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You know what a projectile is. Then a question says "Neglecting air resistance, determine the maximum height attained" and you lose a minute on English words that have nothing to do with physics. If you studied science in Marathi, Tamil, Bengali or Hindi and switched to English books later, those minutes add up.
An AI chatbot can help, if you tell it exactly what it may change. Ask it to "simplify" and it may drop a condition or solve the problem for you.
Why do English words make science questions harder?
In a 1997 report for CRESST at UCLA, Jamal Abedi, Carol Lord and Joseph Plummer analysed data from the 1990 and 1992 eighth-grade US national (NAEP) maths tests and found that modifying (simplifying) the wording of mathematics questions increased performance for some students, particularly those in low- and average-level maths classes.
A 2010 report for the US Institute of Education Sciences makes the same point: maths test items can be linguistically modified to make the language simpler without changing the maths being assessed. That is your rule too: change the English, never the science.
A 2016 article from UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report states that 40% of the global population does not access education in a language they understand. In India, the government's summary of NEP 2020 says teaching up to at least Grade 5 should be in the mother tongue or regional language, so many students may meet science in English only later. Heading to college? Read how Hindi-medium students can adapt to English-medium colleges.
Which words should AI explain, and which should you keep?
Question words are ordinary English: projected, neglecting, attained, respectively, determine, successive. Swap these for simpler words.
Science words have an exact meaning in the subject: smooth, light, rigid, at rest, uniform, ideal. Keep these and learn what they mean.
The trap: some science words look like everyday English. In physics, a smooth surface means no friction, a light string means you can ignore its mass, and at rest means the starting velocity is zero. Turn smooth into flat and the physics has changed.
What should you type into the AI?
Paste this, then your question:
"Here is a science question. Do not solve it. First, list every difficult English word and give its meaning in simple English and in [your language]. Second, mark any word that has a special science meaning, like smooth or light, and explain that meaning. Third, rewrite the question in simple English, keeping every number, unit, symbol and condition exactly the same. Last, ask me what the question wants me to find."
The last step makes you restate the task yourself, the habit that stops misreading in exams; see the read-twice habit for misreading questions.
Here is a worked example.
Original: "A ball is projected vertically upwards with an initial velocity of 20 m/s. Neglecting air resistance, determine the maximum height attained. (Take g = 10 m/s²)"
A good rewrite: "A ball is thrown straight up with a starting speed of 20 m/s. Ignore air resistance. Find the greatest height the ball reaches. (Use g = 10 m/s²)"
Projected became thrown, neglecting became ignore, attained became reaches. Air resistance stays, because it is a physics term.
Both versions give the same answer: at the top the velocity is zero, so h = u²/2g = 400/20 = 20 m. Had the rewrite dropped "neglecting air resistance" or said "about 20 m/s", it would be a different question.
How do you check the AI did not change the science?
Before solving, tick these off:
Every number and unit is the same, digit for digit.
Every condition survived: ignore friction, starts from rest, take g = 10, assume an ideal gas.
The question asks for the same thing: height, not time; maximum, not average.
No answer or formula slipped in.
Science terms stayed in English, with meanings beside them.
If any item fails, paste the original again and say: "You changed this part. Keep it exactly as written."
If a science word is explained clearly and still does not click, the gap is the idea, not the word. The Fermi Concept Library has a lesson for every concept in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and computing.
How do you stop needing the AI for the same words?
Keep a word bank at the back of your notebook: the English word, its meaning in your language, and the sentence where you met it. Read it once a week. The same question words turn up in chapter after chapter, so the bank pays off quickly. For maths, building a Hindi-English maths glossary with AI uses a similar method.
If you want a tutor that teaches rather than hands over answers, Fermi's AI tutor notices where you are stuck and decides whether to explain, ask or show.
Try the script on the next question that slows you down.
