Watching the TNG episode Coming of age.. if everyone had to go through that and only one person per planet was chosen.. could this explain why star fleet is soo small in TNG?!?! lol I feel this test was really for advanced placement and not a true test for a typical student.. at least I hope so because I feel dumb suddenly.
Well, everybody taking the exam did look or at least behave very young. It seems rather likely that this was how Starfleet solves the underage entrant issue, and a human of 18 years or an Ocampa of 2 years would not have to tackle tests of this difficulty level. Indeed, the average young Starfleeter does not look as if he or she had ever faced tests of this sort. Timo Saloniemi