It is true that the MCAS is un-timed. And I agree that the "mad minute" style of math-facts sheets can be counter-productive for some kids.
What they're aiming for with the race-style sheets is to create a situation that requires the kids to recall rather than re-calculate the basic facts. Because if you have to figure out, rather than remember, what 7x6 is later on when you're doing long division or simplifying equations in algebra or some such, it's going to make extra work and introduce extra sources of error. There are certainly other ways to encourage memorization though.
(I say this as someone who didn't have 7x6 absolutely down pat until sometime in high school, and more than once had to rederive the quadratic formula during a test rather than just using it like she was supposed to)
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What they're aiming for with the race-style sheets is to create a situation that requires the kids to recall rather than re-calculate the basic facts. Because if you have to figure out, rather than remember, what 7x6 is later on when you're doing long division or simplifying equations in algebra or some such, it's going to make extra work and introduce extra sources of error. There are certainly other ways to encourage memorization though.
(I say this as someone who didn't have 7x6 absolutely down pat until sometime in high school, and more than once had to rederive the quadratic formula during a test rather than just using it like she was supposed to)