Learning and Teaching: A Two-Way Road

I see that the way one responds to a mock test, not the score itself, but the response to it, is where the real learning either begins or gets abandoned.

The mock test matters. But what matters more is what happens in the moment after it ends.

There are two kinds of responses. The first: look at the answers immediately, absorb the relief of knowing what was correct, and move straight into the next mock. Instant gratification. The second: sit down with each question in an untimed manner, giving yourself the genuine opportunity to hone your reasoning and educate yourself on where the thinking broke down.

The second strategy seems obviously right. And yet, the fraction of students who end up following the first is quite high.

At first, this was surprising to me. A student who has chosen to prepare seriously, who has invested time and effort, consistently choosing the path that yields less, it didn't quite make sense.

Till I stopped and looked more carefully. Not at my students, but at myself. Although I don't do the same in academics, I do the very same thing in many other life situations. The feedback arrives. The discomfort settles in. And almost automatically, I reach for the next thing, the next task, the next decision, before I have sat long enough with the last one.

Over and over again.

What began as an observation about how students respond to a test quietly became something larger. It gave me a chance to educate myself on the subject of life, while I was helping my fellow students educate themselves on the test they were preparing for.

That is the two-way road. The teacher, if paying attention, is always also the student.