Mentor FAQs
Here we have collated a list of the questions asked frequently by mentors.
How do I get started with Mentoring?
Join the "start-here" channel on Slack and you will see some step-by-step instructions that will guide you through the process.
What should I do if I don't know how to give feedback on a solution?
If you're not sure what feedback to give, paste a link to the solution (e.g. https://exercism.io/mentor/solutions/...) on the relevant language channel on Slack and brainstorm some ideas with other mentors.
How can I improve my mentoring skills?
This is something we're extremely passionate about helping you with and we are in the process of writing some awesome guides on giving great feedback with lots of examples.
In the mean time, here's some recommended reading on the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Thanks-Feedback-Science-Receiving-Well-ebook/dp/B00DMCV0XE/
Behaviours to avoid:
- stating opinion as fact
- avalanche of comments
- judgemental questions
- sarcasm
Read full blog post on this here: https://medium.freecodecamp.org/unlearning-toxic-behaviors-in-a-code-review-culture-b7c295452a3c
Examples:
Unhelpful: “Why didn’t you just do ___?” (asking judgemental
questions)
Helpful: “You can also do ___, which has the benefit of ___”
Unhelpful: “Did you even test this code before you submitted it?” (being sarcastic)
Helpful: “Your code breaks during “x, y, and z” edge cases, can you please address those cases?”
These have been taken from conference talk by Sandya Sankarram on Unlearning Toxic Behaviours in a Code Review Culture https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ROZA9yKpEa8suiqVXtPO0IJtqa95SOjE/view.
When is a solution considered complete?
Each exercise on Exercism touches upon several programming concepts. A learner should touch on 2/3 concepts as they work through their iterations whilst taking on board mentor feedback and improving their solution through each iteration. If a student has done this, you could ask them if they would like to move onto the next exercise or if they'd like to learn how to improve their solution further to allow them to choose their own pace and depth of learning.
We appreciate this is a rough guide and we are working on creating documentation for each exercise to help with this.
How quickly do I need to respond to a submission?
Ideally within a week of a learner submitting their solution to help maintain their motivation and enthusiasm for the exercise. We will be implementing a "Leave of Absence" notification button for mentors soon that you can use if don't feel like you'll be able to respond to solutions within this timeframe. This button will pass the solutions you're mentoring onto another mentor.
I need to have a break from mentoring, can I stop receiving new solutions?
Yes! We have this logged as an issue on GitHub (see exercism/DEPRECATED.v2-feedback#162) and will be implementing a Leave of Absence notification soon.
How much time should I be spending on mentoring?
We had 1,000 submissions per day on the original Exercism site, of which fewer than 20% received feedback. Our key launch-targets are to achieve >95% feedback-rate. We have based our mentor recruitment numbers on mentors offering 1hr/week on average. If you can offer more than that then that's great!
I've found an issue with the site, where should I raise the issue?
If you find anything that's broken, first see if it is listed here and if not please add it https://github.com/exercism/v2-feedback/issues
How can I report abuse or examples of bad mentoring?
Please reach out to us at [email protected] and we will try to fix or resolve the issue respecting both you and your privacy.
How can I stop mentoring a track?
If you'd like to stop mentoring a track please email us at [email protected] and let us know.
Can I mentor another language?
Yes! To mentor another language go to the "Configure your mentor settings" page via the main menu and select the languages you want to mentor.
Still have a question?
If you have a question that hasn't been answered here, please post if on the "questions" channel on Slack.