Each student is responsible for monitoring their own progress, counting the number of days they have practiced, and striving to reach the competency level required when performing the exercises according to the student’s rank/level during the exam.

In this organization, the students (upon fulfilling the minimum requirement for number of days of practice) are automatically qualified and are granted the right to apply for an examination, without any prior encouragement from the instructor.

The student qualified to apply for an exam must submit the appropriate Exam Application Form to the examiner, three keiko sessions before the exam date. Once the exam schedule is accepted by the examiner, this date will be considered as an “exam keiko”.

However, reaching the required number of days of practice and applying for examination does not automatically guarantee the promotion of the student to the next rank. The exam is not for formality only. It is a test. The student must bear the responsibility of training hard during the keiko so as to satisfy the competency level required when performing the exercises during the exam.

This organization must maintain a consistent set of technical criteria for the examiner to observe in order to determine that an exercise has been properly executed by the student during the exam:

• During the exam, the examiner will dictate the exercise to be performed, and then the student must continue to repeat that exercise until the examiner gives the order to stop. At this point, the examiner should be able to observe the sufficient number of repetitions, record the percentage of the correct versus the incorrect execution, and determine if the student has satisfactorily reached the competency level for that exercise.

• The student must demonstrate and be graded for all required exercises during the exam, regardless if the student has demonstrated sufficient competency for one of the exercises or not. This is to ensure the student has been thoroughly assessed on all relevant exercises and a full report can be provided to the student afterwards.

• The student is required to achieve a passing mark on all types of exercises demonstrated during the exam in order to pass the exam and be promoted to the next rank level. If the student did not achieve a passing percentage on any one of the required exercises, the student is considered failed and is subject to reassessment procedure as per the provisions of paragraph 11 of this section, if he/she wishes to take the exam again.

• The instructor must provide the student with a written copy of the exam results and must provide explanation for any observed incorrect execution particularly in case the student did not pass the exam. This is in order for the students to rectify the errors by focusing his/her training on the deficient exercises during the reassessment period as detailed in paragraph 11 of this section.

This organization must normalize failing of the students during the exam if the students do not meet the technical criteria, in order to:

• maintain the technical standards of the organization,

• impress on the student the value of character through acceptance of failure and continuous pursuit of improvement in spite of the said failure, 

• and to avoid corruption among the instructors and students.

The students should graciously accept the failure and must accept it as a regular (even vital) part of Aikido training. The students are not required to pay any exam fee, so failure during the exam should not be an issue at all.

The examination is always free. In the event that the promotion certificate becomes payable, the students will only be required to pay for the promotion certificate if the student has passed the exam.

To avoid disrupting the training program of all other students not taking the exam, all other non-examinee students present during the exam keiko will simulate taking the exam in the form of a quiz by performing the exercises relevant to their rank, utilizing the examinee as their uke (receiver of the technique). This “quiz” will take place during the early stage of the exam keiko before the actual exam of the examinee. This is to introduce fatigue to the examinee to see if the examinee can properly execute the exercises even when tired. When the time comes for the examinee to demonstrate the exercises for the exam, those students present not taking the exam will reciprocate the role of uke for the examinee.

All students taking the examination must come in reasonably clean and well-kept keikogi. Coming to the exam in dirty keikogi will result to automatic failure.

In case of failure to pass an exam, the student is recommended for reassessment, and must follow the following guidelines:

• The student will be required to attend 3 remedial keiko before the reassessment exam can be scheduled.

• The student must retrieve a Reassessment Form, which includes details of the examination results, reasons for reassessment, and a remedial keiko attendance table.

• The Reassessment Form attendance table will be signed by the Instructor at each end of a remedial keiko. 

• The Reassessment Form is under the student's safekeeping until the day of the reassessment. The completed reassessment form will be collected at the date of the reassessment exam.

• It is highly recommended to complete the 3 remedial keiko within 3 consecutive keiko days, to ensure retention of corrections gathered during the remedial keiko.

• Nevertheless, the Reassessment Form is valid only within 6 consecutive keiko days from the previous examination date.  This will be considered as the student's Reassessment Period.

• If the student is unable to attend the required 3 remedial keiko at the end of the Reassessment Period but still wishes to reschedule an exam, the student will be required to submit a new Exam Application Form as per paragraph 3 provisions of this Section.

After every successful passing of a kyu grade examination, Aikido Iloilo will award to student the applicable Kyu Grade Promotion Certificates, depending on the student's membership status (see By-Laws Chapter 3 for definition): Aikido Iloilo issues the following certificates:

For Kenshūsei MEMBERS:

For Regular (non-Kenshūsei) MEMBERS:

Aikido Iloilo issues the applicable kyu grade certificates to Aikido Iloilo MEMBERS only. Non-members (students who are joining Aikido Iloilo keiko as GUESTS) must refer to their parent organizations' certification process.

Aikido Iloilo is authorized to issue up to First Kyu (rank before black belt) Certificates only. A legitimate Yudansha (black belt) Certificate is issued only by the Aikikai Foundation (our parent organization in Japan) after completion of the applicable Yudansha Exam conducted by either the Aikikai Foundation accredited organization in the country (in our case, the Aikido Philipines, Inc.), or by an Aikikai Shihan during their annual visits/seminars in the Philippines.

Any student coming from other organization who wishes to join and continue their kyu grade training/certification with Aikido Iloilo must follow the following procedure:

Once all provided applicable documents are verified, and the applicable validation process satisfied, the transfer student may assume the rank received from previous Kai/Dojo and begin his/her training in accordance to the Aikido Iloilo Grading System as stipulated in this Chapter.