Masters is 50+ and testing at the master's level carries a slightly lower passing average than testing at Adult or Standard (and you must designate which passing standard you wish to test to
When I took my ice dancing tests of the Hickory Hoedown ( " The Hick-Ho " ) and the Ten-Fox at the end of last summer, I was asked and had to specify that I was going to use the Masters dance tract. This was good that this provision for older adults was there in the USFS rules, but it is still unnerving and discouraging to adult and older adult skaters to hear comments from older USFS judges to the effect of, " I judge by one standard, the best standard, the only standard. One standard for everyone, that is the only way to judge, that is the way I judge ". Although the current rules state that Master's tests ( for adults 50+ ) are to be graded with an eaiser and lower threshold for passage, it just seams that many USFS judges, either by conscience or unconsciousness, do not subscribe to that provision, and judge the older adult with the same standard of younger adults, or even of teen-age skaters.
Why am I led to this conclusion ? Well, just to site one example of another older adult female skater at a rink that I sometimes practice on, she has taken her Master's
( adults 50+ ) Bronze freestyle test many times. She is a good skater and does her elements reasonably well, but is somewhat slow flowing over the ice, since she is in her upper 60's. Went she was given a " Retry " on her latest test, one older USFS judge wrote on the comment section of her test sheet, " Why don't you just skate for fun and recreation, instead of trying to pass the Bronze Freestyle test ? At your age, you probably will never be as good as, and as up to the standard, as is needed to pass a standard freestyle test ".
Real encouragement for a Masters ( adults 50+ ) ice skater and ice dancer from a USFS judge, isn't it ? However, wither the judge knows it or not, the comment has made the ice skater even more determined, and she has redoubled her efforts, to pass the Masters ( adult 50+ ) Bronze Freestyle test.