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Isn't the whole problem the very nature of the exam? Isn't the exam just so totally out of place with Budo that no matter what you do you can never address all of these various subversions and excesses of the Way? That is to say, or to suggest, that the use of exams as a means of determining proficiency of an art actually leads to a predetermination of said art being totally killed. The deshi who makes it through such a system and remains true to Budo is actually the anomaly of such a system -- they are the exception to the rule. The deshi that "crams" and/or has any of the mentality that underlies the will and capacity to cram is, in my opinion, not the wandering sheep that has gone astray but the end result of a institutional practice that is totally misapplied and misplaced.
It is curious that we cannot let go of the exam -- how in even light of it ongoing failure to remain consistent with its own agenda and purpose we have done little to nothing to modify it, such that it might be better applied and/or better able to address the subversions and excesses that are its inevitable end results. We seem willing to only shift things around - settling for postponement instead of solution.
dmv
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