Out of interest and because I enjoyed reading it, this translation of Yasuo Kobayashi Shihan's blog is relevant to the whole testing discussion, both in terms of how he sees tests and also the failure rate ( particularly note the yondans).
http://www3.cnet-ta.ne.jp/c/coby/aik...dojo/3dan.html
The translation is by Ekoba (
http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/member.php?u=12375 another Kobayashi dojos student but no relation!) and very welcome for us non-Japanese speakers & readers.