How to Do Honors-Level Work — A 12-Week Guide to Independent Research, Original Thinking, and Defending an Argument. No Expertise Required.
"Honors" isn't more homework — it's a different kind of thinking: pose your own real question,
weigh evidence honestly, steelman the other side, and defend a conclusion that's actually yours.
This is a done-for-you 12-week plan that teaches that skill directly, using an AI tutor as the
research mentor most students never get. Layers onto any subject, and paces straight toward an IB
Extended Essay or a first university term.
Format
Self-paced, 12 weeks. You lead one fully scripted ~60-minute session each week — every step
timed and every AI prompt written out for you, so no subject expertise is needed. Works with any
modern AI chat assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini); free versions are enough, and the
guide's opening section walks a complete beginner through setup in about five minutes.
What you get
- A "Never used an AI chat assistant? Start here" section — what an AI assistant is, which free
ones to use, how to paste a prompt, and what to do when it goes sideways. Written for someone who
has never opened a chatbot.
- 12 ready-to-run weekly sessions. Each one: the big idea in plain language, a concrete worked
example, a minute-by-minute plan for the hour, and a "show me" checkpoint that proves it landed.
- Copy/paste prompts at every step — labelled boxes you hand straight to the AI. They hold the
tutor to coaching rather than doing the work, which is the whole difference between learning and
watching.
- Four rescue prompts for the predictable failure modes: stuck, the AI is doing it for them,
bored, and "did they actually understand that?"
- Three formats in one download — a PDF to read, an HTML copy for the browser, and the plain
Markdown file you can hand to an AI as the course syllabus.
The 12 weeks
- What Makes Work "Honors"
- Finding a Real Question
- What Counts as Evidence
- Reading Like a Researcher
- Designing the Inquiry
- Gathering Evidence I
- Analyzing: From Evidence to Claim
- The Strongest Counterargument
- Structuring the Argument
- Drafting the Original Work
- Revising and Defending
- Present and Defend, and the Next Question
Who it's for
Parents, teachers, and homeschoolers guiding an honors, advanced, or IB-track student aged
roughly 13–18 — in any subject. Also a strong fit for a motivated student who wants to work
independently and be taken seriously.
Why this instead of a free chatbot
A raw chatbot will happily do the work for the student — which teaches nothing. This pack ships the
structure a chatbot lacks: a real 12-week arc, prompts that make the tutor ask before it tells,
guardrails that stop it handing over finished answers, and checkpoints that prove the student can do
it themselves.
FAQ
- Do I need to know this subject? No. The AI explains; you keep the pace and the momentum. Every
session comes with the exact prompt to start it.
- Which AI does it use? Any modern AI chat assistant — ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini. Free
versions are enough, and the guide sets a first-timer up in five minutes.
- Is my child's data collected? No. This is a digital guide sold to you, the adult. There's no
login and no child account — you run and supervise each session under your own account.
- Does it work outside the US? Yes. The tutor asks your country or region up front and adapts
units, spelling, examples, and anything jurisdiction-specific.
Get the whole track
Teaching more than one subject? Get the whole family track — The Family Library — for $199.