Originally Posted by phunk

^^^ absolutely correct. skipping gears is greater wear on the synchros, especially big skips like 2nd or 3rd to 6th... 5th and 6th gear are probably just single brass synchros and are not going to tolerate it long before getting hard to shift into or crunching/scratching in... especially if you try to shift it at a normal shift speed versus doing it slow and letting the synchros slow it down and the rpms fall closer to match.