The 1-3 and 2-5 is for me, though should have been check boxes. The first time I "learned" Perl falls in the 2-5 category. The second time I began to learn Perl was about 9 months ago when I stumbled across the Monastery and got my coding butt kicked. And I'm thinking that within that 1-3 year range I'll have a handle on real Perl coding. But just when I think I'm getting it, a helpful monk reminds me I have a ways to go. As meryln points out, I'm one of the lucky ones.