Artificial intelligence already helps the opponent to study with the court rules

In three months, the generative artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT managed to have 100 million users and is increasingly applied in medicine, law, insurance... It is not surprising, therefore, that it is now making the leap into the big business of competitive examinations. , which has a future in Spain, since half of the civil servants are going to retire in the next 10 or 15 years.

A revolution in the way of studying with simulations, personalized syllabi, challenges or a 24-hour advisor.

Arturo de las Heras, president of Ancypel (National Association of e-Learning Centers and Providers), does not see it as a danger, but as a reality ―“it is assumed that the public Administration can also apply it”―, but he emphasizes that “behind it there must always be a human being who knows how to use and review it, and avoid any biases that may exist.”

When OpenAI brought ChatGPT to the market in November 2022, Spanish-Norwegian Nicolás Escudero Heiberg, a Google worker for 17 years, “fell in love” with the application.

But in turn, the

bot

(an automated

software

application ) was unable to adequately help his 11-year-old daughter review the structure of the European Union.

“I thought, of course, the problem is that the

bot

doesn't understand the curriculum, it doesn't know what my daughter has to study,” he recalls.

He then saw great potential in the world of education, and he went for it.

Escudero studied the different educational systems in Spain and was amazed by the world of competitive exams.

They barely exist in Norway, where he grew up, which hires teachers based on their curriculum, and it was hard to learn - after signing up for an academy that trained for General State Administration - that there is no official syllabus that one can download for free from an official organization, but the opponent has to prepare it himself or buy a bunch of pages from an academy that are updated many times with an attached PDF.

Training in an academy with in-person teachers costs between 1,000 and 7,000 euros, depending on the call.

With these resources and a team, he has created his own platform, Educaia, for now focused on the exams for Early Childhood teacher, but which will expand to others.

“We came to democratize access to public employment,” they advertise.

But the problem, this geographer specialized in innovation recognizes, is that “the beast lies a lot” and must be “tamed.”

“As it only took us seven days to create the agenda [for seven communities],” he says, “it seemed a little silly to us to charge for this.

I think ethically it is something that should be open.”

So anyone who registers accesses the syllabus and can take notes;

and if you pay you can personalize the document, take up to 10 mock exams a month - usually one per quarter - although you do not receive a grade, but rather positive advice, or the machine corrects your syllabus with the court's criteria, its rubrics (rules) and makes suggestions for improvement.

Now they check that the answers given by the system, “the Bot” – so called so as not to forget that a human does not answer – are true.

They fail in 3% of a conversation, but they will improve more when the system “feeds on learning.”

Eight out of ten applicants for a public position are women and the same percentage has worked for more than five years, according to a survey by the

online

exam preparation platform Opositatest, which uses AI to launch personalized tests.

Half of the active population, one in two people between 18 and 55 years old, has taken the opposition or is thinking about doing so.

María Fernández, a resident of Zamora, signed up for an academy and was “lost, there was a saturation of opponents, zero personalization…” she remembers.

She now feels “very accompanied” by her private trainer, but, since she works and has little time to study, she gives her “security” that the Educaia application will resolve doubts in the moment or improve topics.

Escudero does not believe that they are a threat to him: “On the opponent's pilgrimage you need human contact, someone to calm you down, advise you…”.

Furthermore, he adjusts to the life of the interims, often forced to change locations several times during the course, which prevents them from going to the academy.

Professors, he says, are not very supportive of recorded classes, since they can be shared.

Inmaculada Muñiz, the academic director of the application who in parallel studies the oppositions, suffered it.

Correos access tests, at the Complutense University of Madrid in May 2023.Jesús Hellín (Europa Press)

The president of Ancypel values ​​that AI can “analyze the progress and areas of weakness of applicants, adapting study materials and practice questions,” and argues that, in addition, natural language generation algorithms can create material educational, such as topic summaries, practical exercises and exam questions.

De las Heras does not highlight any negative aspects of technology, although projects such as Gokoan are conceived as substitutes for academies.

Psychology and new technologies

Gokoan is a platform that has its own methodology to prepare exams for groups A and C. Clara Torrijos, specialized in the application of psychology to new technologies, created her own platform in 2017 to respond to her personal need.

With small children, she wanted to prepare for exams, but the academies, she says, did not adapt to her situation.

With this limitation in mind, they designed a study system that adapts to the opponent's study objectives and speed and that now uses generative AI.

She has been improving an application that adapts to the opponent's study speed and that now uses generative AI.

The more the machine knows about him, the more precise the instructions it gives him.

For example, adjust the difficulty of the questions to your level.

80% of those registered in Gokoan (koan is a Japanese challenge) are women, and the majority are between 25 and 55 years old and have a medium-low socioeconomic status.

“We are a methodology for studying competitive examinations validated by the University of Valencia,” says Torrijos, “We apply learning psychology to establish long-term knowledge.

For example, we take into account forgetting curves in reviews, the fragmentation of content to learn in pieces - which is better retained - or spaced repetitions.

In a few months they will include

adult

gamification to maintain motivation.

“Whoever signs up, soon leaves the academy,” he says.

While CazaTuPlaza, created in 2018, aspires to be a complement, not for its user to leave the academy.

The other way around.

The system adapts to the educational line of each center, personalizes the design and has tools to know where each candidate is, what documents they consult, the time they spend watching videos or what elements work best.

And civil servant candidates have games to improve and challenges that they face against other students.

The AI ​​in their

software

allows opponents to see whether or not they are learning from test results.

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