Originally Posted by ColinsMum
I haven't read the research

Ha, I found the study! http://www.ioe.ac.uk/Study_Departments/PHD_dev_basic_calculation.pdf

I went looking because I wondered how they determined that the kids didn't know their math facts, particularly when they concluded that *none* of the 259 kids in the sample knew all the addition / subtraction facts by Year 3 or 4. Is that analogous to US 3rd-4th grade (so 8-9yos), or US 2nd-3rd grade (7-8yos)?

The paper itself is not particularly enlightening, but the conclusions I draw from it are:
- The skills needed to be good at math class are not identical to the skills needed to be good at timed drill
- Kids are imperfect.