This chapter contains a list of the most common errors in giving star-rate Check-outs. The list consists of violations of the important points given in the two previous chapters. Here are the errors:

1. Not knowing that Coaching of Theory means getting the student to define a number of words and give all the rules. The coach has to know the purpose of coaching of theory and why he does it. 

2. Not using spot-checking on the materials. 
The coach is supposed to use spot-check and demand 100% pass on them.

3. Not flunking the student immediately on any hesitation, confusion or communication lag. "Getting reasonable" and allowing the student to carry on with the Check-out is wrong. You want to establish a series of certainties in the student. That leads to honest wins and competent students. Allowing any confusions, uncertainties, or misunderstoods to remain in place defeats that.

4. Not asking the student to use the word in a sentence after he has defined it in his own words. One asks for the definition of the word and then have the student use the word in made-up sentences of his own. 

5. Not knowing that a dull student is stuck in the blank space right after the misunderstood and that a dull student is handled the same way you would handle a glib student. You find the misunderstood word and have it fully cleared with a dictionary, including derivation and made-up sentences. Then you have the student restudy the materials from the point in the materials where the misunderstood was found.

6. Not asking questions that demand an ability to apply the data. Sometimes the coach thinks, that if he asks a student to demonstrate he has asked him to apply the data. To demonstrate and apply is not the same thing. Examples of how to apply the data are usually answered by the student giving actual examples from life where the data are used correctly. This must never be neglected in a Check-out. 

7. Not sending a student back to re-study the materials when he flunks a Check-out. To just show the materials to the student and then carry on with the Check-out is incorrect. A variation of this is when a student was flunked on a word; the coach just has him look up the word and then carries on with the Check-out without having him restudy the materials. This stems from not knowing what happens when a student goes past a misunderstood word. 

When a student is flunked he is sent back to re-study the materials. The student has to get his misunderstoods found and cleared before re-studying the materials from the earliest misunderstood word found or from the beginning. It means full application of Study Technology. Tough standard Check-outs are the way to keep students winning and the technology working.

Practical Check-outs

There is a related phenomenon of faulty Check-outs. It applies mainly to Practical and drilling, but can also creep into Theory Check-outs:

Basically the coach, instructor, or supervisor can demand a level of perfection which is out-gradient for the student. In a previous chapter we had the definition of: 

Too Steep a Gradient: One is going ahead to the next step before mastering the previous one. This phenomenon applies especially to doingness, but also to understanding. For example in barn building the student could be taught all about laying the roof before mastering the basics of carpentry then the whole subject would be too confusing. This would be an example of too steep a gradient.

An instructor or coach demanding more than what the student is already expected to know is forcing him up on too steep a gradient. The coach or instructor may have valid standards for perfection but these have to be achieved by the student on a gradient. A student has to master the ability to stand on his two feet and keep his balance  before the coach demands that he can walk.

In other words, in any coaching and Check-outs, theory or practical, the coach has to be aware of what the student is supposed to master at the level he is at. Demanding anything above and beyond that level is incorrect and harmful to results.

It may add a lot of time to training, when:

(1) The student is not validated for applying correctly what he has learned already. The rule is: Validate the student's wins. If he does what he is supposed to have learned and applied it correctly this fact should be acknowledged and appreciated.

(2) The student is taught quickly and verbally a lot of data and actions which belong to a higher level of skill. This is due to the coach's "knows better", professional pride and, sometimes, professional arrogance, and, occasionally, malice.

Things are added all the time and out of sequence. The coach is demanding things the student has not yet been taught. Result: the student winds up in a ball of confusion like a cat getting into a ball of yarn. This is not instructing or coaching. It is simply forcing the student up a wrong gradient. This consumes time. It results in a mess.

Coaches, Instructors, and supervisors must teach, not out of their own expertise, but out of the course materials for the Level the student is being taught.

In theory Check-out and coaching this same error can creep in when the coach asks for applications not included in the materials or insists upon dictionaries that are much too complicated for the student's level of literacy.