Test or No Test

We are presented with a lot of material to learn at Jiu-Jitsu.

It takes about 15 months to cycle all the way through the curriculum. Currently, we are working through the first two levels of Blue Belt material. That means that we average about two new technique variants per class.

Let's say you learn something cool. Four weeks later somebody asks you about it. Since then you've “learned” dozens more. Just how well will you be able to remember that one? How well did you really learn it? How well will you recall it six months later?

The idea is that you pick up just a few techniques that become your own, and experience the vast majority without internalizing them the first time through.

Jiu-Jitsu is the long game. Over the years repetition will occur, and more will become internalized.

There is an alternate track where mastery is expected. You learn the same material in the same classes, but with the goal of taking extensive examination at each level. To make this possible requires a great deal of additional, self-directed practice.

Once you feel ready, you video record the examination drills for the 60 techniques (about 180 variants) of your current level. To make this do-able, the test is broken into 3 chunks for recording, each of which is about 15 minutes long. There are also 3 sparring sections that also have to be submitted. Do well enough and you pass the exam.

Passing doesn't really change your rank. All that happens is that one of your current rank stripes gets replaced with a slightly snazzier one from Gracie University.

What does change with all that preparation is that you really know that level's material.

This is good in itself, but there is a hidden benefit.

Take me, for example. I have completed the first-level Gracie University exam. We are working on level one and two in class. When a technique is level one, it is review for me. I do it, and enjoy it, and become better at it, but I already know it. As we receive both level-one and level-two techniques intermingled, I can focus more on the stuff that's new to me. As a result, I seem to be learning the level-two stuff better than those folks who have to try and absorb it at the same time as they are learning level one.

This is even true when it is somebody who has “done” the level-one material before. They have absorbed it at a superficial level, and pretty much have to re-learn it. They are only a little ahead of the total newbies. Putting myself through the exam prep and process is very different. I don't have to re-learn the old stuff at all.

This effect is all that is tempting me to do the level-two exam. In about six months, our school will be done the entire cycle, and starting again. The difference will be that instead of being just levels one and two, we will be adding level three.

It would be nice to go through without having to re-learn level one and two. I'd be able to focus on learning just level three.

Let's take a pair of hypothetical twins, both earning their Blue Belts on the exact same day. They join a class that is working through the first two levels, and that will be adding another each time the class goes all the way through the cycle.

Twin one, Mary, puts in the effort to follow the exam route, while twin two does not. She puts in extra study on top of what the class does. After each time through the 15-month cycle, Mary does the appropriate additional preparation for examination.

At cycles end, her brother Larry has retained about 25% of all the material he was presented with. At that time his sister is sitting at 100% of level one and 25% of level two.

Going through the cycle again, Larry becomes 50% at level one, 50% of level two, and 25% level three. Mary is able to focus more on the higher levels and already knows level one. She would end the period at 100% level one, maybe 60% level two, and 35% level three, but again she trains for mastery and the exam. Mary actually ends at 100% for both level one and level two, and 35% of level three. As she already knew part of level two from her last time through, she finds this exam easier than it was last time. This is good, as the exams are a bitch.

Again into the cycle. This time Larry ends up 75% level one, 75% level two, 50% level three, and 25% level four. Mary, again testing, ends up 100% for levels one, two and three, and is 35% level four.

Larry's total is 225, while Mary is at 335. Her Jiu-Jitsu is about half again as knowledgeable as her twin brother's is.

These figures are, of course, subject to subjective interpretation, but the implications are clear. The superior progress would be just as possible without the exams, but I can't imagine anybody doing so year after year without some kind of framework. The level exams provide a yardstick and a from of motivation.

Nothing magical about if, as she will have put in a lot more drill and study over the years.