In this part, we discuss what we expect in a typical mentoring session, which does not cover specific situations such as:
the discovery session, which we showed you in the previous section.
or the mock exam session (some mentors do this to help prepare their student for their assessment).
Read Through Your Report From the Previous Session
Before you start a mentoring session, review the goals set during the student’s previous session. This will keep the following things fresh in your mind:
What you talked about and the questions that arose.
Goals the student should have reached for the forthcoming session.
Review the Current Project Expectations
Take this opportunity to check over the project mission and Mentor Guide, if necessary. It’s important that you have the project assessment criteria in mind while you’re mentoring your student. It saves you time and ensures that they produce deliverables that fulfill the learning expectations of the project.
If you decided to allow the student to send you their deliverables between sessions (by email, for example), take a look at them to:
anticipate what will happen in the session.
perhaps, be able to move through the subject matter more quickly.
prepare critical feedback to give the student on how to improve them.
Learn from Experienced Mentors
We asked our experienced mentors, Joy and Mike, for their tips and tricks on how to best prepare for a mentoring session. Hear what they have to say in the video:
Let’s Recap!
A mentoring session requires a minimum of preparation.
You need to be ready to answer the student’s questions about their progress in the project and guide them forward to the next stage.
The Mentor Guides show you the way forward and will help you evaluate the student’s work from session to session.
Setting goals in the session report is crucial. It’s important that you have these goals in mind when you begin a session with a student.
Seek advice on best practices from experienced mentors.
You now have the important instructions on what to do “before” the mentoring session. Now, let’s move on to the next chapter where we tell you how to organize the session itself.
