All new students begin as a white belt or hachi kyu. Students from another school may retain their rank from that system. After a review by the head instructor, that student's rank will be set to at rank in Nemuru based on their skills and understanding.

For a student to progress through the ranks they must satisfactorily meet the requirements of each successive rank by performing certain skills and demonstrating an understanding of those skills before a testing board. Each test has a predetermined set of skills for which each testing student is responsible. Each successive test will increase in difficulty over the previous test by adding additional skills. Skills from all previous tests may or may not be included, however, students are responsible for all skills they have been tested on and understanding the responsibility associated with their rank.