Learning This Repo with pmexpert

Everything else in this repo assumes you're working through notebooks and reference pages by hand. pmexpert is the interactive alternative: one skill that teaches the curriculum to you, one question at a time, adapting to your answers, and remembering exactly where you left off. You don't need to track progress yourself or know which notebook comes next — just start it and go.

Start here

Open this checkout in Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or Codex and say:

pmexpert

That's it. It reads your current progress, tells you where you are in one line, and asks the next question.

All three tools work. Each carries a thin discovery loader — .claude/skills/, .github/skills/, .agents/skills/ — pointing at one canonical package in skills/pmexpert/, so the lesson is identical whichever you use.

This page writes the modes below as /pmexpert quiz, /pmexpert scenario and so on. The leading slash is Claude Code's shorthand; in any tool, saying pmexpert quiz does the same thing. What matters is the mode name after it.

The seven ways to use it

Command	What it does	When to use it
/pmexpert	Lesson — teaches the next concept you haven't mastered yet, one question at a time, adapting depth to your answers	Default. Use this most of the time — it's the one that actually builds understanding
/pmexpert quiz	10 rapid multiple-choice questions across different concepts, right/wrong revealed immediately	A fast gut-check across many topics, or a warm-up before a lesson
/pmexpert quiz 20	Same, a bigger round	When you have more time and want broader coverage
/pmexpert scenario	Applies concepts you've already confirmed to a real portfolio workflow	Once you've got some concepts confirmed and want to see them used together, not just recited
/pmexpert failure	Hands you a plausible-looking worked example that reaches a wrong answer, and asks you to find the flaw	The rung most people skip. Recognising a formula and spotting its misuse are different skills
/pmexpert teachback	You explain the concept; it plays a sceptical PM and probes what you assumed, when it breaks, what you'd use instead	Last step before a concept counts as confirmed — if you can't defend it cold, you don't have it yet
/pmexpert exam	A tougher, ladder-style oral check across several concepts at once, narrowing in on weak spots	As a checkpoint after finishing a phase (e.g. all of fixed income)
/pmexpert status	Just reports how far along you are — nothing else	Any time you want a quick read without starting a session
/pmexpert <topic> (e.g. /pmexpert duration)	Jumps straight to a specific concept instead of the default order	When you already know what you want to work on

What a lesson actually looks like

[1/55 · Trainee] Lesson: Returns and compounding

A stock is worth $100. It rises 50%, then falls 50%. Cumulative return —
0%, above 0%, or below 0%? What's the ending dollar value?

You answer in your own words — there's no menu to pick from, just reply normally. If you're right, it moves forward with a worked example; if you're off, it names exactly what you got wrong instead of just saying "not quite" and giving the answer away. It never fills in the answer for you, even if you're stuck — it'll narrow the question or give a hint instead.

A realistic first session

1. Type /pmexpert. Say it shows 1/55 · Trainee with duration already confirmed from an earlier session — first stop is Day 1, Returns and compounding.
2. Answer honestly. Right or wrong, the process is the same either way — you'll get an explanation and a worked example regardless.
3. Once you've got it, it asks whether to keep going or stop here.
4. Come back anytime — tomorrow, next week — and type /pmexpert again. It resumes exactly where you left off. No separate command, no notes to keep yourself.

What "confirmed" means — the four rungs

A concept isn't confirmed because you sat through a lesson. Each one has four rungs, and you clear them with different modes:

Rung	Cleared by	What it proves
Derive	/pmexpert	You can reproduce the formula and say what each term is
Apply	/pmexpert scenario, or a notebook	You can use it on real numbers and read the answer
Break	/pmexpert failure	You can spot where a plausible-looking use of it is wrong
Explain	/pmexpert teachback	You can defend it to a sceptical PM without notes

Any rung cleared makes a concept weak; all four make it confirmed. You don't restart — returning to a half-done concept picks up at the missing rung.

The deliberate part is that rung 3 is hard to fake. The failure labs are built from things this repo actually states — an assumption on the reference page, a convention the code refuses to guess, an edge case a test exists to pin — never an invented mistake. And a lab you only solved after being told the answer doesn't count.

How it remembers your progress

Your status lives in docs/mastery.md, updated automatically at the end of every session. Each concept shows its rungs as four characters — ···· untouched, DA·· derived and applied, DABE complete — plus an XP total. You never need to touch that file yourself, but it's plain markdown, and its header explains the notation.

XP and the confirmed count move differently on purpose. XP measures work done; the count measures curriculum covered. Re-testing a shaky concept earns XP without changing the count, which is exactly the progress the old count-only readout made invisible.

A few tips

• Answer for real. Guessing to get past a question defeats the point — the whole repo is built around deriving things yourself, not recognizing the right answer when it's shown to you.
• It's fine to stop mid-lesson. No penalty, no timer.
• Mix modes. Lessons build understanding, quizzes are a fast check, scenarios show concepts working together, exams are the toughest self-check. None of them replaces the others.
• Once every concept is confirmed, /pmexpert will say so and point you at use_cases/ — applying what you know instead of studying more.

How this relates to /tutor and /pm-query

/pmexpert is the recommended default — it's the only command most learners need for the whole curriculum. Two narrower tools exist alongside it:

• /tutor <topic> — the same kind of teaching session, but for exactly one topic, with no curriculum sequencing or progress tracking. /pmexpert actually uses this same logic under the hood.
• /pm-query <question> — not a teaching tool at all. Give it a specific question (e.g. "what's the DV01 of a 5Y 5% bond at 4% yield?") and it runs the real code and gives you the number, cited.