Actions per minute

Actions per minute - or APM - is a method of measuring a player's speed during the game.

Concept
Because in StarCraft there is very little idle-time during a game where a player is inactive, it is often advantageous to be able to perform actions faster than your opponent(s). Some strategies even focus on increasing the amount of things your opponent must do (usually by increasing the things he needs to respond to by attacking in multiple spots simultaneously).

Actions include selecting a unit/building, ordering it (attack, move, patrol, gather, repair, morph, build, warp, stop, hold position, cast spells, burrow, etc.), training a unit, etc. For example, selecting a Hatchery, selecting the Larvae (Zerg Hatcheries have a command to select all larvae of the building), and training 3 Hydralisks constitutes 3 actions.

APM ranges
While a player's APM does not specify the skill level of that player, it can give a good general idea. How important APM actually is to one's game is disputed, but most people will agree that, generally:
 * Less than 60 APM &mdash; relatively inexperienced
 * 60-100 &mdash; A casual gamer
 * 100-200 &mdash; An amateur gamer
 * 200 or more &mdash; A semi-professional or pro gamer