Prepare for the questions a learner would ask

Predict what would confuse a beginner and make sure you can answer it.

Why it works

Anticipating questions forces you to view the material from outside your own understanding, where the gaps and ambiguities live. The act of generating likely questions surfaces exactly the points you have glossed over, and preparing answers builds the flexible, transferable grasp that rote study rarely produces.

How to do it

1. List the three questions a smart beginner would most likely ask.
2. Include the "why" and "what if" questions, not just "what is".
3. Answer each one; where you cannot, you have found what to learn next.

Evidence

Self-explanation and question-generation research indicates that generating and answering questions about material deepens understanding and reveals comprehension gaps, consistent with why preparing to teach helps. (rct)

The gain depends on generating genuine, non-trivial questions; producing only easy questions you already know rehearses the familiar and reveals nothing.

Common mistake

Only preparing answers to questions you already find easy, which builds confidence without touching the parts a real learner would actually get stuck on.