1. You know it. Self-explanatory. 2. You know you know it. This means you didn’t guess or get lucky, or answer with a question mark in your voice. 3. You know it quickly, independently and efficiently. - Quickly means you have this skill ready, with no playing around in order to figure it out. While it is an invaluable skill to be able to figure out a math problem, what we’re going for with our basic skill list is FLUENCY, meaning you’re past the figuring it out phase and your ability is more automatic. A very simple example of this would be: for the basic subtraction problem 11-9, figuring it out would mean counting up from 9 to 11 (either on your fingers or in your head) to get 2. Automaticity, on the other hand, would mean looking at 11-9 and knowing the answer is 2, as if it were a sight word. The processing speed is so fast that there may as well be no processing involved. It’s that automatic. At every new level of math, there is a whole new layer of skills that we want at this ‘automatic’ level, freeing the brain up to do it’s ‘figuring out’ with the next level. - Independently means with ZERO help, no reminders & no hints. - Efficiently. An example of doing a skill the most efficient way is simplifying fractions before multiplying them, rather than multiplying first, then simplifying. 4. You know it cold. Three months can go by without you actively practicing it, and you STILL know it. This is perhaps the most important criteria, and often the most overlooked.
