Photon
Perhaps it isn't that there is such a big jump content wise in the curriculum as much as it is a time of proving yourself and getting yourself ready for the responsibility in wearing a BB. Generally earning your BB is seen as a rite of passage, or as it was told me to "now that you have learned the basics you are ready to really learn" which is seen as a step up, a new beginning in your training after you earn that rank.
I don't know the name offhand but there is a school in North Carolina where the black belt test takes two days. You come in the first day and do all this stuff and then you come back the next day and do all this other stuff and if you successfully complete it and do all the stuff you've got to do well enough than you get a black belt.
Sometimes the several day BB test can be handled several different ways.
1) The test might be broken up where the student does say all of their kata, one steps, self defense all of the demo stuff before an open crowd (i.e. family, friends, general audience etc. etc.). Then the student comes back to a closed session where they then spar and are put through a hard physical test meant to test their spirit and their will. I know of one school who does their tests this way and they invite fighters from other schools to come and spar with their BB candidate, but it is a closed door invite only type of a thing because they really beat on the person.
2) I know of another school(s) that the BB test was a huge deal, 3 day long get together with all of the other schools in the association, and all of the BB candidates all testing and demoing at once (meaning one testing period). Here the test is for the student and for the family of the student as well. Everyone stays at the camp all learning and training together forming a bond for this rite of passage.
This is in sharp contrast to the test for the belt level right before black, the brown belt, which takes roughly an hour to take and complete and is much easier than the black belt test. Naturally the black belt test should be longer and harder than the brown belt test since it is a higher belt but for a black belt test to take two days and be much harder than a brown belt test which only takes an hour is quite an extreme jump if you ask me.
Not necessarily, as I described above both were multi day tests doing the same thing, making it an experience for the tester, a rite of passage. In the second example above it is a huge deal that is brought about at the end of 3-4 years training, being forced to train with different instructors in the association (so they can sign off on you etc. etc.) and a big demo for your family to witness what you have been studying the past several years.
In the first example the closed door part of the test is to mentally and physically exhaust you, and they consider it extreme enough not to include family and friends. It is private for the BB candidate to endure.
Even though; schools that don't do 2-3 day long tests do the same thing in a sense.
1) My instructor takes a student when they reach 1st brown and at that time they are expected to train after hours at his private dojo where they learn to fight and not just spar for a period of not less then 1 year. They do rounds of body work, pad up and fight. Last time I talked with him he mentioned they were also knife sparring now during these training sessions. Now the people who the students are going against are not only each other, but my instructor and his workout buddies (also other black belts from the main school, and other invited friends) who have been at his dojo doing this for close to 30+ years now 2-3 nights a week every week. Speaking from personal experience prior to my instructor retiring and then teaching at a commercial location, I came up in his private dojo doing this very thing and it was a great but grueling experience. He carried on the tradition as he raised BBs in his current commercial (open to the public so to speak) location. To earn your BB everyone goes through this, even his oldest student who was in his 70's when he tested for shodan.
2) My BB test in Arnis under Hock Hochheim (back in 1995), was several hours long and was comprehensive and covered double stick, single stick, espada y daga, knife and empty hand. In including all sorts of flow drills, sparring against weapons, disarms you name it.
3) MY BB test under my karate instructor (described above in 1987/88) involved kata, one steps, self defense, weapons kata, basics and kicking combinations, as well as sparring all of the BB on the board (7, I think) and the black belts who weren't on the board (2-3), along with a couple of brown belts thrown in for good measure. All in a smaller space than a two car garage (like I said we needed a place for the board and observers to fit, in my instructors private dojo) in Texas in the summer and no A/C. It went for 2-3 hours.
4) I saw a BB test at a school that had sent out a BB candidate to run 5 miles and then come back do a few kata and then had to fight 15 people at once (most of them white belts). (not a school that I trained at)
5) I've sat on BB exam boards for our TKD association where the candidate does all their kata, one steps, kicking combos, basics, etc. etc. and then fight everyone who volunteers black belts and under(with a one mile run to warm up). In this association these students might come from different schools under different instructors (teaching the same curriculum) so these can be larger tests with more people to spar with. The last one had maybe 20+ people to spar with and lasted about 2 hours in length.
My point is, should the black belt be such a big jump? Perhaps the black belt test should only be a little harder than the brown belt test and should only take maybe an hour and a half to complete, not two days. After all, with subjects in school, when you complete a course and go to a more advanced course usually the more advanced course is just a little harder, and in some cases such as with history classes, the more advanced class isn't harder at all but is merely sequential.
YES the BB test should be a big jump if your school or your association wants it to be. In all of the above examples other than the one I threw in where the guy had to fight off 15+ white belts at once. The BB is a rite of passage, something that you earn, something that isn't even considered to be given to a 7 year old or earned in a short 2 year period. It took me 7-8 years to earn my shodan under my sensei, it is still about that now with his current students (even the guy who started in his 60's and earned his shodan in his 70's, as well as his adult sons and his daughter in law who tested for shodan with him). Some students with my instructor start training at 5 and earn shodan when they turn 16 (the earliest age he will test someone for), and they too spend the last year training at the home dojo as well as the regular classes.
I make my students go for a year in between 1st brown (now red) and shodan so they can be more seasoned in helping to assist in classes, and to fine tune their techniques.
For lack of a better term it is part of our dojo lore. With my sensei it is being part of the band of brothers so to speak. You develop a bond with the others who went through the training and earned their rank. Likewise it is the same thing with the 1st school I mentioned with the hard sparring on the 2nd day. All though I have never seen first hand the 2nd school with the 3 day camp, I imagine it is the same. You can lose your job, go through a divorce, go through hard times (not that I want to do any of that), but you can't take away that experience of training, of getting ready, of surviving, the feeling of accomplishment of passing a hard exam, that so many others failed to take by dropping out.
I for one would rather have a long hard test, having gone though I think 4 shodan tests in different arts, the ones that mean the most for me were my hardest under Hock (2X) and under my sensei (1X). After shodan for me, it is different, it is more about growing in the art.
My sensei wants his students to pass when tested and will not test untill they demonstrate they are ready. How they actually perform is up to the individual on the day of the test.
