Private guide

Enter the password Swapnil sent you.

Study setup walkthrough

Build your own study tutor

You want a tutor that answers only from your own textbooks, never from guesswork. There are two good ways to get exactly that. Pick whichever suits you, and you can switch later.

Pick your route

Both give you the same thing: a tutor grounded in your own books, that you can quiz yourself from. They differ on cost and whether you keep the notes as your own files.

Recommended, start free

NotebookLM

Nothing to install, covered by your Google AI Pro. Cites the exact page on every answer, and can turn a chapter into a podcast for your commute. The fastest way to begin today.

Open the NotebookLM guide → For a wiki you own

Claude Code + Obsidian

About 20 dollars a month. Builds a permanent study wiki as files on your own computer that keeps growing. Walkthrough is below.

See the walkthrough below ↓

The Claude Code and Obsidian route

AWhat we are building

Two tools that work as a pair:

  • Obsidian is the notebook. Your whole study wiki lives here as plain notes on your own computer. Yours to keep, and readable with no internet.
  • Claude Code is the tutor. It reads your textbooks and notes on your machine, and writes summaries and flashcards straight back into Obsidian.
Together they give you a wiki that grows as you study, built from your own books, that you can quiz yourself from later.

BThe one idea that makes it trustworthy

You want an AI that does not give wrong answers. Here is how that actually works, because it matters for your exams.

  • Any AI can guess wrong when it answers from memory.
  • It stops guessing when it answers only from your own book. With Claude Code, your PDFs sit in the same folder, so it reads the real page instead of guessing.
  • This is what worked when you loaded your Guyton chapter. Give it the source, and tell it to say plainly when something is not in the source.
Rule of thumb: no source in, no answer out. Keep your PDFs in the folder and point to them.

CSet it up once

We do this together on the call. It is written out here so you can repeat it on any machine later.

  1. Install Obsidian from obsidian.md. Create a new vault called MD Physiology. A vault is just a folder of notes.
  2. Inside that folder, make a subfolder called Sources and put your PDFs in it: Guyton and Hall, Ganong, GK Pal, Berne and Levy, Boron and Boulpaep.
  3. Install Claude Code and sign in with your Claude account.
  4. Open Claude Code inside the MD Physiology folder. Now it can see your books and your notes.
  5. Paste this once so it always acts as your tutor:
You are my physiology tutor for my MD at MGM. Answer only from the PDFs and notes in this folder and the chapter I name. If something is not in the source, say so plainly instead of guessing. Teach in simple, clear steps. When I ask you to save something, write it as a new note in the right subfolder.
On cost: Obsidian is free. Claude Code runs on a paid Claude plan, about 20 dollars a month, which you can cancel anytime. A couple of months covers a full revision cycle, and your notes stay yours in Obsidian even if you pause the plan later.

DYour weekly loop

Same five steps for every chapter. This is the whole system, and you run it on your own.

  1. Build the note. Ask Claude Code to read the chapter and write a summary note into your vault.
  2. Add flashcards to the same note, so the facts stick.
  3. Quiz yourself a day or two later, from memory.
  4. Practice the viva, so you meet the hard questions before the examiner asks them.
  5. Find weak spots, so you know exactly what to revise next.
Do steps 1 and 2 when you first read a chapter. Do steps 3, 4 and 5 a day or two later, from memory. That gap is what builds recall for the viva.

EThe prompts, ready to copy

Type these to Claude Code while it is open in the MD Physiology folder. Swap in the real chapter name.

1. Build the chapter note

Read chapter 1 of the Guyton PDF in the Sources folder. Write a clear summary note into a new file called Guyton/Ch1 - Membrane Physiology.md. Cover the key concepts, the important mechanisms, and the terms an examiner would expect me to define. Only use what is in the chapter.

2. Add flashcards to that note

Add a Flashcards section to that same note. Make 15 question and answer pairs from this chapter, focused on definitions, values, and mechanisms I could be asked in a viva. Keep answers short.

3. Quiz me

Quiz me on the Ch1 note, one question at a time. Wait for my answer before the next. After each answer, tell me if I am right, correct me from the source, and add one thing I missed.

4. Practice my viva

Act as my MD Physiology viva examiner on this chapter. Ask oral questions from basic to hard, and push one follow-up deeper each time, the way a real viva does.

5. Find my weak spots

Based on how I answered, list the three topics from this chapter I am weakest on and exactly what to revise for each. Point me to the section in the source.

Explain something you are stuck on

Explain this concept from the chapter like a good teacher would, step by step from the basics. Use a simple analogy, then check I understood with one question.

FAfter the call, it is yours

We only need one session. On the call we install both tools, build your first chapter note together, and quiz you from it once so you have seen the full loop end to end.

After that you repeat section D on every chapter yourself. The wiki grows week by week, and by exam time it is a complete revision book in your own words, built from your own texts.

This page stays live, so the commands and prompts are always here when you need them.

Prefer nothing to install and no monthly cost? There is a simpler free version of this same idea using NotebookLM, which is covered by your Google AI Pro plan.

One session, then you are set.
Swapnil · swapniltamse.com