Hints first, not answers
Ask DuckyHelper can you just tell me the answer? and it says let's get there together. It is a tutor, not an answer machine: it asks what you already know, gives the next hint, and lets you take the step. The answer comes last, if you still need it. Research on students using chatbots for homework is why it works this way.
One rung at a time.
In the Mac pill, practice problems have a Hint button. Each press opens one more rung: a nudge for where to start, a bigger hint, the worked step, and the answer only last. You decide how far to climb, and most of the thinking stays yours.
A hint beside the question, never the answer.
Open your worksheet in Eddy and start on a question. Eddy writes a short hint right beside it, like which one changes on the Moon?, then checks what you write. On a Mac, Ducky writes the hint by hand in the margin next to your line, and you do the fixing.
“Unfettered access to GPT-4 can harm educational outcomes.”
In that study, high school students who practiced math with an unguarded chatbot solved more practice problems, then scored 17% lower on the exam once it was taken away. A version built to give hints instead of answers largely avoided that drop.
A question back, before the answer.
DuckyHelper's model is trained on 1,000,000+ tutoring examples and built on 100+ learning-science papers. What that looks like in a lesson:
It asks first
What do you already know? Where did you get stuck?
The next hint
Just enough to take the next step yourself.
It checks you
Your answer is checked, and a miss comes with why.
It comes back
What you missed returns later as a flashcard.
Stuck? Ask for a hint.
How being stuck goes with DuckyHelper.
- 1. Ask about the problem
Out loud, or typed, on a Mac or in Eddy.
- 2. It asks back
What you know so far, so the hint fits you.
- 3. You get the next hint
Written beside the question, or one rung of the ladder.
- 4. You take the step
It checks it. The answer is last, if you still want it.
Homework help that still teaches.
For parents and teachers worried about AI doing the homework: DuckyHelper is built the other way around. It guides, it checks, and the work stays the student's. The learning science behind it: Guide, don't hand over answers. How DuckyHelper is built this way: Hints before answers.
How to use it
Frequently asked questions
Is there an AI tutor that doesn't just give answers?
Yes. DuckyHelper is built to teach: it asks what you know, gives the next hint and checks your step before it gives an answer. On a Mac the Hint button opens a nudge, a bigger hint and a worked step, with the answer last. In Eddy, hints are written beside the question on your homework.
Is DuckyHelper a Socratic tutor?
It works in that spirit: it answers a question with a question when that helps you think, then gives a hint just big enough for your next step. It does not hold back forever: on a practice problem, ask for the answer twice and you get it. On homework you opened in Eddy, the answer stays yours to write.
Can I use it for homework without cheating?
That is what it is for. It points you to the step you are missing and checks your work instead of writing it. Open your worksheet in Eddy and it writes hints beside the questions, never the answers. Your teacher's rules still come first.
Why not just give the answer?
Because an answer you copy is gone by the test. In a study published in PNAS in 2025, students who practiced with an unguarded chatbot scored 17% lower on the exam once it was taken away. A hint makes you take the step, and that is what you remember.
What if I really need the answer?
On a practice problem, yes: the hint ladder's last rung is the answer, and Ducky gives it when you ask for it twice. On your own homework in Eddy, the answer stays yours to write, and Eddy keeps helping: what the question asks, the first step, a similar example.
More features
Get unstuck, not just answered
Press fn on your Mac, or open the Eddy tab, and ask for a hint.
