I can relate to this so much. I am a teaching assistant at my university right now and one of the classes I taught was a Java class. When I took that class myself about 2 years before then, I did work enough to get me a good grade. Now that I had to teach, I had to look over the material again and comprehend everything on a different, deeper level than before.
Another great post @tarazkp! 2018 is looking fun already haha
Indeed. Having to explain something really forces you to grasp it thoroughly. Having to synthesize a good and succinct explanation is what is the key I think. I used to teach English and you would be surprised at the amount of charts, graphs and tables I was drawing on the whiteboard to explain things. Having to analyze things like that surely deepened my understanding and appreciation for the language.