Feedback — Maksym

1 · I know the words and don't use them

The single biggest note, repeated for months. The gap isn't knowledge, it's retrieval under time pressure — asked to use the odds are that, I could recite it and not build a sentence round it.

Fix: Pick two phrases from the activation list before class and force them into small talk.

2 · I invent a collocation instead of routing around the gap

tired knees, knee fatigue, SUP boards, sub boards.

Fix: When the word is missing, describe the thing — "the pain you get a day after training". That also gets the right word handed back to me.

3 · Corrected, I reach for a stronger word instead of a different one

Told big experience was wrong, I offered huge, then extremely big. The answer was extensive.

Fix: A rejected collocation needs a different adjective, not a bigger adverb.

4 · Word class slips — adverbs parked in adjective slots

"It's undoubtedly that you have to present" · "It's significant that we need to do work".

Fix: If it ends in -ly, it can't be the complement of it is.

5 · Articles vanish when I improvise

"I'm kind of detective" · "real assets to your company". Not a knowledge gap — a fluency-cost gap, always the same slot.

Fix: a/an before a singular job title or role noun. Slow down one beat at the noun.

6 · I double up obligation and intensity

"super vital" · "It's absolutely essential that you have to watch".

Fix: When the adjective already carries the force, keep the rest of the clause plain.

1. Five minutes before class beats an hour after it — the quiz is always first and always the previous two units.
2. Log during class, not after — words get dropped into the chat in real time.
3. Two phrases per lesson, forced — chosen from the activation list, used in small talk.
4. Binomials deserve rote drilling — arbitrary and unguessable, and the worst category in the quiz.
5. Ask for the collocation, not the word — "do we say X with Y?" is the highest-value question in the lesson.
6. The four-day test is the real test — produce yesterday's new words out loud, in a sentence you invent, the next day.
7. When writing: one requirement per paragraph, one concrete example per requirement.