Interesting - very different from this area. What is also common is to have the skater stay one level ahead in MITF.

Since each level's MITF test has to be passed before the skater can attempt to take the freestyle, the safest bet is to have the skater stay at least one level higher on the MITF tests than on the Freestyles. That way you never lose a freestyle test fee because the same-level MITF wasn't passed at that test session. When I tested same-level MITF and FS last month, the freestyle was "conditional" on my passing the MITF portion.

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This is the approach my skater has followed also--one moves test ahead of her freestyle. She now has junior moves and novice freestyle. We'll probably let her take her senior moves soon, so that she will have her gold medal in moves. But we have seen prejuvenile skaters pass senior moves. Frankly, I think the standards for passing have come way down, because the senior moves that I have seen pass by these young kids were nowhere near the quality that they should have been. The attitude of these kids has been to "get the moves out of the way." They don't understand that the moves are the fundamentals of skating, necessary basics and foundations for the jumps and other technical elements.

Thanks everyone for your input. I learn so much from all of you. Still being pretty new to the whole skating world I find all the rules and nuances fascinating and confusing at the same time.