I don't think it's a matter of being "afraid" to fail a student. In my instructors' school it's a way for them to see who is, in fact, ready to test in the first place, along with day-to-day observation. Since there's over 100 students it makes it easier when there's a time set aside to observe the people who already have the required training hours accumulated to see how they do with their patterns, sparring, etc. If you don't have the required hours you don't pre-test in the first place. If you don't have a reasonable performance at the pre-test you don't test. If you don't pass the test you redo the areas you failed at a later date. I have personally seen many people have to retest, especially when it came to testing for I dan. That doesn't seem like being afraid to fail someone to me Speaking from personal experience I can honestly say I'm much more afraid of failing when I test in front of my instructor than he is afraid of failing me. Pax, Chris
The pre-tests and re-tests are something we use as well. With all the areas that we test our Black Belt candidates in and the high standard we expect from them, this makes it far more manageable. We consider the different sections of their black belt exam more akin to a decathalon and they are graded along the section of the curriculum that they are being tested on. For example, we expect their submission grappling to be graded along the standards that a BJJ student would be in their no-gi work. Their boxing or Muay Thai are graded based on the standards of those sports, their TKD along TKD standards, ect. If they have an injury or just simply mess up on part of a section (but normally are that good), they have until the time of all the re-tests being finished to sharpen it up and demonstrate it to level. As far as the pre-test is concerned, this is where they test in front on their own instructors and show us that they are ready to take the test in front of a testing board of instructors, masters and GM's in out assn. We just tested 35 students for Jr. BB, 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree last month. There are some who are cut in the pre-test and the master-level instructors (5th and up) have to have 2 out of 3 agree that they are ready to test. There were 4 that I voted to cut and was outvoted on. In reality, they really turned out to be "gamers" that when the pressure was on, they really shined. If we had not done the pre-test and I had just went off observing them in training, I would have simply cut them from this year's test. If it had been my sole decision, I would have cut them. The truth was that they WERE able to rise to the occasion and I would not have had them reach their full potential. Also, the pre-test is where I can go "old school" on them on their conditioning and really push them past any of the limits that they previously thought that they had. The association test has very high and hard standards, but as their instructor who has worked with them for years and especially taken through the 16 week prep period, I know where to really push them and just how far to really bring out their best.
