These “characteristics” refer to three aspects of the Central Limit Theorem: understanding that the mean of the sampling distribution is equal to the population mean, that the shape of the sampling distribution becomes more normal as the sample size increases, and that the variability in the sample means decreases as the sample size increases. A student who understands only one or two characteristics might state only that large samples lead to more normal-looking sampling distributions, or that larger samples lead to narrower sampling distributions.