Post-dive review
Updated
Most players finish a dive, look at the depth, and move on. A five-minute review afterwards is where the real improvement happens, because it turns each miss into something you’ll know next time.
Step 1: Sort every round into one of four boxes
| Box | What happened | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Deep | Rare and correct | Note how you found it |
| Shallow | Correct but obvious | Find three deeper answers you could have reached |
| Wrong | Answer rejected | Find out why: boundary, spelling or knowledge |
| Blank | No answer | Note the category; it’s a weak spot |
Step 2: Learn three answers per shallow round
For every shallow round, open the answer list (on our prompt pages for practice dives) and pick three deep answers you recognise but didn’t think of. Recognised-but-forgotten answers are the easiest to make available next time.
Step 3: Diagnose wrong answers honestly
- Boundary miss: you answered the category you expected, not the one asked. Next time, spend more of the first three seconds reading.
- Spelling miss: pick simpler, common English names. See why answers get rejected.
- Knowledge miss: you weren’t sure and gambled. Revisit safe vs. rare answers.
Step 4: Track blank categories
Keep a running list of categories that left you blank. After a week you’ll see patterns: maybe it’s sports teams, or fonts, or anything about chemistry. Those become the focus for your practice plan and the matching category guide.
Step 5: Write down your route
When you do find a deep answer, write down the route that found it, like “walked Central Asia” or “thought of Hitchcock’s British films”. Routes transfer to other prompts; individual answers don’t.
Review the daily dive too
After the official daily dive, read our daily hints and ideas for the same prompts. They show routes into each category that you can reuse on future prompts.