The Teaching Method

Many of you, with coming tests, quizzes, and assignments may have turned to the usual methods for studying (groups, youtube videos, etc). However, in this post, I am going to discuss one method I discovered in my Junior year at Metro, while enrolled in one of the hardest classes I took. In my spring semester of Junior year, Math 1151. I had never taken a college math course previously, and thus when our first exam in the class was approaching, I frankly didn't know how to study. In all my previous math classes at Metro, I had simply studied by revealing the key formulas/concepts and looked through the solution of a few practice problems before. Further, I only really strived to achieve ~80% as I could simply remediate with test corrections. However, for this first math exam I was pretty nervous, and rightfully so. Taking the exam is a feeling I will never forget, it was as if all my studying was worthless and as if I saw the information for the first time. I was struggling so much that I had to leave an entire page blank, to not run overtime. I felt defeated. But, this experience also taught me a new way t study that extends to all my classes beyond math. 

 

I call this study technique " The Teaching Method" and it is essentially what it sounds like. The teaching method simply requires you to teach someone (who doesn't know the topic at all) the material. The logic behind this method is, that if you can teach someone the material, you must be fluent and can understand the material very well. However, to be able to do this method effectively you need to practice other good habits, such as showing up to class and taking good notes and reviewing class material. This method works even better when studying in a group. As someone may not understand a concept and another group member may fully understand it. Thus, the group member who understands the concepts is able to teach the other group member to fortify/check their own knowledge whilst aiding someone else to understand. 

 

Moreover, after I discovered this method whilst studying as a group with my friends, it has stuck since then. Now, I am not sure how I would study without it as it is very intuitive and effective.