MEPX
Chapter 8 of 10All chapters
  1. 1How memory works
  2. 2Working memory
  3. 3Retrieval practice
  4. 4Spacing and interleaving
  5. 5Sleep and consolidation
  6. 6Study myths
  7. 7Understanding and elaboration
  8. 8Learning skills
  9. 9Memory techniques
  10. 10Putting it together

Chapter 8 of 10

Learning skills

Different from learning facts.

Deliberate practice

Improvement comes from working at the edge of ability with immediate feedback, on the specific weakness. Repetition of what you can already do maintains rather than improves.

  • Feedback must be fast and specific to be useful.
  • Plateaus usually mean practising the comfortable part.

The ten thousand hours claim

Popularised far beyond what the research supports. Practice quality, starting point and domain all matter, and the number was never a threshold.