Teach Me The Concepts

Explain it in your own words. See exactly where your understanding breaks.

Two sentences in. Ritsu checks them against your own material — and asks the next question from the gap.

Free account · One chapter or lecture · Your first question in a couple of minutes

Example sessionPersonal Finance 101 — Chapter 4: Interest
The first questionTwo sentences. That's the whole first move.
Home/Concept 2·How interest works

Compound interest

RitsunowTeach-back

Why does money earning compound interest grow faster over time than money earning the same rate only on the original amount?

A few sentences beats a few words.

Why does money earning compound interest grow faster over time than money earning the same rate only on the original amount?A few sentences beats a few words.

Try it here — this page can't grade you; a session does. Two sentences is enough to start · Your words never leave this page

The exchange

One answer tells you what you know. The next question finds what you don't.

Personal Finance 101 — Chapter 4: InterestExample session · illustrative

RitsunowTeach-back

Why does money earning compound interest grow faster over time than money earning the same rate only on the original amount?

A few sentences beats a few words.

Interest gets added to the total, so next year you earn interest on a bigger number. With a flat rate you only ever earn on the original amount, so the base never changes.
Ritsunow

Interest on a bigger number” — that's the key idea, and you've named the mechanism correctly: each year's interest joins the base, so the next year's interest is calculated on more. You've also drawn the right contrast with a flat rate, where the base stays fixed. What you haven't said yet is why that difference gets larger every year rather than staying the same.

This page

The feedback repeats the learner's own words back. It graded what was said, not what it expected.

This page

Accuracy, coverage, depth, clarity — each out of 5, weighted into one number. The card is the product's.

Ritsu AnswerWith compound interest, each period's interest is added to the principal, so the amount earning interest grows every period. With simple interest, only the original principal earns interest, so each year's interest is identical. The two start at the same rate, but one base grows and the other does not.
RitsunowQuestion 1/5

You explained that the base grows. Now the why behind the shape: if both accounts earn the same 10%, why does the gap between them widen every single year instead of just staying open?

Why this question

The first answer said the base grows — but not why the gap accelerates. The follow-up went straight at that missing piece.

Because the compound account earns interest on last year's interest too, so its base keeps growing while the simple account's base stays the same. The gap gets bigger because the extra interest itself starts earning.
Ritsunow

The extra interest itself starts earning” — that's the widening, and it's exactly right: every year the compound base carries last year's interest, so the same 10% produces a little more than it did the year before. One assumption is sitting underneath your explanation, though: that the rate stays put.

Ritsu AnswerThe gap widens because the compound account's interest is itself compounding: year two's interest is earned on year one's interest as well as the principal, year three's on both of those, and so on. Simple interest adds the same fixed amount each year, so the difference between the two grows a little more every period.
RitsunowQuestion 2/5

Your explanation assumes the rate never changes. Suppose it dropped to 1% for both accounts — does compounding still win, and would the gap open as fast?

Compounding still wins at 1%, because the base still grows every year — but far more slowly, since 1% of a slightly bigger number is only a tiny bit more each time. The gap opens much later; at low rates the two look almost identical for years.
Ritsunow

The two look almost identical for years” — yes, and you reasoned through it rather than guessing: the mechanism doesn't depend on the rate, but the size of the effect does. That's the last piece: compounding always wins eventually, and the rate decides how soon it shows. This is a solid explanation you could give without notes.

This page

At 75 the concept ticks, and the tick stays even if a later answer is weaker. Every graded answer moves the number; the toast shows the change.

Ritsu AnswerCompounding is a property of how interest is added, not of the rate, so it wins at any positive rate. But the extra interest each year is proportional to the rate, so at 1% the gap grows very slowly and only becomes visible over long horizons; at 10% it is obvious within a few years. Rate and time together decide how much compounding matters.

That question came from your answer.

Ritsu doesn't just move to question two. It listens for what you explained, what you skipped, and what may be wrong — then uses that to decide what to ask next.

The conversation gets harder where your explanation gets thinner.

Free account · One chapter or lecture · Your first question in a couple of minutes

Sound familiar?

Explaining something out loud can feel like active learning. Until nobody tells you what you missed.

  • You explain the idea to yourself.
  • It sounds coherent.
  • Nothing interrupts.
  • Nothing asks why.
  • Nothing points out the assumption you skipped.
  • Nothing notices the part you quietly talked around.

So the explanation ends when you feel satisfied.

A monologue can expose confusion. A good follow-up exposes much more.

The missing half

Teach-back gets powerful when something pushes back.

Everyone recommends explaining it out loud.

And it stops working the moment you try it alone.

The reason is simple: nobody answers back.

Explaining forces you to retrieve the idea instead of simply recognising it.

But the real test begins when someone asks:

Gap-targeting

Catches an explanation that names the rule but not the reason.

That's where a polished explanation turns into tested understanding.

Don't just explain until it sounds right. Explain until it survives the questions.

Not a prompt

This isn't a list of questions. It's a conversation that remembers what you said.

It checks against the material

The grading spine is built before the first question

Personal Finance 101 — Ch. 4 Interest (lecture notes).pdf

Key points0 of 5 coveredMisconceptions

Never shown to the learner

Before the first question, the reference is already built.

On your own document, Ritsu pulls out each concept's key points and likely misconceptions before the first question — up to 7 and 3 per concept. You never see the list. Every answer is judged against it.

It grades the explanation

Four dimensions on every answer, not one verdict

  • AccuracyIs what you said right?
  • CoverageHow much of the concept's spine did you reach?
  • DepthMechanism and reasons — not just labels.
  • ClarityCould a classmate follow it?

Every graded answer is scored on accuracy, coverage, depth and clarity, each out of 5, weighted into one number — so a fluent answer that skips the mechanism reads differently from a rough one that has it.

It adapts

Deeper when you're strong, easier when you're stuck

The level of the next question

Compound interest

The opening teach-back has no level — it's the bar.

Entropy

The opening teach-back has no level — it's the bar.

Strong answers push the next question up a level. Two weak answers in a row bring it down a level and rebuild the idea from a concrete case — the product's own rule. The Entropy example on this page is exactly that.

A prompt can keep chatting. A coach has to know what changed.

Progress that stays

The conversation ends. The progress stays.

Example session · illustrative

Personal Finance 101 — Chapter 4: Interest

How interest is charged and earned, why compounding changes the shape of growth, and how to read a rate before you sign.

5 concepts · 2 groups≤5 questions each 1/5 mastered
Continue teaching
Concepts to teach back5 concepts
How interest works1/3
  • 1Simple interest82
  • 2Compound interest
  • 3APY vs APR
Interest over time0/2
  • 4The Rule of 7264
  • 5Inflation and real return58
  • Every concept keeps its own mastery state.
  • Strong concepts earn a tick.
  • Weak concepts stay visible.

So the session ends with something more useful than a chat history: a map of what you can explain — and what still needs work.

You don't finish with more text. You finish knowing what you can actually defend.

The honest part

This AI doesn't do the thinking for you.

  • 1It gives you the question.
  • 2You supply the explanation.
  • 3It responds to your reasoning.
  • 4Then you have to defend it again.

AI removes the need for a study partner. It doesn't remove the need to think.

Built from your material

On your material, the material is the reference.

Ritsu uses the source you provide to identify expected ideas, key points and likely misconceptions.

Your explanation is judged against that structure rather than against a generic conversation about the topic.

Pick a sourceSame session, four sources. Watch the concepts arrive from the material.

Example session · illustrative

Sized to the source

A session holds 4 to 20 concepts in up to 6 groups, each with up to 7 key points and 3 likely misconceptions pulled from your material — never a generic syllabus.

Every answer graded on four dimensions

Accuracy, coverage, depth and clarity, each 0 to 5, on every graded answer — the opening explanation and every follow-up alike. Answers under 40 characters are capped, so a few sentences always beats a few words.

Progress that sticks

Mastery is kept per concept, from 0 to 100. A concept ticks at 75 and the tick stays. Restart a concept any time — the old dialogue moves to History and your best score is kept.

Teach Me The Concepts finds the weak edge of your explanation. Ritsu keeps training it until it holds.

You already did the hard part: you proved that retrieval, explanation and pushback expose gaps rereading can hide. Ritsu applies that loop across your material — and brings the weak concepts back before they fade.

  1. Understand
  2. Explain
  3. Get challenged
  4. Practice
  5. Review
  6. Master
See how Ritsu runs the loop

Questions

What people ask before their first answer.

Two sentences is enough to start. The tool caps the score of anything under 40 characters, so a few sentences always beats a few words — and later questions may need more detail.

One more time

Don't just review what you studied. Try to defend it.

Pick one concept. Explain it in your own words.

Let Ritsu find the part that still needs work.

Free account · One chapter or lecture · Your first question in a couple of minutes

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Your material. Your words. Your progress.