testing is this the norm

falen · October 20, 2011, 10:28:28 AM

dd is preparing for the first test. I looked at ALL the neighborhood rinks within 1 hour drive. They are ALL during school time/days. Do you guys just hold off until the summer?

FigureSpins · October 20, 2011, 10:40:22 AM

Our club holds test sessions on Sunday mornings throughout the year.

The Clubs I tested at in NJ had weekday evening or Sunday evening test sessions, but they used their Club Ice time for testing.

Check the school calendar. Maybe one of the test sessions falls on a day off or half-day?

Skittl1321 · October 20, 2011, 11:23:35 AM

Clubs around here seem to offer either 1 or 2 test sessions a year. Most of the ones who do 1 a year have them on Saturday.

If clubs hold them in conjunction with competitions (because they are flying judges in) they are often on Friday morning, and the competition is Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday.

Kids are pulled out of school for the tests, and adults have to take vacation from work.

icedancer · October 20, 2011, 12:14:23 PM

We have both - it really depends on when the rink will give up the ice time that is often scheduled for hockey. I prefer the weekend test sessions but realized just now that they NEVER fall on a Saturday.

Kids are often pulled out of school but testing also starts very early so the judges can come in before they go to work.

A lot of the kids are home-schooled here also which I guess means more free time during the day (but is an unrealistic expectation for many parents/families/skaters and judges) -

I've noticed that our test sessions are MUCH smaller lately - 2 hours - don't know if it's because we have fewer skaters, fewer skaters wanting to test the "New Moves" (especially small numbers of Intermediate and Novice MITF tests) or...

dak_rbb · October 20, 2011, 12:41:25 PM

Tests here are usually on weekends or evenings, but it likely depends on local availability of ice time and judges. However you generally wouldn't do that many tests and some could be scheduled in summer. My dd misses very little school. I wouldn't feel bad about taking her out once or twice a year for a test. And lots of skaters here do pre-pre and preliminary moves at the same test session--that could save one day.

irenar5 · October 20, 2011, 01:54:32 PM

At my rink the tests are usually around the end of school day (1 or 2 pm). At the neighboring rinks some sessions are in the evening.

sarahspins · October 20, 2011, 02:52:45 PM

Our next test session is scheduled for 6am!!

This may not be a big deal for skaters used to getting up and skating that early, but I'm certainly NOT used to it.. so I'm not even aiming for trying for this one, I'll just wait until they do one that starts a little later (I'd be fine with 9am.. but 6am would require me to leave the house by 5am and that's so not happening)

Jenna · October 20, 2011, 03:30:02 PM

We have early am and school day sessions. The rink won't sell us weekend ice. Our club is good about trying to schedule sessions during school holidays.

Schmeck · October 20, 2011, 04:29:35 PM

All my daughter's tests have been on a school day (except for one ice dance) - so I had to take off from work and she had to miss school. We've traveled pretty far for some of those tests too, even though there are a lot of rinks close by.

I think it's hard to get enough ice time on a weekend or after school in our area. Testing sessions are 4-5 hours long, at least, and there's no way hockey would give up an hour or two or prime ice time for us, even if it was just practice ice for them.

AgnesNitt · October 20, 2011, 04:36:29 PM

My rink does test sessions mid-week due to hockey. No options.

MimiG · October 20, 2011, 05:57:05 PM

All tests in the area have been on weekdays, and usually in the mornings, for us.

isakswings · October 20, 2011, 10:44:23 PM

Quote from: falen on October 20, 2011, 10:28:28 AM
dd is preparing for the first test. I looked at ALL the neighborhood rinks within 1 hour drive. They are ALL during school time/days. Do you guys just hold off until the summer?

The test sessions around here are usually on a Saturday or Sunday. I have never heard of hosting them on a week day. Interesting.

hopskipjump · October 20, 2011, 11:17:29 PM

Ours are always weekday mornings too. They start at 8am or some start at 6am. They are monthly but not during holiday breaks (so that month is skipped). I write a note to teachers and the school - they count is as an excused tardy. The nice thing is the judges invite the girls to eat their snacks so they get a quick bite and can relax before we race off to school.

Skate@Delaware · October 21, 2011, 09:33:43 AM

My club has it's test sessions on Saturday afternoons. It pays a premium for doing so but we know that most people can't make the daytime morning sessions, judges included (they are judging elsewhere in the area). We are in lower Delaware if you are interested, test session is Nove 5 (late applications may still be accepted based on space available -deadline was 10/15).

falen · October 21, 2011, 10:21:22 AM

thanks for all your replies.

Delaware is probably 4 hours away. However we have family in boston, anyone know of anything? I bit the bullet and signed up for the pre pre at home, but the pre will be in spring (fingers crossed)

Sk8tmum · October 21, 2011, 11:55:06 AM

We have tests probably every 2-1/2 months at our club, and there are a variety of other clubs that we could likely go to. (Yes, we're spoilt; the Canadian system has some advantages). If you go outside of club, it's quite pricey.

We can't wait until summer; if tests are required, then, you have to get them done and waiting until a later test day and risking not having the pass done by deadline date is not a good idea. Plus, we want the tests done when they are ready: the cost of having a coach continuing to drill the test when it's ready, and not moving on to the next stage, bothers me in terms of cost-effectiveness.

Our tests start during the day ... they run to around 9:30 ... the general rule is go to school, leave before the test, and go back after, if at all possible. As your test days are scheduled well in advance, we work it out ahead with teachers. Now that my one kid has passed essentially every test that can be done in the Canadian system, barring some dances ... it's less of a problem ...

Skate@Delaware · October 21, 2011, 02:02:41 PM

Sorry, didn't know you were that far away

. Upstate, testing is typically held Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday mornings. An occasional weekend. I can't vouch for the rink at Aston, PA. Makes me really wonder, although I'm sure it's tough to squeeze testing in between LTS and hockey.

sk8tegirl06 · October 21, 2011, 02:19:11 PM

Don't know if this helps at all geographically speaking, but all Saturdays and Sundays...
http://pschs.org/Set_Tests_main.htm

Aston seems to be mostly weekdays...
http://www.iceworks.net/figure_iwsc.shtml

Skating Club of Boston seems to be all Sundays for moves/freestyle testing...
http://www.scboston.org/schedules/test-schedule

Schmeck · October 22, 2011, 06:44:01 AM

New England Interclub Council lists test sessions too!

http://www.neicc.org/Eventcalendar.htm

davincisop · October 22, 2011, 04:06:29 PM

Ours happen on Saturday mornings and they will cancel our freestyle session for them. Though one time they didn't cancel club ice so I had to test DURING club ice and none of the kids were watching and had no idea so needless to say I was nervous about taking one out. I knew one almost did an axel in my mohawk sequence. She doesn't watch where she's going. Thankfully for my future tests I will be the only one on the ice because I'll require 3 judges.

PinkLaces · October 23, 2011, 01:43:05 PM

I am the Test Chair for our club. I've been able to manage a few test sessions at night, but frankly, they have been a nightmare to get judges. The judges in my area (midwestern city) have unwritten rules. They don't do Mondays, Fridays, or weekends. The older retired judges will only do tests during the daytime hours. The younger judges that work during the day and won't take time off for judging tests also skate in the evenings - they won't miss their skating practices to judge tests (can't say I blame them). I have also tried to schedule tests when the kids are off of school. Didn't work so great either....judges on vacation (spring break) or didn't want to come. We also aren't supposed to schedule our test on the same days as any other club (we belong to a larger local organization and have a calendar). The couple of clubs in my area that have evening sessions are the clubs that have judges as members.

isakswings · October 24, 2011, 12:42:31 AM

Quote from: PinkLaces on October 23, 2011, 01:43:05 PM
I am the Test Chair for our club. I've been able to manage a few test sessions at night, but frankly, they have been a nightmare to get judges. The judges in my area (midwestern city) have unwritten rules. They don't do Mondays, Fridays, or weekends. The older retired judges will only do tests during the daytime hours. The younger judges that work during the day and won't take time off for judging tests also skate in the evenings - they won't miss their skating practices to judge tests (can't say I blame them). I have also tried to schedule tests when the kids are off of school. Didn't work so great either....judges on vacation (spring break) or didn't want to come. We also aren't supposed to schedule our test on the same days as any other club (we belong to a larger local organization and have a calendar). The couple of clubs in my area that have evening sessions are the clubs that have judges as members.

WOW. We luck out here. All of the test sessions have been on the weekends(minus my in-house session in April). Judges are great to come to them and work with us as well. It helps that our club has 3 members who are also judges. 2 are gold judges too! The judges in our area seem to be accommodating and will judge on weekends. I just assumed tests were always done on the weekends until I read the replies to this post. We couldn't get ice in the evenings and if we did, we would have to pay a higher fee to have it on a week night. We could get ice during the day but we would have no one to help at the session if we were limited to week days. I am grateful for our weekend sessions and will never complain about having to hold a sunday session after reading some of these posts.

PinkLaces · October 24, 2011, 08:08:39 AM

Quote from: isakswings on October 24, 2011, 12:42:31 AM
WOW. We luck out here. All of the test sessions have been on the weekends(minus my in-house session in April). Judges are great to come to them and work with us as well. It helps that our club has 3 members who are also judges. 2 are gold judges too! The judges in our area seem to be accommodating and will judge on weekends. I just assumed tests were always done on the weekends until I read the replies to this post. We couldn't get ice in the evenings and if we did, we would have to pay a higher fee to have it on a week night. We could get ice during the day but we would have no one to help at the session if we were limited to week days. I am grateful for our weekend sessions and will never complain about having to hold a sunday session after reading some of these posts.

I think it does help when the judges are part of your club. We don't have any judges in our club. Also in defense of our area judges not doing weekends, there is at least 1 sometimes 2 local competitions a month. All the area judges are involved with that and the competition host club always has a test session the Friday before a competition.

isakswings · October 24, 2011, 10:46:21 AM

Quote from: PinkLaces on October 24, 2011, 08:08:39 AM
I think it does help when the judges are part of your club. We don't have any judges in our club. Also in defense of our area judges not doing weekends, there is at least 1 sometimes 2 local competitions a month. All the area judges are involved with that and the competition host club always has a test session the Friday before a competition.

That makes perfect sense. In the summer months, we have local comps once a month too. In the fall, there is a competition in September and then our competition in November. Competitions and test sessions usually go hand in hand here as well. When there are not competitions, there is usually a local test session once a month. If you have that many competitions, I can completely understand why your judges would be a little more "stingy" with their time! It is after all, voluntary to judge at competitions and test sessions.

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testing is this the norm