P.U.M.A. Grading Information

About Grading's

A grading is an event where one of the P.U.M.A. board visit a regional area and monitor students progress.

After the board member has viewed each student they will decide if the student is ready to progress to the next belt.

Grading

How Often can I grade?

The time between each grading is different per grade. The time between each grading increases as you progress in Taekwon-Do, this is to reflect the increased amount of information you must learn and the quality of which the examiner is expecting.

Grade    Time till next grading
White Belt (10th KUP)    3 Months
Yellow Tag (9th KUP)    3 Months
Yellow Belt (8th KUP)    3 Months
Green Tag (7th KUP)    3 Months
Green Belt (6th KUP)    3 Months
Blue Tag (5th KUP)    3 Months
Blue Belt (4th KUP)    6 Months
Red Tag (3rd KUP)    6 Months
Red Belt (2nd KUP)    6 Months
Black Tag (1st KUP)    6 Months

How do I know I'm ready to grade?

In preparation for your grading, your instructor will take one of your lessons to perform a practice grading (Pre-Grading). Based on your performance within the pre-grading your instructor will make the choice if you are ready to take the up and coming grading.

Pre-grading's are usually done at least two weeks before the grading giving you time to do that last bit of practicing in.

How is the grading hall lay out?

Probably the biggest thing that worries people at grading's is not knowing the proceedings and the way the hall is layed out.

Grading's start just like any normal Taekwon-Do lesson.

  1. You all line up grade order and have a quick warm up.
  2. After the warm up, you return to ready stance to greet the examiner.
  3. The examiner then dismisses you. Once dismissed you proceed to the spectator / training area.
  4. Now you will be called up in groups and observed.
  5. Once all students have been observed you all line back up grade order and thank the examiner.

Grading finished

The layout of the hall really depends on the size and shape of the hall. Below is links to pictures of common grading hall layouts.

Layout 1 - Layout 2

Will there be Korean questions?

The plain and simple answer to this question is YES.
The questions asked at a grading are not designed to catch you out or make you feel small, all questions are based on what is in the latest version of the student handbook.
The biggest mistake people make at learning the Korean for a grading is just learning the patterns page and the Korean page with their grade written at the top. The Idea is that every grade you go up, you add one more page of Korean. For a complete list for each grade visit the section caled "Korean Words".
When you get to black belt you could be asked nearly anything within reason and you not find any of the answers in the existing handbook, you have to search the internet, read General Choi's 15 volumes of Taekwon-Do and ask other black belts. This site is collecting as much information as possible but no one is perfect.

Here is a PDF file that contains example questions for each grade (10th KUP - 2nd KUP)
Example Questions