Get quizzed until you actually understand it, not until you can repeat it back
Repeating a definition and understanding a concept feel identical from the inside.
- Use it for
- Anyone learning a concept who wants to check they actually understand it, not just memorized it.
Being able to state a definition back correctly is a weak test of understanding — it mostly tests memory, and memory of a good explanation can feel exactly like real comprehension until you hit a question that requires actually applying the concept somewhere new. The gap between "can recite it" and "understands it" only shows up under a harder kind of question, which most self-study never generates because writing a genuinely testing question is itself a skill.
This prompt escalates through question types specifically designed to find that gap.
When not to use this
If you're at the very first pass of learning something and don't have any grasp yet, this is premature — get a basic explanation first. This is for checking whether an explanation you think you understood actually landed.
Did this work?
You get asked a question that a memorized definition can't answer, and either answer it correctly or discover a specific gap you didn't know you had.
Tested on claude-opus-5. Evidence status is draft; it moves to battle-tested only on recorded runs, never by hand.