Each skill is worked on in five steps, and the site never adds them up. Reading a lesson, passing a quiz, doing a lab, passing an exam with no procedure and reviewing your mistakes measure five different things. This lesson defines each one, what it proves and what it does not, so that you read your progress without being misled.
Reading is not knowing
A lesson explains a concept and the gesture that applies it. At the bottom of the page, “Mark as read” records it in your progress. A skill whose lessons are all read is understood: the skills that depend on it unlock, but it is not yet acquired.
A quiz is not practice
The end-of-lesson quiz checks that you understood the why: it catches misconceptions. Passed at the threshold, it moves the skill to Acquired. Practice exams mix several subjects against the clock, like a certification. A quiz does not check that you can do it on a machine.
A guided lab is not a proof
A DSOXLab lab has you apply the gesture on a shell, a virtual machine or a cluster, and checks it with state tests: the result reached, not the commands typed. A guided lab gives the procedure: it makes you practise, it does not prove you could do it without.
Prove: succeed without a procedure
A proof is an exam graded on the final state, with no procedure given: a DSOXLab challenge or capstone, sometimes a file assessed against a rubric. It is the only step that shows you can do it alone. Not every skill has a proof yet; when one exists, the skill page says so.
Review what resisted
Quiz subjects below the 70% threshold come back in the Reviews tab of “My learning”, until your best score crosses it. The review session, started from the “Review” badge in the header or from that tab, replays the questions you missed across all your courses in a single questionnaire. A skill with a failed quiz moves to To consolidate: the engine puts it back at the top of your next steps.
Key takeaways
| Step | What it measures | What it does not measure |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | the declared understanding of a lesson | mastery |
| Quiz | right and wrong ideas | the gesture |
| Practice | the gesture, with a procedure | autonomy |
| Proof | the gesture alone, on the final state | nothing beyond the exam's contract |
| Review | what resists |