Uni Level Up · Issue #0

Tools + Deals + Rules. Level up your semester, one Sunday at a time.

Hey 👋 Welcome to issue #0. Every Sunday evening you'll get 5 AI tools sorted by use case, one workflow you can copy, a student deals tracker, and a quick note on what's allowed at uni. No hype.

Why? Most students already use AI, but stick to one free chatbot. In one German survey, 81.5% used free ChatGPT and under 5% used Gemini, Perplexity or Claude (h_da 2025). Consider this your next level. Many of these tools are free.

🧰 The 5 tools

📚 Studying: Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) Answers only from the sources you upload, with citations, and builds quizzes, study guides and audio overviews (renamed July 2026). Try it: Upload weeks 1–6 of lecture PDFs and ask, "Which 10 concepts are most likely to be on the exam, and where is each one explained?" Price: Free standard tier (100 notebooks, 50 sources each) (plans).

🔎 Research: Elicit Searches 138M+ papers, summarizes them and lets you chat with the full text. Try it: Enter your research question to get a table of relevant papers with methods and findings, then read the top 5 yourself. Price: Basic is free. Plus costs $11/mo billed yearly (pricing).

✍️ Writing: DeepL Write Polishes grammar, wording and tone in text you wrote. Very useful if you're writing in your second language. Try it: Paste in your email to a professor and switch the style to formal. Price: Free in the browser. Write Pro is a paid add-on (DeepL).

💻 Coding / vibe coding: GitHub Copilot Student An AI pair programmer that works in VS Code and other editors. Try it: Have it explain your assignment's error messages line by line, so you're not just pasting in a fix you don't understand. Price: Free for verified students: unlimited completions plus an allowance of AI credits for chat and agents (GitHub Education).

💼 Careers: Gemini Live as a mock interviewer A voice conversation in the Gemini app. Google's own interview guide recommends it for practice (Grow with Google). Try it: "Interview me for a marketing internship. Ask me 5 questions one at a time, then give me feedback on structure and filler words." Price: Free.

🔁 Workflow of the week: slides → exam plan (20 min)

1. Create one Gemini Notebook per course. Upload the slides, your notes and the module description.
2. Ask: "Map each learning objective to the slides that cover it."
3. Get a 10-question quiz on your weakest objective and answer it without your notes.
4. For each miss, ask: "Explain this from scratch, then give me one new question on it."
5. Generate an audio overview for your commute.
6. Put your 3 weakest topics in your calendar this week. That's where you actually level up.

💸 Student deals tracker

⚠️ Most of these need a payment method and renew automatically. Set a reminder the day you sign up.

⚖️ What's allowed?

AI rules vary by university, course and assignment. The module handbook decides, not what your group chat says. Safe defaults:

• Use AI to understand, quiz and get feedback. Don't submit AI-generated work as your own unless that's explicitly allowed.
• Disclose your AI use the way your uni asks, and keep your chat history.
• Check every citation, because AI still invents sources.
• Don't upload personal data or exam material you aren't allowed to share.

In the UK, 94% of students use AI for assessed work, and many fear false misconduct accusations (HEPI 2026). Being transparent is your best protection.

🚀 Career & vibe-coding corner

Ship a one-page portfolio this week. In VS Code with Copilot Student, prompt: "Build a simple responsive one-page portfolio in HTML/CSS with About, Projects and Contact sections." Add 2–3 real projects (a seminar paper, a club event, a class project) and publish it for free with GitHub Pages. Then polish the descriptions with DeepL Write and do one Gemini Live mock interview where you talk through them. That's one afternoon and a real upgrade to your CV.