When I first was teaching D&D 5e to my group, one of my friends (he mostly had experience with 2e and OSR) kept getting confused every time I asked for a saving throw, because he believed he hadn't written down those stats yet. I realized that he was expecting special saving throw names that were modified by the 6 abilities (rather than using the 6 abilities themselves), because I did not specify clearly enough the new changes to saving throws.
I want to avoid this problem (of confusing older edition concepts with 5e ones that appear/sound superficially similar) the next time I explain the game to a mixed group of people (they will have played with 2e, 3.x, or 4e), without boring them to death by going over every single detail, especially for aspects of the game they already know.
Assuming players will default to knowledge based on previous editions, where applicable (such as "Saving Throws"), unless they have been told how 5e really handles it:
How can I do this better next time? What strategies have you found to be successful?
Best Answer
Make a Quicksheet
You don't need the full rules, just the ones you use a lot. A short, 1-2 front & back sheet of paper with the important references. The value of this isn't just reference, it's because it's a thing for the players to look and fiddle with while they're playing - sometimes you need constant exposure to get things through. But it also means that whenever it comes up, you can point to the spot on the Quicksheet and go, "And here, we can see this rule works like X" to get it ingrained in their minds where to look.
Walk through the steps until things click
"Make an Intelligence Save against DC 14."
"I can't find it on my sheet."
(grabs a sample character sheet) "Ok, Saving throws are adding your Intelligence modifier (points on sheet) and your Proficiency bonus (points on sheet) and if you meet or beat a 14, you succeed."
You'll need to do this a lot. It's useful for new players in general, but they pick it up quicker because they're not defaulting to ingrained habits from before.
The other value is that other players will see this and it slowly absorbs for them, as well.