Three Rules for Testing

I've gone on and on about how difficult the Gracie exams are, but that could be managed with proper preparation.

It's funny how little people understand about how to attack something like that.

I am a retired school teacher, and also a long-time Karate instructor. All this essay does is to apply proven educational technique to the difficult process of the Gracie's exams. What would be the best way to teach for the test?

So let's say a team of people want to do the first exam, called BBS1. Let's look at them getting ready for the first of the three technical exam video recordings.

The test preparation group's first rule should be that whenever possible candidates work with the same partner. It should be the person that they plan on testing with. This might not always be possible, but it should certainly be the goal. In a way, the test is like a complicated dance, and sticking to one partner would be best. No surprises that way.

So they go over the list of technique that must be demonstrated. This is broken into small groupings of about 3 to 5 related variants. They work together to make sure everybody knows what the test expectations are.

The very first set of related techniques is pretty short. It consists of;

---Super Hooks

-----1 Full Hips

-----2 Tuck and Shoot

-----3 High Hooks

-----4 Emergency Hooks.

Let's say “Bill” knows the techniques well, but needs to see the precise testing sequence shown to him. He then tries to do it himself, and makes a mistake. The error is explained to him, as is the correction. Keeps trying, and is fully successful on try #4. He announces, “got it,” and moves on to the next sequence.

This is exactly the wrong thing to do. Bill has just practised the test material four times. Our bodies and minds learn through repetition, but they only learn what actually gets repeated. Bill practised correctly only once, and wrong three times. It's like a baseball player learning to hit home runs. He won't improve by trying until he smacks one, and then goes for lunch. He needs to hit the ball correctly over and over.

What should happen after Bill gets his successful attempt on try #4 is that he should continue to drill the technique sequence again correctly for a half a dozen more repetitions, exactly in the fashion that he intends to do while testing. This would take under five minutes and would be incredibly valuable later.

This should be the test preparation group's second rule; repeat the material correctly.

So anyhow, Bill made it through the first sequence and starts on the next. He goes step by step through all 16 sequences. Could he then perform the exam successfully? Maybe, but I seriously doubt it. Probably, he and a partner will then do a few run throughs of the entire exam. This might help a bit.

Keep in mind that during a real test recording, any serious error will cause the attempt to abort. It is erased, and everything is reset to the beginning. It would make sense to try to be the most comfortable and competent with the last material to be performed. A mistake on the very first move is a cause for laughter, and the loss of a few seconds of effort. An error on the last move is not funny at all, and 15 minutes of intense effort gets wasted.

Here's how I would structure the test preparation for students who already know the material well. The test would be divided in to manageable chunks, of let's say two sequences each. Unlike Bill's method, “Michael” and his partner start at the end of the test, rather than the beginning.

They go over these final 6 moves and variants just like Bill did. However, once achieving success, Michael and his partner continue training until they are able to perform it all flawlessly for a set number of repetitions in a row, let's say three. Any mistake at all, and they have to do it three more times. They are not blowing through the repetitions. Each must be done as focused practice.

Once successful, they now move on to the second to last test set of 7 moves. They do it just like they did the other. When they finally make it through the the last of their three flawless repetitions, they do not stop, but rather continue on into the 6 moves of the sequence set they mastered earlier. If they screw up in this, they keep repeating all 13 of the movements until they get a perfect run through.

They then move to the third set of movements, get them right three times in a row, and then carry on through all of the material done earlier. If they can't make it through all of this, they keep repeating it until they can. At this point they are effectively drilling more than the entire final third of the exam.

They continue through the test towards the beginning.

This way even the bare minimum number of repetitions that a team will go over the early part of the test will be three times, while they will have done the final material ten times. As they will have made many mistakes along the way the actual total will be much, much higher.

Why do it this way? As they work through the actual exam and recording, they will be constantly moving into material with which they are more familiar. The test will be getting easier as they go along. For most people this is not true. As fatigue sets in it becomes harder and harder.

This should be the test preparation group's third rule; drill the exam from the end to the beginning.

So three rules; train and test as partners, keep training each sequence after mastery is achieved, work from the back of the test to the front.

So are there any benefits beyond the actual testing procedure? I certainly think so.

I stated earlier that the first part of the exam might get repeated only 3 times, and the ending 10, but these are minimums. Likely the first part will have 5 or 6 repetitions and the end more like 20. If the test can be considered more practise, and if success takes three tries, that would add 3 more repetitions to the start of the early repetition count, and 1 more to the end.

That's a lot of drill in addition to regular training. The end result will be an understanding of the material deep in the student's mind, bones, and muscles. In this way the exam actually becomes a teaching tool, and a powerful one at that.

Right now we have Scott, Cosme and Ryan who want to do the BBS1 exam as soon as possible, and Robert and Elizabeth who are starting to display interest.

How much would it take to get them all ready in a focused, 3-rule manner?

I have crunched the numbers, and if an intense atmosphere can be maintained, I would say that a one-hour session should see the group completing the last half of the exam material easily. A second hour should see half of the remainder done, or more if the group has learns as well as I think they will. They might have finished it all.

I think as a group they need to commit to 3 one-hour sessions. The test camera should be present at all times, and if there is time anywhere in there, testing should begin.

If all goes very well, the final hour will be for tests. If not, it will all be used for test preparation. In an hour, two people should produce successful recordings.

Either way, they will be ready for their first video, even if none can be recorded in those three hours. Unfortunately, there would still be two technical test videos to prepare for.