Glossary: Every Term This Book Coins, in One Paragraph Each

The book Learn to Learn names its tools so families can talk about them — "did you do your Me Time?" beats a lecture. This page defines every coined term in one paragraph, with a link to the chapter that teaches it. If you arrived here from a search or an AI answer, each definition stands alone.

The illusion of competence

The brain's habit of mistaking recognition for knowledge: a chapter feels clear while you're reading it, because you recognise every sentence — and goes blank when you must write it, because recognising is not producing. It is the single most expensive trap in studying, and the reason this book tests everything on paper. Taught in The Illusion of Competence.

The loop (the daily loop)

The book's core study cycle, run on every topic: read the textbook section actively → write a short note from memory → check it against the book in red ink → turn what refused to stick into questions → retrieve it again on a schedule. Every other tool in the book is a part of this loop, grown to full size. Introduced across Parts 1–3, assembled in Your First 7 Days.

Me Time

The hours a student spends alone with a subject — reading, writing, solving, checking — as opposed to hours spent being taught (school, tuition, videos). The book's claim, backed by research on independent study: Me Time is where marks are actually made; teaching only supplies the material for it. Taught in Me Time.

Delivery vs conversion

The pair of ideas behind every tuition decision in this book. Delivery is knowledge arriving in your presence (a class, a video); conversion is you turning it into something you can produce cold. Classes deliver; only Me Time converts. A class is worth its fee only if you can reproduce its material afterwards — the conversion test. Taught in Me Time and applied to money in The Family Education Budget.

The blank-page test

The honest measuring instrument: close the book, take a blank page, and write everything you can produce on a topic — then compare with the book. The gap you see is your true position. Costs five minutes, no audience, and cannot be fooled. Introduced in The Illusion of Competence.

Short note

A half-page note written from memory after reading, in your own words, then corrected against the book — not a copy of the textbook and not a borrowed set. The act of producing it is the studying; the corrected page is a bonus. Taught in How to Take a Good Short Note.

The red-ink audit

Checking your own short note against the textbook and correcting every error and omission in red, so the page itself shows where your memory failed. The red ink is the feedback loop that stops notes from being confidently wrong. Taught in The Red-Ink Audit.

The Question Log

A running margin-list of precise written questions — never "I don't get it", always "why does X happen when Y?" — collected while studying and then spent on teachers, friends, or an AI tutor. A struck-through question is knowledge gained; the log converts confusion from a feeling into a to-do list. Taught in The Question Log.

The Mistake Bank

A notebook (or the app's automatic version) where every lost mark from every marked paper is recorded with its cause — didn't know, wrong method, careless slip, misread question. Worked weekly until entries close, it becomes a personal syllabus of exactly what to fix: your mistakes are your syllabus. Taught in Your Mistakes Are Your Syllabus.

The syllabus contract (and the tracker)

Treating the official syllabus as a signed contract listing everything the exam may ask, tracked topic-by-topic (finished / in progress / untouched) on a visible chart — because an uncovered topic caps your maximum mark before you enter the hall. Taught in The Syllabus Is a Contract.

Term-1 debt

The compounding cost of early-year topics left unlearned: because subjects build floor on floor, a gap from Term 1 makes every later lesson harder, and repaying it in exam season costs many times its original price. Repay gaps in the week you find them. Taught in Term 1 Debt.

The grade ladder (the rungs)

The book's claim that grades are built in a fixed order, not drawn in a lottery: textbook coverage + exercises buys the pass; add past-paper drills and the C becomes a B; add mistake-elimination and technique and the B becomes an A. Each rung has its own work. Taught in The Grade Progression Ladder.

Method marks

The marks examiners award for visible correct working — the setup, the substitution, the labelled steps — separately from the final answer. Schemes commonly pay several method marks per accuracy mark, which is why "show every step" is arithmetic, not fussiness. Taught in Method Marks vs Accuracy Marks.

The 10-or-20-paper diet (and the paper library)

The book's past-paper volume standard: roughly ten sat-and-marked full papers per subject for O/L, twenty for A/L priority subjects, each followed by an honest post-mortem — and the personally-built collection of papers and marking schemes that makes the diet possible. Taught in Why 10 (or 20) Past Papers and Building Your Past-Paper Library.

The flip (and the night-before ritual)

Meeting tomorrow's lesson before class — read once, note roughly, write your questions — so the classroom becomes your second meeting with the material: basics confirm instead of overwhelm, and your questions are ready. The nightly version is Read → Question → Ask. Taught in Flipped Learning and The Night Before Class.

The figure walk

A fifteen-minute chapter refresh using only the textbook's figures, charts, and tables: cover each caption, produce what the figure shows from memory, check, and pencil-mark the blanks. A revision technique, not first-time learning. Taught in The Figure Walk.

The supply run

The low-data household's weekly pattern: one bounded online session fetches everything the week needs (materials, syncs, AI answers to the week's question log), and the studying itself runs offline on paper. Signal-needing jobs wait for the run. Taught in Studying on Little Data.

Never zero (and the minimum day)

The habit-protection rule for bad days: the day's quota may shrink to its emergency floor — five minutes, one card-batch — but never to nothing, because streaks live on continuity, not volume. Its partner rule: miss one day, never two. Taught in The First 30 Days.

The comeback protocol (and the placement walk)

The rebuild sequence for a student far behind: place honestly (walk back through earlier grades' work until you find the floor where you're solid), rebuild from that floor in short daily doses, and make the wins visible. The placement walk is the private, no-audience test that finds the true floor. Taught in Starting From S and F and Maths From Zero.

Hard Mode

The book's name for studying under real constraints — little data, no quiet room, no tuition nearby, a shared family phone, work or caring duties beside school. Part 11 redesigns the method for each constraint instead of pretending it away. Starts at Studying on Little Data.

The doors-and-keys method

The decision method for streams, combinations, and careers: list the doors (destinations) a choice leads to, the keys (results, subjects) each door demands, and choose with evidence from your own marked work — never by prestige rumour. Taught in Choosing Your Stream and Pick the Career, Then Walk Backwards.

Process praise

Parent language that praises the work and the method ("I saw the mistake list shrink — that fortnight of maths shows") instead of the person's talent or the grade. It builds students who try harder; verdict-praise builds students who hide. Taught in Help Without Hovering.

The visibility deal (and the instruments)

The household bargain that ends the "I never see you studying" fight: the student keeps honest, visible instruments — the tracker, the marked papers, the Mistake Bank, or the app's parent dashboard — and the parent retires doorway verdicts completely. Evidence replaces accusation in both directions. Taught in "I Never See You Studying".

Position, not verdict

The sentence the whole book keeps: any result — a mark, a rank, a bad term test, even a failed exam — is a position on a map with known roads out, never a verdict on the student. Positions get plans; verdicts get despair. Runs from The Bad Term Test to The Exam-Year Map.

This glossary is part of Learn to Learn , the free study-methods book by Idasara Academy — 100 chapters for Sri Lankan O/L and A/L students, parents, and teachers, in English, Sinhala, and Tamil.