Steps You Can Reproduce Tomorrow
Reading a worked solution is comprehension; producing one is recall. A cover-and-predict routine that survives the exam.
What it is for
A study routine that converts step-by-step solutions from something you read into something you are tested by, ending with an unaided re-solve. Reach for it the night before a test, or any time a topic feels clear on screen and blank on paper. It prevents the specific illusion of having learned ten problems you cannot start tomorrow.
The skill
Following a worked solution is a comprehension task. Producing one is a recall task. Only the second is what an exam asks for, and the gap between them stays invisible until the exam. Use the steps like this instead of reading them: 1. Read only the FIRST step. Cover the rest. 2. Predict the next step and write it down before you reveal anything. Writing is the point - thinking "yes, obviously" is how you skip the test. 3. Reveal one step. Whether you matched or not, ask why THAT step and not another. The choice is the transferable part; the arithmetic is not. 4. Continue to the end, one step at a time. 5. Close the app. Re-solve the same problem on paper with nothing revealed. Step five is the one everyone skips and the only one that proves anything. If you cannot reproduce the solution five minutes later with the screen off, you did not learn it, you watched it. Then earn the transfer: - Change one number so the shape of the problem survives and the arithmetic does not. Solve that one alone, without the app. - Change the problem so one step becomes unnecessary - a coefficient of 1, a perfect square. If you cannot see which step disappears, the structure is still hidden from you. Do this on two problems per type, not ten. Two problems solved by predicting teach more than ten solved by reading, and they cost a fifth of the evening. Failure this prevents: an evening that produces ten solved problems and no ability to start the eleventh.
How to install it
1. Open the tool and start a new conversation, project or template. 2. Paste the text below wherever the tool keeps standing instructions — usually called system prompt, instructions, or persona. 3. Save it so it applies to every run rather than a single message.