Testing at US Wushu Academy

Testing at US Wushu Academy Every month a select group USWA students appear before the school's testing board to demonstrate their readiness to exchange their belts for new ones, symbolizing the next level of expertise. Following the concept instituted by the Beijing Wushu Team, Academy students first earn their belt stripes and, once the training coach makes the determination that individual students are qualified for testing, they are then recommended to the board. The school does not conduct block examinations; instead, each student is tested according to his or her particular skill level. As the Academy continues to grow, the number of instructors and judges is expected to increase in the near future as well, and they will play a more active role in testing. Coach Pei will continue to attend the examination ceremonies, but he probably will not directly take part in judging students. The goal is to encourage other instructors to become involved in the process, place greater responsibilities on senior students, and ensure continuity in the school. Instructors will be held accountable for the student's preparedness to be tested and her or his ability to meet the challenge successfully. A student fails to pass the examination when he or she does not meet the scoring criteriaTesting at US Wushu Academy corresponding to the rank and skill necessary to advance to the next level. The higher the rank, the higher the score that the student is expected to attain. Moreover, the test score should be indicative of the student's relative competitiveness, in that it also reflects the score he or she is likely to receive in the course of a competition. In other words, if a student has scored 8.5 in a school test and knows that a rival competitor has a 9.0 score, it is clear that skills will have to be improved significantly before he or she is ready to engage in a competition. The successful student will demonstrate skill in performing the form, proper attitude, and familiarity with the examination protocol. The number of students tested every month varies, but rarely exceeds 20, and the time scheduled for the entire group does not go beyond two and one half hours. Unlike some schools, US Wushu Academy does not have fixed testing schedules for students because progress in skills depends on personal abilities and class attendance frequency. Classes at the Academy cannot be compared with regular school classes where students are expected to be present every day; the US Wushu Academy student comes whenever he or she has time for training. Moreover, testing only when the coach is confident that the student is prepared to pass the test successfully is financially more advantageous to the student, who is spared from incurring testing fee expenses three or four times a year. The Academy has a flat fee for all examinations and does not follow the practice in some schools, where costs increase as students advance to more senior skill levels. The youngest students to be tested at the USWA are five year olds who undergo the same procedures and protocols as adult students. However, it is the responsibility of the instructor to ensure that the child is ready, qualified, and that he or she will pass successfully. For example, if the passing requirement for white belt is a score of 5.0, the instructor must be confident that the student is at least at the level of 5.5, so that when performing before the testing board, he or she will do so with a margin for error that should help him or her make the passing grade. Junior Taijiquan and Wushu students will be tested by senior US Wushu Academy black belt instructors certified by the Academy, who will be applying exactly the same judging criteria that are used by the International Wushu Federation. Two tiers of judges will be formed-judges and chief judges-each group having different responsibilities and required to look at different aspects of the student's performance.