Why have I stopped improving — and how do I break through?

Why did my progress stall?

Early gains come from automating the common, easy facts. Once those are instant, repeating them adds nothing — you are exercising recall you already have.

Your sessions feel productive because answers come fast, but the fast answers are the ones you knew yesterday. The slow, error-prone facts are where the remaining improvement lives, and comfort keeps steering you away from them.

What does deliberate practice mean here?

Deliberate practice is not just repetition. It means working at the edge of your ability, with full attention, and getting immediate feedback so you can correct fast.

Mindless repetition of facts you have mastered is the opposite — it feels like effort but teaches nothing. Aim each session at the problems that are still slightly out of reach, and let the misses guide the next round.

1. Target problems just past your current ability, not below it.
2. Practice with full attention — no second screen, no autopilot.
3. Use immediate feedback: note each miss the moment it happens.
4. Repeat the hard set, not the whole set, until it automates.

How do I attack my specific weak facts?

Pull your recurring misses from the results screen and treat them as a named set. These are the facts costing you accuracy and stalling your cpm, and they are usually a small, beatable group.

Drill that set in short focused bursts, on its own, until each one comes without hesitation. Then fold it back into full sprints and confirm it has stopped showing up in your misses. Replacing slow facts with fast ones is exactly how the plateau gives way.

Should I push speed or difficulty to break through?

Both, in small steps. If accuracy is high and stable, nudge your pace — try to answer a touch faster than feels comfortable and let accuracy catch up over a few sessions.

If the level itself feels easy, raise difficulty by one notch. Expect cpm to dip briefly while the harder facts automate, then climb past your old ceiling. Move one variable at a time so you can tell what worked.

Does varying problem types help?

Yes. Drilling one narrow type all the time builds a groove but leaves gaps, and the gaps are where you stall. Mixing addition, multiplication, and other types forces you to retrieve flexibly rather than settle into a single pattern.

Interleaving feels harder in the moment and your cpm may read lower during a varied session. That difficulty is the point — it builds recall that holds up when the next problem is not the one you expected.

What role do sleep and rest play?

Learning consolidates while you rest, especially during sleep. A short focused session followed by good sleep often beats a long grind, because the gains settle overnight rather than during the drilling itself.

Keep sessions short and frequent, and do not mistake fatigue for effort. If your accuracy is sliding within a session, you are past the useful point — stop, rest, and come back fresh tomorrow.