Hey Pokerdad,
Sorry I’ve been tardy with my responses. You just ask such good questions that I can’t do it justice by writing a short dinky little response. I’m writing a detailed explanation of the Dan level system on my website and I’ll update you when I’m done.
I’m currently getting ready for a Soroban contest in march (I’m entering this time) so i’ll post my preparation drills as a guide to what might work for you.
I’ll also make a post about the curriculum I use to teach Soroban. The stages of development and landmarks that I look for before moving on (also another post, see really great questions :))
Finally about the mechanical Soroban vs non mechanical. I personally don’t allow students to use a “onetouch” (mechanical) soroban until they get into the advanced level. It’s partially a motivational decision (students feel like they earned a “onetouch” soroban and will work to get it) and partially to prevent students from messing themselves up (many kids accidentally erase their answers).
part of the reason you might be having difficulty resetting your soroban without the button is because you might have a “cheap” Soroban. I don’t know exactly what you have, so I can’t say for certain. But a lot of the lower-end Soroban’s have beads that move erratically due to a combination of the weight of the beads, material they’re made from and distance that the bead must/can move. To give you an idea of what I would consider Low-end: in my classes I use a Soroban that costs about $100 without the button. That’s not a marked up price, it’s almost at cost when we import them from Japan.
It’s not to say it’s impossible to learn Soroban without good equipment, but I believe that equipment should be “good enough” not to get in the way of learning. For me “good enough” is this quality of Soroban, any lower and I wouldn’t be able to use it correctly.
Please look forward to my posts.
Tom
