/lecture-to-study-guide

name: lecture-to-study-guide
description: Turns raw class material — pasted notes, slide-deck PDFs, or class transcripts — into a 7-section study guide (outline, key terms, concept summaries, Mermaid diagrams, worked examples, 10-20 practice questions, one-page cheat sheet). USE THIS SKILL when a student says "turn my notes into a study guide," "summarize this lecture for the test," "make a study guide from these slides," "I have a transcript from class, help me review," "convert this PDF of my bio lecture into a study guide," "here's a YouTube lecture transcript, extract the key points," "make me practice questions from this chapter," "I need a cheat sheet for tomorrow's exam from these notes," "help me review — I'll paste my lecture notes," OR when a teacher says "make a study guide for my students from this lecture," "build a review handout from my slide deck," "give my class a review sheet from these notes." Accepts pasted text, PDF uploads (Claude-native PDF handling), VTT/SRT/plaintext transcripts, and multi-lecture series. Calibrates depth to grade 6-8, 9-12, college (default), or graduate. Output: markdown study guide; optional PDF.
license: MIT

lecture-to-study-guide

Produce a pedagogically structured study guide from lecture material — not a summary, a study-optimized document.

When to use this skill

Trigger on any phrase pairing lecture material + a study/review/exam goal. Concrete cues:

**Student voice (lead — higher frequency):**

• "turn my notes into a study guide"
• "summarize this lecture for the test"
• "make a study guide from these slides"
• "I have a transcript from class, help me review"
• "convert this PDF of my [subject] lecture into a study guide"
• "here's a YouTube lecture transcript, extract the key points"
• "make me practice questions from this chapter"
• "I need a cheat sheet for tomorrow's exam from these notes"
• "help me review — I'll paste my lecture notes"

**Teacher voice:**

• "make a study guide for my students from this lecture"
• "build a review handout from my slide deck"
• "give my class a review sheet from these notes"

Inputs

Required:

• **Source material** — pasted text, PDF, or transcript. May be messy.

Optional (infer if absent — see table below):

• **Subject + level** — for calibration (6-8 / 9-12 / college / graduate).
• **Source type** — pasted prose notes / slide deck / transcript / multi-lecture / mixed.
• **Exam format** — MCQ / essay / problem-set — biases question mix.
• **Target length** — default: proportional to input.

Inferring level and source-type from phrasing (before asking)

Attempt inference first. Ask ONLY if both level AND source-type are unclear.

| Cue in user's phrasing | Likely level | |---|---| | "my 7th grader," "middle school," emoji, simple vocab | 6-8 | | "AP ___," "honors," "SAT prep," "high school" | 9-12 | | "my professor," "syllabus," "midterm," "lecture hall," "TA," intro-course names ("intro micro," "bio 101") | college (default) | | "my PI," "qualifying exam," "seminar," "dissertation," advanced domain vocabulary | graduate | | No markers, just raw notes | infer from vocabulary density; default college |

| Cue in user's phrasing | Likely source-type | |---|---| | "my notes," "typed up," "outline" | pasted prose notes | | ".pdf," "slides," "deck," "slideshow," "lecture slides" | slide-deck PDF | | "transcript," "YouTube," "recording," "VTT," "SRT," "captions," "Otter," "Zoom transcript" | transcript | | Multiple files listed, "weeks 1-3," "chapters 4-6," "my last three lectures" | multi-lecture series | | Both a slide deck AND a transcript mentioned | mixed slide + transcript |

If confidence is still low on BOTH dimensions, ask ONE question in this exact shape:

> Quick check so I can calibrate this — (a) what's the level (e.g. **7th · 11th · college · grad**), and (b) is this pasted notes, a slide deck, or a transcript?

Do not stack questions. Do not ask about exam format, length, framework, etc.

Workflow

1. **Ingest.** Detect input type. Normalize PDFs and transcripts to plaintext-with-structure-markers (slide boundaries, speaker turns, heading lines). 2. **Detect structure.** Find natural segmentation: markdown/outline headings, slide boundaries, topic shifts in transcripts, paragraph breaks. See `references/input-types.md`. 3. **Extract terms.** Use heuristics in `references/term-extraction.md` — typographic (bold/italic/"quotes"), structural (slide titles, definition blocks), linguistic ("X is defined as…", "Y, also known as…"). Build a term → definition → source-location map. 4. **Group topics.** Cluster concepts into 3-8 topic groups. Prefer source-provided groupings (slide sections, chapter headings) over model-imposed ones. 5. **Generate practice questions.** Mix by level and exam format. Default by level: see table. See `references/question-mix.md` for templates. 6. **Assemble** the 7-section markdown guide per `references/output-format.md`. Validate: all sections present, TOC anchors resolve, Mermaid blocks syntactically valid. 7. **Offer follow-ups** — optional PDF export and the closing suggestion: "Run the `flashcards` skill on this guide next for Anki-ready decks." Do NOT auto-invoke sibling skills.

Output

Single markdown file `study-guide-<topic-slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md` with these sections, in order:

1. **Outline / Table of Contents** — hierarchical, anchor links. 2. **Key Terms + Definitions** — glossary table, columns: Term | Definition | Source (slide #, timestamp, or heading). 3. **Concept Summaries** — one subsection per topic group, 2-5 short paragraphs each (SQ3R framing). 4. **Diagrams** — Mermaid blocks where content warrants. Inline; do NOT call a separate concept-map skill in V1. 5. **Worked Examples** — step-by-step solutions for quantitative/procedural content. Use LaTeX math (`$...$`, `$$...$$`). 6. **Practice Questions** — 10-20 questions, mixed types. Answers in `<details>` blocks per question (default) or a trailing answer-key section (f