I wouldn't worry about getting ranked fast. Worry about training hard, and what you are learning. The quality of what you learn is more important than the quanitity of ranks you can accumulate. Find out if the school is into competitions or not...not all of the do it or support it, and therefore, won't train for it. Thanks for the replies! The reason I want to be moved up for knowing the actual stuff is because I'll be moving in 2 years and I want to get the most out of it, incase it doesn't transfer over to another school. I will be trying out the Karate Doshinkan thursday. They don't have any contact in their karate, which means no sparring, no competitiveness. So thats kind of a let down already before I go. Because I work harder when there is competition. Not to say I won't in Doshinkan, but its mostly Kata workouts.