New Years resolutions slowly engaging

[Kinma]

1. Mental Multiplication… I was spending quite a bit of time with difference of squares and had gotten to 3 digits when I ran out of steam. I think I am going try focusing a little more time on just getting my 01-99 multiplication nailed this year. It is extremely handy and extends to much of the other mental manipulation. I will keep up the two digit difference of squares but till I really get comfortable in two digits stretching in larger numbers of calculations is not all that beneficial right now.

There has been a lot of content written during 2017 about this.

as an aside I think getting very fast with complements will help the mental calculation, I find I stumble here pretty regularily

I have written about how to automate calculating with complements using the soroban I think about half a year ago.
Long story short; once you automate calculating using the soroban, you kind of automatically start to use them.

3. Slide Rule… Occasional dabbling into estimation and logarithms… I know this is one of Kinma’s areas of interest. I will probably spend a little time this year becoming familiar

Indeed, I love it. Helps to quickly estimate answers to difficult questions.

Calculating logarithms by hand

→ My understanding is there are 15 kyus/levels of prescribed exams for Soroban. Can anyone point me at curriculum / testing standards. It would be nice to give myself some structure in practice.

I remember reading about the standards somewhere and I am currently unable to find it.

However; not exactly an answer to your question, but try this:

Soroban Exam - Home

https://www.abacusmathslearning.com/course/index.php?categoryid=2

Also; checkout this:

Soroban and flash anzan

Chinese short division

One of the best sites about the soroban is this:
http://webhome.idirect.com/~totton/abacus/pages.htm

Great to see you back here and, as always, ask questions and I will do my best to give my take on things.