Thanks for the comment man! Yes that's how the whites stripes are given out in this curriculum, but only the white belt stripes, Combatives belt, blue belt, and every stripe thereafter has it's own grading test. But for white belt, it's equally as much about giving newbies incentive and encouragement as it is about recognising their skill. Because the Combatives curriculum is all about self defence, there's absolutely no sparring/rolling or sportive BJJ included, and so I can see how offering incentive to absolute beginners; people of all ages, quite a few with zero martial arts experience of any sort, it's a good way to encourage them to keep going.

In a previous lifetime (around 2000-2004) I trained BJJ in the more traditional/old school way, with the first half of a class allocated to technique, and the second half to rolling, from lesson 1! And we had no stripes in our academy either, just solid belt colours, and I was a white belt for like 3 years or so, and got my arse handed to me and many injuries in the process in so many different ways until I eventually got my blue belt. And that was fine for me at the time, as a 20-something year old male, quite willing to get thrashed for years. But there was also a high turnover of students there, many people quit, or tried it and never came back, and certainly no older people or people with health issues or injuries/disabilities, or even people who were just intimidated by the whole 'getting thrown in the deep end' thing would have even given it a second look. But those are exactly the sort of people who need BJJ! The vulnerable people who are intimidated easily and have no idea how to defend themselves.

So anyway, that's the utility in getting the white stripes quite easily in my opinion. I know lots of people wouldn't be a fan of it, preferring the traditional model of BJJ academy training, but I really dig the idea of BJJ being made more easily and safely accessible to the people in the community who want it and need it, but would ordinarily be too intimidated or concerned about injury to ever sign up. The Combatives belt, and blue belt, and every stripe from then on has it's own highly challenging grading though. I think that the classes you attend are still documented on a card like this, and there's a bare minimum required before you can attempt the grading test.

Good luck with your training too man!