Prepared in advance to study old article about crackpot (5-4)
I believe the answer is:
ready-made
'prepared' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'advance to study old article about crackpot' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'study' could be 'read' (synonyms) and 'read' is present in the answer.
'article' could be 'a' (the indefinite article in English) and 'a' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ready-made that I've seen before include "Prefabricated" , "Off-the-peg" , "Instantly available" , "Of clothes, off the peg, not specially created" , "Created for standard shapes and sizes, say clothes" .)