MostlyHarmless

4 years or so.

I was in martial arts for 8 years (2 styles) and was about 8 months from my first black belt grading. The instructors refused to tell me the price for the grading, which was 3 days long and 2 hours away in another city. They also told me that there would be two camps I would have to attend. When I said that I could not afford to take of time from school to go to one of the camps (I was in high school and applying to universities at the time) nor could I afford to pay for the camp (3 days in a hotel). They told me that my black belt was as important as a university degree, and if I couldn't pay for the camp, I probably couldn't pay for the black belt grading. I ended up leaving for other reasons, but I was wondering if it was normal to have requirements like this pop up before a black belt grading. Also, is it unusual to refuse to provide the price for gradings?