Take the Hints Away
(Note: This is an AI-assisted teaser for my prior manual writing. If you like it and want to read more details about this topic/perspective, then check out my 100% manually-written blog and books!)
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The easiest way to tell whether you’ve actually learned something is to take the hints away.
If everything falls apart once you take the hints away, then you’ve got training wheels syndrome.
Training wheels don’t prove that you can ride a bike.
They prove that you can ride a bike with training wheels.
That’s a good intermediate step, but it’s not the same thing as actually riding unassisted.
In math, worked examples are the equivalent of training wheels.
They’re supposed to teach you the motion when you’re first learning it, not perform the motion for you into eternity.
Yes, use them at the beginning when you’re first learning something new.
But the only way to learn how to solve problems on your own is to practice solving problems on your own, without assistance.
Here are the 100% manually-written long-forms that this teaser is distilled from, if you want to dive deeper:
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