This talk highlights mastery-focused teaching strategies that move students beyond surface understanding toward genuine mastery of course material. We will begin by demonstrating how to make this mastery framework personally relevant to students, gaining their enthusiastic commitment. We will then explore how active learning strategies—including ample practice with immediate feedback, spaced reinforcement, and scaffolded instruction—can be integrated into reading assignments, in-person class sessions, and assessments. Mastery building not only improves students’ performance and memory for material, but students report feeling “paid” for coming to class prepared, engaging more in class sessions, and approaching assessments with higher confidence.