What To Practice/Learn on an Analog Recording Console (Specifically an SSL G4000)

Hello all,

I'm currently interning at a recording studio (and aspiring to get that coveted promotion to assistant engineer), and the studio manager is letting me use the rooms/gear while they aren't booked (not for any tracking, just to learn and play around in).

He's told me that if I want to eventually be an assistant, I need to know the SSL G4000 inside and out, specifying that I should learn the patch bay like the back of my hand, learn how to use automation, and how to use the total recall.

I figure that, with my preferred style of learning, the best way for me to do this is to simulate actual sessions/scenarios that might take place at the studio, and work out how to realize them on the console.

I was wondering if anyone on here would have any recommendations on scenarios to practice/simulate that might not be immediately evident to a novice like me (who has only recorded on an analog desk probably a dozen times while I was in school). For example, one of the engineers told me that it's common to make headphone mixes by pulling off of the short fader, which is something that I wouldn't have thought of. Even any really out there, convoluted, complicated patching scenarios would be great too, just to help wrap my head around the signal flow of the SSL, and to think outside the box.

I figure I'll break up the scenarios into three categories: tracking, overdubbing, and mixing.

Also as a side bit, the SSL lives almost exclusively in mix mode.

Thanks in advance for any responses!