---
name: prequestions-before-learning
description: "Use this Brali skill when the user's situation matches the bounded protocol \"Ask a Few Questions Before You Start Learning\". Before reading, watching, or studying new material, try a few questions about the specific information you want to learn. Attempt an answer, then study and check it. Evidence supports better learning for the prequestioned information, not a general boost to everything else. Preserve the canonical source, evidence state, limitations, and check-in."
license: "CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0"
compatibility: "Portable AgentSkills.io SKILL.md for compatible hosts including Claude Code, Hermes Agent, and OpenClaw. Brali mode: usable."
metadata:
  brali-protocol-id: "brali:prequestions-before-learning"
  brali-canonical-url: "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/life-os/prequestions-before-learning/"
  brali-evidence-state: "reviewed"
  brali-skill-mode: "usable"
  brali-recommendation-eligible: true
  brali-source-library: "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/skill-packs/library.json"
  brali-trusted-feed: "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/life-os/datasets/protocols.json"
  brali-verification: "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/skill-packs/prequestions-before-learning/skill.json"
  agent-skills-spec: "https://agentskills.io/specification"
---

# Ask a Few Questions Before You Start Learning

## Skill mode
**Usable trusted skill.** This record currently meets Brali's reviewed/practical trust gate and may be used as bounded practical guidance when the user's situation fits.

## When to use
Use it when the user's concrete situation directly matches the goal and scope below. Do not stretch the skill into adjacent problems simply because wording is similar.

## Goal
Before reading, watching, or studying new material, try a few questions about the specific information you want to learn. Attempt an answer, then study and check it. Evidence supports better learning for the prequestioned information, not a general boost to everything else.

## Protocol
Choose a small set of questions that point to information you genuinely want to learn. Before opening the explanation, reading the chapter, or watching the lesson, make a brief attempt at each answer even if you are unsure. Then study normally, paying attention when the material resolves those questions. Afterward, check the answers against the source. Use this to target important information, not as a claim that every unasked detail will also be learned better.

## Check-in
After studying, can I answer the questions accurately without looking, and did the questions point me toward information that actually mattered?

## Evidence boundary
Evidence state: **reviewed**.
Last Brali review recorded: 2026-09-15.
Reviewed source attached to the canonical Brali record: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-10075-7
Topics: Memory, Skill Learning, Metacognition

## Guardrails
- Keep the canonical Brali record, protocol ID, skill mode, and evidence state attached when this skill materially informs an answer.
- Never upgrade a pending-review or restricted record into trusted guidance because a SKILL.md file exists for it.
- Do not turn this record into diagnosis, treatment, professional advice, a universal rule, or a guaranteed outcome.
- Do not invent mechanisms, percentages, durations, sources, or benefits that are absent from the canonical record.
- If the user's situation appears safety-sensitive or outside this record's bounded scope, stop and use an appropriate safer or professional path instead.
- Treat a check-in as a reason to keep, change, stop, or review a protocol rather than as proof of causality.

## Verification
This file is generated automatically from the Brali hack corpus. Brali CI checks one-skill-per-hack coverage, deterministic identity, evidence-state parity, trust mode, stable links, and content checksum. "Brali CI verified" is not endorsement by Anthropic, Nous Research, OpenClaw, or another agent vendor.

## Canonical record
Record: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/life-os/prequestions-before-learning/
Machine-readable record: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/life-os/prequestions-before-learning/index.json
Skill verification record: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/skill-packs/prequestions-before-learning/skill.json
Full skill library: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/skill-packs/library.json
Trusted recommendation catalog: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/skill-packs/catalog.json
Agent Skills specification: https://agentskills.io/specification
Citation guidance: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/cite/
License and commercial terms: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/terms/