Without a doubt my Seido black belt test. I tested at 11 so the rest of the group were pretty much adults except for my friend Murphy. It was about 3 hours of heavy calisthenics, then every single technique from day one onward including katas and short form self defense techniques.
The of course Murphy and I passed, but as is tradition we could not get our belts till 16, so we got a nice black stripe on our brown belts for a few years.
I feel for you, Don. Teasing is just what you don't need when you're already under stress .
For me, I would say that probably the hardest MA test I ever did was for my White Sash in Kung Fu. I'd never taken a martial arts test before and the unknown is ever the thing we fear the most.
I'm sure my black belt test will be (it's at the end of this month.) So far, though, it was the test where I got a gallbladder attack during the pushups. It was excruciatingly painful. I think that was my green belt test. Ugh.
For me it was not a test but a demo I had to do for about twenty G.M's that was on a board, I knew all but three and I did not feel anything I was going to do would be to the standerds they all had. Even though I personally trained with five of them, at the time I was around 28 years old.
My first class with my CLF teacher. Without a doubt. He put me in a sei ping ma (level horse stance) for 45 minutes & told me if I stood up to go ahead & leave.
A close second would be my first lion dance for him.