Ahoy. Tonight I just tested for orange sash. (I passed.) At my school the rank order is No rank-->white-->yellow-->orange for beginners, green-->blue-->purple for intermediate students, and finally red-->black for advanced.

Having just walked out of the kwoon, I can't stop wondering how our testing process might differ from other schools. Tonight I had to do the following:

calisthenics:
40 pushups
hold pushup position for 1 min on palms
hold pushup position for 1 min on fists
40 iron buffalos
40 monkey jacks
40 shaolin sit ups

(obviously these number increase as testing rank increases--yellow sash does 30 each, black sash test involves 100 each.)

It was at this point that one guy testing for yellow and another guy testing for green took the opportunity to throw up. I was proud that I did not have to join them at the bucket, although I certainly thought I was going to have to at one point.

Next, holding stances as low as possible for 1 minute each: horse, bow and arrow (left and right), tiger (l and r), golden rooster (l and r), cat (l and r), scissor stance (l and r) and horse again.

Next, the basic skills:
front instep kick, 10 lead leg, 10 trailing leg, each side
roundhouse kick, ditto
side kick, ditto
crescent kick, 10 each side, trailing leg only
all of above performed from fighting stance.
(The higher ranks had multiple other kicks to perform.)

10 each of corkscrew, sunfist, willowpalm, palm heel, hammerfist, ridge hand, reverse ridge hand.
10 each of high block, outside middle block, inside middle block, palm up block, yin-yang block, low palm block.
all of above done in horse stance. (my thighs are about to fall off.)

then, of couse, (drumroll please) the forms. At my level there are five empty-handed forms, and one weapon (nunchucks). So, all told I was there roughly two hours. The guy testing for red will be there until midnight, I am sure.

So, I'm tired and hurty. And I want to know if this is typical for a kung-fu school testing day. How do your rank tests work? Individual? Everybody on the same day? More than above? less? Based on your experience does my ability to perform the above place me at "advanced beginner" level by the standards of your school? Does your school even have ranks/tests?

I appologize if this is a topic that has recently come under discussion, I tried to search the forum archives, but I didn't find much along these lines. Oh, our style is Northern Shaolin. Probably should have mentioned that.