Final Exams: Learning Through Teaching

Final exams are coming up, and many students are starting to hole up in the library with nothing but their textbook, Red Bull, and headphones. Most students are quite familiar with studying for exams, by reading textbooks, listening to lectures from professors, or participating in study sessions. Yet, there is another way to learn a subject, and that is to teach it. As they say, you do not know any subject well unless you are able to teach it to someone else!

One way to do this is to tutor your fellow students when studying for exams. Additionally, teaching requires a set of skills that many students have not utilized as much as their other learning skills. However, to be able to teach a subject, you must have a solid and thorough understanding of the subject.

You will get questions such as “how did you solve this problem?”, and sometimes that question alone may stump a student. Having to explain a concept to others makes you clarify it for yourself. Some students think that by doing a couple of problems or just memorizing a theory and one applied scenario is enough to get by. However, on an exam (or any test for that matter), he/she will be given an entirely different scenario to see how well you can translate your understanding for the subject.

By helping other students, you are also building other skills and traits as well. Not only are you building confidence in the other student, you are developing your own confidence as a teacher and a leader. You may also build your communication and logic reasoning skills as well, as you are now able to transfer thoughts into words.