I really, really wish TDD, or any concept of unit testing had been taught in my courses. Nothing has improved my ability to understand decoupling, orthogonality, and the importance of naming conventions than test writing. And on days when I can't muster the energy to write heavy code, I can at least write the tests that I know I'll need to pass...and the next day, that heavy code task is practically done.
TDD is both a good practice and a great psychological boost.
They taught me unit testing at university and I've been using it ever since. It has a lot of benefits. But things like decoupling, orthogonality and naming conventions are worth thinking hard about in their own right, not just in terms of the side effects of TDD.
Contrary to popular belief, it's entirely possible to create an unmaintainable mess that breaks regularly and is impossible to extend with near-100% test coverage.
TDD is both a good practice and a great psychological boost.