Pretending to understand so you don’t look slow is exactly how you end up actually behind.

The nod is cheap in the moment and expensive by the end of term. Each thing you let pass sits underneath the next thing, which assumes it, and three weeks later the lesson is built on a floor you never laid. Nobody can see the gap except you, which is exactly why it keeps growing. The fear of looking slow is what makes you slow.

Keep a short list of the things you nodded at this week and did not follow. Take one of them to a teacher, a colleague or a friend who gets it. Ask about the specific step, not the whole topic.