A New Student with Old Knowledge

"There are some flight instructors where the student is important, and there are some instructors where the instructor is important. Pick carefully." - Unknown

A new student from another instructor is already going to possess some skills and understanding, so I would like to know where they are at to pick up where the old instructor left off. First is taking a glance at their folder of recorded lessons and such. I would look for completed lessons (and up to what point), notes on those lessons, endorsements, briefings, and logged instruction. Any discrepancies would lead me back to the previous instructor to inquire why or how an error occurred. Speaking of previous instruction, some questions to ask the other instructor is what the student's attitude is like, their motivation and study habits, and what troubles if any happened during training. Briefly reviewing the student's strengths and weakness also help. After gathering this knowledge I would compare it to what the student says after asking them similar questions. If the student disagrees about their strength and weaknesses for example, I would take that into consideration and combine both sources to give the student the best learning environment possible. To determine where the student is at and where you should begin with them, I would do some ground and flight lessons. Ground would be a couple hours and based off of their dossier and previous instruction, quiz them on subjects they should already know. Flight lessons are similar, with review of maneuvers they should have done already. If all goes well I can take the next step and push the student closer to getting their rating/certificate.