Pre-Semester Common Failure Modes
Use this page during weekly review and before the checkpoint gate. These are the ways a learner can appear busy while still failing the semester's real intent.
Failure Mode Table
| Failure mode | Repair evidence |
|---|---|
| Treating setup as passive installation instead of a repeatable workflow. | Add one concrete artifact proving the opposite: a trace, test, proof, benchmark, review note, or decision record. |
| Depending on GUI habits when the curriculum expects terminal fluency. | Add one concrete artifact proving the opposite: a trace, test, proof, benchmark, review note, or decision record. |
| Making commits only at the end instead of using Git as a thinking tool. | Add one concrete artifact proving the opposite: a trace, test, proof, benchmark, review note, or decision record. |
| Tracking habits without using the review data to change the study system. | Add one concrete artifact proving the opposite: a trace, test, proof, benchmark, review note, or decision record. |
Weekly Review Prompt
At the end of each week, answer these in writing:
- Which failure mode was most tempting this week?
- What evidence shows you avoided or repaired it?
- What will you change in next week's study plan?
- Which older semester skill did this weakness depend on?
Do Not Advance If
- you can only describe the topic using resource titles rather than examples
- your artifact has no tests, traces, diagrams, or written reasoning
- you cannot explain the hardest mistake you corrected
- your checkpoint answers depend heavily on copied notes or solution videos
Preparation-specific repairs
If you have several planners but no observations, consolidate to one and observe two ordinary sessions. If a restore “worked” only because a dialog said success, reopen and check intended content. If a fluent AI answer passes on style alone, extract its claims and authority assumptions. If a question contains private logs, reduce it to a sanitized reproduction. Use module-specific gates to target repair; do not restart the entire Launchpad.