I hate to repeat my question in a second post, but I'm not getting this. I have an individual who seems to have mastered three skills, but hasn't gotten a totem. How close do the blue bars have to be to the end for the person to get a totem? I've been working on this one villager and others seem to have gotten many totems. I'm getting frustrated. Please help.

Does it say he's a master in each of the three or are you saying he's a master since his bar is high?

You have to make sure that it says he's a master in all three,well actually by the time you get the third master you should get your totem.

This will happen even if you are no logged into the game and/ or that tribe if you have multiple tribes going.

Well, he was able to help the two other builders open the crate and his bar for research is just as high. Is there some other way to tell?

Set his preferences to each skill he seems to have mastered, and then see if he's truly a Master or no. Sometimes it's really difficult to tell just by looking at the bars, unless you actually see his prefix become Master.

The spot at which a villager becomes a master is partway between 2 bars. So you wont see a change in the length of the bar when they actually get to it. They are adept at the beginning of that bar segment and masters before they go to the next one. IF that makes sense. But that is how it works.