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BrainWaves: The Neuroscience Graduate Program Newsletter

Using NotebookLM for Grad School: 
​An AI Tool That Actually Helps You Study

Authors: Nadine Barone and Nicole Tais Frohlich



If you’re in grad school, you’ve probably experimented with a few AI tools to stay organized: ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini for brainstorming, Perplexity for research summaries, or SciSpace for explaining academic papers. But NotebookLM, Google’s AI-powered research assistant, takes academic organization to a whole new level.

NotebookLM lets you upload your own documents: PDFs, lecture notes, research articles, or even entire papers, and then interact directly with that material. You can create separate notebooks for each course or project and choose which sources the AI should draw from when answering your questions. This makes it ideal for thesis work, literature reviews, scholarship applications, or even for studying for comprehensive exams.

One of NotebookLM’s biggest advantages is source transparency. When you ask a question, it doesn’t just generate an answer; it shows exactly where in your documents the information came from. This helps ensure accuracy and prevents the problem of “hallucinated” facts that sometimes appear in other AI tools.

Its Studio feature is another standout. With one click, NotebookLM can generate summaries, mind maps, flashcards, or even short video or audio overviews of your uploaded materials. If you’re prepping for an exam, the ability to create customized quizzes and study tools can save hours of manual work. Collaboration is also built in: you can share notebooks with peers or lab-mates to work on projects together.

While NotebookLM is currently free, there’s also a Pro version that offers additional storage and advanced features. If you are interested in exploring the full potential of NotebookLM, simply click here.

If you ever get stuck or aren’t sure how to use a particular feature, NotebookLM provides clear step-by-step support guides through its official Help Center.

Compared to general-purpose tools like ChatGPT or Claude, which are great for brainstorming or drafting, NotebookLM is uniquely built for deep research and study. It’s like having a personal research assistant that actually knows your sources inside out!