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Today, my opinion of rank is that it's a great way of keeping new, athletically talented students with over-blown egos from assuming they are the best aikidoka around. They might assume it, but they still (theoretically) need to stick it out and pass the milestones.
As for cramming, it's not nescessarily such a bad thing, if you're already ready to test. Of course you can't learn all those techniques in the last 3 weeks before the test, but if you already have the techniques, it helps to go over them again and again until you are doing them as well as you possibly can. Also, the people I know who have had good tests have really worked hard on them for a couple of months beforehand, and also worked on their stamina and endurance for the test.
--Amelia
Congratulations, Rachel, on your promotion!
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