you can guide it to the response you desire.

Bad Prompts:

• Write an email to my counselor.
• How do I pass my final?
• Create a slideshow for my AP World class.

Good Prompts:

• Can you help me draft a professional email to my school counselor asking for advice on balancing my AP classes with extracurriculars? I’m feeling overwhelmed with my schedule and want to explore options like switching classes or adjusting my workload.

• Can you help me create a study plan to pass my Algebra II final next week? I struggle most with quadratic equations and logarithms. I have 6 days to study and about 2 hours free each day.

• Can you help me create a 6-slide Google Slides presentation for my AP World History class about the impact of the Mongol Empire on Eurasian trade and cultural exchange? I need 1 slide for the intro, 3 for content (trade, political changes, cultural diffusion), 1 with a map, and 1 for sources. Please keep the language formal but student-friendly.

Give Examples

Adding onto the previous point, ChatGPT doesn’t understand what you want. Sometimes, just explaining something isn’t enough.

If you want a response to mimic a style or be in a specific format, give it something to reference. 

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that ChatGPT cannot analyze files without readable text. This means that all scanned documents and PDFs cannot be crawled.

You will need to convert the files to an OCR format in order for them to be read.

However, ChatGPT can analyze websites and give insights into certain patterns and trends. Once again, specifying what you’re looking for helps generate more accurate responses.

Here’s an example:

Provide a Structure or Format

Another way to effectively prompt ChatGPT is to give it a structure to follow. 

This can complement the information given about the action you are trying to accomplish. It outlines what you want the chatbot to follow. 

In my experience, this makes the answer even more precise and tailored to your preferences.

For example, if you were telling ChatGPT to write you an essay, it would be helpful to include a rubric. This would allow it to optimize your essay to fit within the grading parameters.

We can specify the parameters like so:

Prompt: Write a concise 200-word summary of the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel. Take 2-3 sentences to describe life before the concentration camps. Take 3-4 sentences to talk about life in the concentration camps. Finally, take 2-3 sentences to talk about the death march and eventual liberation.

Alternatively, we can tell it to mimic a figure like so:

Prompt: Write a haiku about the ups and downs of a high school student’s life. Use a writing style, tone, diction, and format comparable to that of poet Matsuo Basho.

Have it Roleplay a Specific Identity

This is the best method of using ChatGPT if you want it to be tailored to a specific audience. It’s also one of the best ways to make it sound less AI-like and more human.

With this approach, you tell ChatGPT who they are acting as. This could be virtually anything related to the context of your prompt.

Additionally, you may find it helpful to address the chatbot directly with pronouns like “you” to convey the active voice. It adds a layer of urgency and acts as a call to action. This creates a more impactful and detailed response.

Possible Prompts include:

• As a grader: What are some flaws in my essay that I could touch up on? How can I improve the sentence structure and flow of my body paragraphs?

• Acting as a high school counselor: What advice would you give to a student struggling with mental health issues? In what ways would you help them to cope with a traumatic event?

• If you were a chemistry teacher, how would you explain acid-base titrations to a high school student? How would you break the topic down into understandable chunks so that it’s easy to follow? What specific concepts would you emphasize during a lesson?

Sometimes, there will be situations where you are unsure about how to prompt ChatGPT. Well, no worries!

Here is a general format that you can follow when you need a detailed response. (courtesy of expandi.io)

• [Persona]
• [Your knowledge]
• [Your traits]
• [Steps to the task]
• [Your task]
• [Goal]
• [Format]

Putting all together, you can end up with a result like this:

Prompt: I want you to act as an experienced AP Calculus tutor who’s helped many high school students excel. You’re clear, friendly, and great at simplifying complex concepts. You know the 2023–2024 College Board curriculum well, including topic weightings and common student mistakes. You’re patient, encouraging, and concise—like a top student helping peers. Your task is to create a 2-week AP Calc AB study guide that prioritizes high-yield topics, breaks them down clearly, suggests efficient study strategies and practice problems, and includes test day tips. The goal is to help a student improve from a consistent 3 to a 4 or 5. Use bolded headers, bullet points, and explain how to sketch or find any visual aids.

Specify Relevant Tone or Voice

ChatGPT can sound robotic at times. Especially, when writing a formal or professional letter, you want to make sure it sounds as genuine as possible.

While it may work for professionalism and formalities, ChatGPT is terrible at conveying human emotion. This is to be expected as it is an AI bot.

Because it relies completely on data, it doesn’t have the emotional intelligence of an actual human. If you ask it to be creative, heartfelt, or thoughtful, it will produce a lackluster response.

Often times, these responses may be more robotic than if you never specified it in the first place.

Prompt: Write a Linked-In message inviting a friend to connect with me.

Optimized Prompt: Write a Linked-In message inviting a friend to connect with me. Keep the tone friendly and casual, while keeping it concise. Leave out any uneccessary information as this is just a preliminary introduction. Include enthusiasm for their achievements and desire to learn more. Keep it under 250 characters.

Specify the Length of Your Response

You might have noticed that all the previous optimized prompts all had a word or character limit. This gives ChatGPT an idea of the type and quality of content you are looking for.

Sometimes, chatbots like ChatGPT experience “hallucinations” which are times where it spouts out irrelevant or incorrect information. Basically, it starts going off topic. It might even get to the point where it makes up information to answer your prompt.

So, capping its word count will make your response a lot more concise. Furthermore, ChatGPT will take the important information and put it into a nice summary. It also decreases the chance of a hallucination.

Quick Examples:

• Explain Newton’s 3 laws in under 200 characters.
• Summarize my summer internship at a lab in 100 characters for my bio.
• Give me a 250-character fantasy novel opening line.
• Draft a 200-word email to a professor asking to join their research lab.

Optimize Vs. Create

While ChatGPT can be used for a variety of things, but it works especially when for optimization. This means that you don’t ask it to create, write, or generate something.

Instead, you give it an existing document, piece, or example for it to improve. As high school students, we are always looking for methods to perfect our craft.

This can be essays, resumes, emails, and pretty much anything that can be improved. Optimization provide a structure, example, and tone/style that you are looking for.

Rather than spending time specifying the prompt parameters, ChatGPT bases the optimized response on the example you give it.

Examples:

• Improve this topic sentence for an English essay: ‘The character changes a lot in the story.
• Make this resume bullet sound stronger (max 150 characters): [Paste bullet]
• Rewrite this short story opening to be more engaging: [Paste opening]

Use Incremental Prompts

What this essentially means is to give ChatGPT an outline of what you’re trying to do. You are its mentor, its guide. Using this method, you go step-by-step, instructing the chatbot.

This makes it a lot easier to revise and specify your needs. You can catch mistakes or hallucinations early on.

Furthermore, it provides opportunities to optimize each response, if they aren’t up to standard. That way, ChatGPT can better tailor its response to your goals, rather than generating something all at once.

Here’s an example:

• Create an essay on {topic} and {details}. I will give you directions step-by-step and we will complete it incrementally. First, draft a thesis statement and write a concise 200 word introduction.

Then, once you get a rough draft, you can give it feedback:

• Exclude the sentence about {topic} and focus on {new topic} instead. Clarify the 3rd and 3th sentences to make it more concise and clear to readers.

Conclusion: Mastering the Art of Prompting

By now, it’s clear that learning how to write effective ChatGPT prompts for high schoolers isn’t just helpful — it’s essential.

As students juggling assignments, extracurriculars, and personal challenges, using ChatGPT the right way can save time, reduce stress, and dramatically improve the quality of your work.

From providing context and examples to roleplaying, structuring responses, and specifying tone and length, these eight strategies can turn vague outputs into detailed, accurate, and personalized answers.

Think of ChatGPT not as a shortcut, but as a smart assistant — and like any tool, it works best when you know how to use it.

With practice, you’ll begin thinking like a prompt engineer: clear, strategic, and purposeful. Whether you’re writing an essay, studying for exams, or drafting an email, well-crafted ChatGPT prompts for high schoolers can unlock the full potential of AI to support your goals.

Start experimenting, keep refining, and before you know it, you won’t just be asking questions — you’ll be leading powerful conversations with AI.