3 Perplexity features that help me study smarter, not harder

Studying is no easy task. There, I said it, and pretending otherwise simply doesn't help. I'm a full-time student and clock over 40 hours of work a week, so I'm always short on time, focus, sleep, and a lot of time and motivation. At the same time, the last thing I’d want is for that combination to become a reason for my grades to start slipping. That’s why I’ve always been on the lookout for ways to study smarter in the time I have, instead of just pushing harder and pulling all-nighters.

One AI tool I’ve been relying on since it launched in 2023 is Google’s AI-powered research assistant, NotebookLM. I’ll admit, once I found the tool and realized how game-changing it is for studying, I didn’t look for newer tools as often as I used to. I came across Perplexity recently, and even paired it with NotebookLM, and it turned out to be one of the strongest AI combos I’ve tried.

It made me ponder: if Perplexity works so well with NotebookLM, it must be a powerhouse on its own too. So, I gave it a proper shot, and turns out, it’s packed with features that genuinely changed how I approach studying.

3 Perplexity's Search feature is perfect for research

My go-to for learning a new topic, fast

If this is the first time you're hearing of Perplexity, it's an AI-powered web search engine. It uses "advanced AI to search the internet in real-time." Once you type in a prompt, Perplexity will search the internet in real-time and then compile its findings in an "easy-to-understand conversational tone." I like to think of Perplexity as a smarter version of Google. It uses AI to understand the question you have in mind and can actually explain the answer in a conversational way.

Instead of going to Google when I'm starting to study a new topic, I kick things off in Perplexity instead. So say I just started studying object-oriented programming in Python at college, I'd send a prompt like:

Explain object-oriented programming in Python for a second-semester CS student.

Instead of needing to scroll through pages and pages of search results, I get a clean, sourced explanation right away. There's a Sources tab right next to the Answer tab, which includes all the sources Perplexity used to whip up the answer. The answer itself has citations right next to each claim, and hovering upon it shows exactly where the info comes from. This means I don't need to guess whether it's yet another AI hallucination or not.

2 Smart follow-up questions

One question turns into ten

One of my favorite parts of using Perplexity to search queries is the follow-up questions it provides. These questions pop up once you ask a query. Given how vast a lot of the topics I study can be, these follow-ups are the perfect way to figure out what to learn next or if there's a sub-topic I missed.

Clicking on one of them generates the same kind of clean, cited answer, which makes it super easy to go down a productive research rabbit hole without getting lost or overwhelmed. What’s even better is that asking a follow-up question leads to more follow-ups about the follow-up. I feel like this creates an ongoing, guided learning thread that feels like having a personal tutor who knows what you’re trying to understand and what you should probably explore next.

1 Export Threads as PDFs, Markdowns, or Docs

From AI chat to study PDF in one click

When I begin to study a fresh new topic using Perplexity, chances are I’ll only call it a day once I’m done studying everything there is to know about the topic at my level. Though there are times I jot down what I’m learning in my iPad note-taking app, Goodnotes 6, sometimes I just prefer to absorb the information without breaking focus to take notes.

In these cases, having to head to Perplexity and find the thread (i.e. the one where I understood a certain topic) every time I’d like to refer to it can be a bit of a hassle, especially when there are a dozen different threads to scroll through.

Thankfully, there’s one Perplexity feature in particular that solves this issue completely. When you have a thread open, click the horizontal three dots in the top-right corner, and you’ll see the following three options: Export as PDF, Export as Markdown, and Export as DOCX.

I typically export my threads as PDFs, which contain the AI’s response to my queries along with all the citations. Links to the sources it used are all listed at the bottom.

Since I use NotebookLM to interact with material I already have, there have been times when I’ve imported the PDF as-is as one of my sources in my notebooks. I then generate Audio Overviews of it to revise when I’m in a hurry or just too lazy to read through pages and pages of text.

Don't sleep on Perplexity

Perplexity is one of the productivity AI tools I wish I’d found sooner. Its free plan has been good enough for me so far, and I haven’t felt the need to upgrade to its paid tier. The tool is extremely easy to use and just fits seamlessly into my study routine.