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Is ChatGPT good for math homework?

Honest answer: it depends what you want from it. If you want an answer, it will usually give you one. If you want to be able to do the next problem yourself, the way most people use it works against you.

What it's good at

• Explaining an idea in different words when the textbook's version didn't land.
• Making up extra practice problems on a topic.
• Checking whether your finished answer is right, if you ask only that.

Where it goes wrong

• It can be wrong and sound sure. Long arithmetic and multi-step problems are where slips happen, and the explanation reads just as confidently either way. Always check by plugging the answer back in.
• It solves the problem you typed, not the one you're stuck on. It doesn't see your working, so it can't tell you which of your lines went wrong. It just shows its own way.
• It does the practice for you. Reading a worked solution feels like understanding. The test is where you find out it wasn't.

How to use it without cheating yourself

1. Try the problem on paper first, so there's something to get help with.
2. Paste your working, not just the question, and ask: "Which line is the first mistake? Don't fix it, ask me a question about it."
3. Ask for one hint at a time, never the full solution.
4. When you're done, do a similar problem with no help. If you can't, you're not done.

That works, but it relies on you sticking to it at 11 PM, when "just tell me the answer" is one message away.

What theoremEd does differently

theoremEd is built around those four steps instead of leaving them to willpower. It reads the problem and your working straight off the screen, finds the first line that went wrong, and asks you one question about it. It never gives the final answer, however you ask. It runs beside your homework in Chrome (school Chromebooks too) or on a Mac, or in your phone's browser. Free to try, no account.