I know this is very late, but I had been waiting for Sensei's written feedback, but I think I'll have to remind him about it.

Testing for 5^th kyu, and these are my thoughts on how testing went.  I hope to add Sensei's thoughts from the testing at the end.

The first thing I got reminded of in testing is that things got sped up and the attacks came a lot faster, and at odd angles from some of the ukes.  I also felt like the techniques were chunky at times.  My work schedule (it was 3:00 pm – 11:00 pm at this time) and a hurt back also limited some training time.  At times I felt some ukes were being overly compliant.  A few times I didn’t feel like I had finished a technique and uke was falling down.  I don’t like that, not one bit.  I goofed on some weapons stuff, but got it fixed pretty quick.

Sensei mentioned that if something got botched to just adapt and finish with whatever is there.  I did this a few times.  At the end, though, he wanted to see shomenuchi kokyunage or iriminage.  I wanted to show both, but at one point I was messing up the entry for iriminage and ended up not doing either of the techniques.  My partner just kept batting me on the head with shomen until I finally did an ikkyo.  We were also allowed to ask for any technique we wanted to do.  Others did kotegashi I think.  I went with nikkyo from a same side lapel grab attack.  I got it a few times, but also botched it and did a modified armbar takedown that was more Hapkido or Taekwondo or Defensive Tactics-like than an Aikido technique.

I met with Sensei afterwards.  He said I was the only one that ended up getting all the weapons material correct.  He said my iriminage 5^th kyu technique was solid.  He said despite how I felt about testing I passed very clean.  That felt good to hear.

I got the testing notes from Sensei. These include his and others from the testing panel.

Sensei:

Good stability on Aikitaiso and in general.

Nice power on strikes and movements - good core integration.

All weapons looked solid and powerful - could relax some to increase power/snap occasionally.

Ikkyo looked good overall - on omote the hip could be turned out more on the cut to make it easier and more efficient; the ura version was well done.

When the wrong technique was done it was continued and finished well - wrong but strong is preferred as it still shows martial awareness instead of just testing/performance awareness.

Kaitenage ura was only missing the final step - the harder the connection, blending, and initial footwork were all correct; pulling the neck and pushing the arm to create tension instead of only holding the neck would have led to an easier and more powerful throw at the end.

In general move self more and move uke less (as far as your focus) - by moving self more and uke being connected it may actually result in more and stronger throw projection (uke movement), but the goal has to be moving self with good principles.

Sankyo and several other techniques had very good precise movements.

From the others on panel:

Nice roll with slap.

Kotegashi had good grounding.

Ikkyo short changed the ura even though it was good - it would finish easier with more rotation and sink.

Kaitenage finish needed corrected.

Very clean sokumen iriminage.

Very good precision on sankyo.

Nice variety and clean randori.

I'm happy with this information and I think most of the criticisms are ones I had myself anyway. More practice with proper focus.

Excellent feedback from your Sensei, Brian. A feedback you should be quite proud of across the board!!