The one modern compound everyone needs to know: 肄业 — 'to have studied at a school WITHOUT graduating'. It's a formal status category on Chinese resumes and academic records, ranking below 毕业 (graduated). Classical compounds include 讲肄 (study and recite) and 肄兵 (drill troops).
mistakes
Don't confuse 肄业 (incomplete studies) with 毕业 (graduated) or 结业 (completed a non-degree course). On official forms picking the wrong one mis-states your academic credentials.
register
Formal / written. Modern speech uses 学习 or 训练 for the practice senses; 肄业 is the surviving bureaucratic term.
Components
ideograph
肄yì
to practice; to learn
Compound graph: a knife-and-brush element on the left + 聿 (writing brush) on the right. Together they evoke repeated cutting and writing — the rote drilling that ancient schoolboys went through. Indexed under Kangxi #129 聿, aligning it in the radical-browse view with 肆 and 肃.
Filed under radical 聿 (yù) by convention. 聿 is not a separate component in 肄, so no strokes are highlighted.
