My school uses belt tests, which I didn’t love at first but my instructor convinced me they have a place.

He awards stripes by his judgement, based on the student’s skill level. He watches every class and rolls with us. When you’re 4 stripes, you can test for the next belt. However, a black belt has to be awarded by him, no test involved.

This hybrid method allows most of the student’s progression to be determined by the instructor, but makes things more objective in determining moving up a belt rank via the test.

I was skeptical of the tests at first, but our gym has produced 3 world champs in the past few years so I’m not going to question it too hard.