London's taxi drivers spend years memorising 25,000 streets — and it changes their brains. This is the true story of how experts are made, and of the famous 10,000-hour rule that turned out to be only part of the story.
Ten words and phrases in four activities. Say your answer out loud before you reveal it.
Three words: talent · to master · deliberate. Say the right one, then reveal.
Read each part. Then answer the quick questions from memory before you check. Then discuss the question.
If you want to drive one of London's famous black cabs, you must first pass one of the hardest memory tests in the world. It is called the Knowledge. Trainees must learn the layout of about 25,000 streets within six miles of Charing Cross station in central London — plus the locations of thousands of places: hotels, hospitals, theatres, restaurants. It usually takes three to four years, and ends with a series of tough exams, called "appearances".
Scientists at University College London, led by the neuroscientist Eleanor Maguire, became interested in the drivers' brains. In earlier studies, they had found that experienced London taxi drivers had more grey matter in the back part of the hippocampus — an area of the brain that is important for memory and finding your way — than other people. But there was a problem. Maybe people with that kind of brain simply became taxi drivers. Was it nature, or training?
So Maguire and her colleague Katherine Woollett followed 79 men who were just starting the Knowledge, plus 31 men of similar age who weren't, as a comparison group. They scanned their brains and tested their memories at the start, and again three to four years later. At the start, there were no differences between the groups.
By the end, only 39 of the trainees had qualified — a normal result, since only about half of trainees ever do. In the men who qualified, the back part of the hippocampus had grown. In the trainees who had failed or given up, and in the comparison group, it hadn't changed. The brain had been changed by the training. But there was a price: the qualified drivers were better at London-based memory tests, but worse than the others at remembering certain kinds of new visual information.
1. What do trainees have to learn for the Knowledge, and how long does it take?
2. How did the study show that the training changed the brain, rather than the brain choosing the job?
1. About 25,000 streets within six miles of Charing Cross, and thousands of places. It usually takes three to four years.
2. The researchers tested the trainees before and after training. At the start there were no differences. Only the men who qualified showed growth in the hippocampus.
Years before the taxi study, another piece of research had made practice famous. In a paper published in 1993, the psychologist Anders Ericsson and two colleagues, Ralf Krampe and Clemens Tesch-Römer, described their study of young violinists at the Music Academy of West Berlin. The professors there helped to choose three groups of ten: the best violinists, who had the potential for careers as international soloists; good violinists; and students who were training to become music teachers.
The researchers asked the musicians to estimate how much they had practised alone at every age since they had started. The results were very clear. By the age of 18, the best violinists had practised on average about 7,400 hours. The good violinists had practised about 5,300 hours, and the future teachers about 3,400. By 20, the best group had passed 10,000 hours.
Ericsson concluded that the key was not just practice, but deliberate practice: hard, focused work designed to overcome your weaknesses, with careful attention to feedback. It requires effort, they wrote, and it is not enjoyable in itself. By 2014, the paper had been cited more than 4,200 times.
Then, in 2008, the writer Malcolm Gladwell discussed this research in his popular book Outliers, and gave the idea a catchy name: the 10,000-hour rule — the idea that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert. The phrase became famous far beyond psychology.
1. How did the three groups of violinists differ in practice by the age of 18?
2. What is "deliberate practice"?
1. The best had practised about 7,400 hours, the good about 5,300, and the future teachers about 3,400.
2. Hard, focused work designed to overcome your weaknesses, with attention to feedback — not just repeating what you can already do or playing for fun.
If practice is the main reason some people are better than others, scientists should be able to see it in the numbers. In 2014, three psychologists — Brooke Macnamara, David Hambrick and Frederick Oswald — checked. They combined the results of 88 studies with more than 11,000 people, from chess players to musicians, athletes, students and professionals.
Practice mattered — but much less than the rule suggests. Deliberate practice explained about 26 percent of the differences in performance in games like chess, 21 percent in music, and 18 percent in sports. In education it explained just 4 percent. And in professions — the studies included computer programmers, military pilots, football referees and insurance salespeople — it explained less than 1 percent. In other words, most of the difference between people came from other things.
What other things? The researchers suggested several possibilities, such as the age at which people start and general abilities like intelligence and working memory — the ability to hold information in your mind while you use it. They also found that practice mattered more for very predictable activities, like running, than for unpredictable ones, like dealing with an emergency in a plane.
And in 2019, Macnamara and a colleague, Megha Maitra, repeated the Berlin violin study itself. Practice still mattered — the effect was substantial — but it was considerably smaller than in the original, and the amount of practice did not line up neatly with each skill level as it had in 1993. The message of both studies: practice is important. It just isn't the whole story.
1. How much of the difference in performance did practice explain in games, music, sports, education and professions?
2. What did the 2019 repeat of the violin study find?
1. About 26% in games, 21% in music, 18% in sports, 4% in education and less than 1% in professions.
2. Practice still mattered, but the effect was considerably smaller than in the original, and the amount of practice did not line up neatly with each skill level.
The story is all about ability — what the drivers could remember, what the violinists were able to do, what practice can and can't explain.
Use can, could, be able to or manage to in the correct form. More than one answer may be possible.
1. Most people remember 25,000 streets. It's too many.
2. After three and a half years, he finally pass his last appearance.
3. When she was ten, she play pieces that adults found difficult.
4. If you practise every day, you play it by the summer.
1. can't 2. was able to / managed to 3. could / was able to 4. will be able to
2 is one success after difficulty, so not could. 4 is the future, so not can.
Complete each sentence about yourself.
1. Something you could do as a child but can't do now:
2. Something difficult you managed to do last year:
3. Something you'd like to be able to do in five years:
1. When I was a child, I could do the splits, but I can't now.
2. Last year I managed to finish a half marathon. / …I was able to get a promotion.
3. In five years, I'd like to be able to give a presentation in English without notes.
Check: could for general past ability, managed to / was able to for one success, be able to after would like to.
You'll use it again in the Speak tab — Task C is about your own path to expertise.
The studies in this story are real, and the numbers come from the researchers who did them. Together, they give a more complicated — and more honest — answer to the question how are experts made?
Speak against the clock — and talk about ability where it fits: can · could · was able to · managed to · will be able to.
Retell the story in your own words. Use these steps: the Knowledge and its 25,000 streets → the drivers' brains → nature or training? → 79 trainees, before and after → 39 qualified → the hippocampus grew → the price → the Berlin violinists → 7,400 / 5,300 / 3,400 hours → deliberate practice → Gladwell's rule → 88 studies → 26% to less than 1% → the 2019 repeat.
Use at least four ability structures and five key words (expert, training, qualify, talent, master, deliberate, plastic, explain, practice makes perfect, the back of your hand).
First argue FOR: think about the taxi drivers' brains and the Berlin violinists. Then argue AGAINST: think about the 2014 numbers, the 2019 repeat, talent and starting age. Finally, say what you really think — and whether the answer is different for music, sport and business.
Choose one thing you are good at — at work or outside it. Describe how you got there: what you could do at the start, a moment when you managed to do something difficult, and what you can do now. Then say what you'd like to be able to do next, and what kind of deliberate practice would help.
Or choose one of these: