I think that the higher up your level goes, the more you should be able to actually see your progress. Here's some examples:
Level 1 destruction: flamethrower: a weak flame that doesn't have a lot of range and almost sputters out of your hand.
Level 100 destruction: flamethrower: a giant flame maybe colored blue for awesomeness is just shooting out
Level 1 athletics: running: basically the running from skyrim where it's a light jog.
Level 50 athletics: running: basically it looks like the sprint in skyrim with much increased speed
Level 100 athletics:running: your character is in a full sprint but it looks effortless like a ninja.
So basically there's 1-49 weak 50-89 medium 90-100 master. So you actually eel a difference and see your character change the way he does things because its so easy to him. Like with a whole new animation. Lol I could sound like a total idiot for this so if I do, call me on it.