How can an adult skater progress over a Beginner level and Figure Skating Levels

My previous post was about the progress of a beginner skater, more exactly, from a low-beginner beginner to an high-beginner. Then, I was thinking how could an high-beginner, which I feel I am, progress to an Intermediate level.

Firstly, I'll tell you what I think the figure skating levels are. I read in different places slightly different views on levels... I have written before about the testing process. MITF and Freestyle go hand in hand as passing  MITF is a prerequisite to testing the same level in Freestyle. Freestyle also includes pair skating. USFSA (United States Figure Skating Association) has 8 standard levels for testing and I'll add the scores required to pass. This is what kids test. Then, I'll add the adult  equivalent, and the ISI (Ice Skating Institute) levels.  Then  I'll add what I think of each level in terms of beginner- intermediate- advanced- expert...

0. Intro to Skating (no test) Basic Skills and ISI Alpha trough Gamma...
1. Pre-Preliminary (pass/fail) equivalent with Adult Pre-Bronze, ISI FS1 and 2 is an Low-Beginner
2. Preliminary (2.5 out of 6max) equivalent with Adult Bronze and ISI FS3 is a  Beginner
3. Pre-Juvenile (2.7 out of 6) equivalent with Adult Silver and ISI 4 is an High-Beginer
4. Juvenile (3 out of 6)  equivalent with Adult Gold and ISI FS4 is a Beginner-Intermediate
5. Intermediate (3.2 out of 6)  is an Intermediate
6. Novice (3.5 out of 6) is a Intermediate-Advanced
7. Junior (4 out of 6) is an Advanced Skater
8. Senior (4.5 out of 6) is an Expert Skater
What we see on TV on competitions I would say are 2 or 3 levels up, their skills marks would be 4.8 to 5.9 out of 6 as nobody is perfect :)

Each test concentrates on 5, 6 skills but a skater at that specific level knows many more skills. The test judges in fact the quality of how the skills are performed. For example you have to do an outside forward 3-turn in different combinations in each of the first 5 MITF tests. But you have to do it better and better...

I'm working on the Pre-Juvenile MITF so Level 3.  In Freestyle I'm all over the place. I know the elements but I don't think I do them well enough.

So to get to an Intermediate level as an adult is a quite big accomplishment, so big that USFSA calls is worthy of the "gold medal". I think Gold level in MITF is within reach. In Freestyle this level includes the axel... I don't know about that. The risk of hurting may be too big to even try to learn it.

Ice Dancing traditionally is done in pairs and has testing on the pattern dances and I'll match them with the free dances done in competition at the same level. I'll start the counting from 2 because that's what I thing would be the equivalent with the MITF and Freestyle levels. It can be done solo too, on the same levels.

1. Basic Ice dancing Skills: Forward Progressives, Chasses and Swing Rolls - Low-Beginner
2. Preliminary pattern dances (Dutch Waltz, Canasta Tango, Rhythm Blues) (pass/fail) - Beginner
3. Pre-Bronze pattern dances (Swing Dance, Cha Cha, Fiesta Tango) (2.5 out of 6) - High-Beginner
4. Bronze pattern dances (Hickory Hoedown, Willow Waltz, Ten fox) (2.7 out of 6) and Juvenile free dance - Beginner-Intermediate
5. Pre-Silver pattern dances (Fourteen Step, European Waltz, Foxtrot) (3 out of 6) and Intermediate free dance - Intermediate
6. Silver pattern dances (Silver Tango, Rocker Foxtrot, American Waltz) (3.5 out of 6) and Novice free dance - Intermediate Advanced
7. Pre-Gold pattern dances (Starlight Waltz, Passo Double, Killian, Blues) (4 out of 6) and Junior free dance - Advanced
8. Gold pattern dances (4.5 out of 6) and Senior free dance - Expert
On TV we see International pattern dances (4.8 out of 6)

In Ice Dancing I'm working on Bronze or 4th level, so over my abilities from MITF. I do feel that I struggled in Ice Dancing because not only I had to acquire the skating skills but them present them in a pretty and very exact package while holding the beat of the music and getting into the character of the music. The kids and teens at my rink seam to learn the other way around: Freestyle first, MITF then to match their Freestyle level and be able to test and Ice Dancing later, as a refinement of their skills that they already have. I think this is a more natural path... Dare I say that Freestyle is more exciting? So it sounds to me that I'm thinking I should concentrate more on Freestyle.

The problem is that I don't think I skate enough to be able to push for progress all Freestyle, MITF and Ice Dancing. So the obvious answer is to increase the skating time AND the number of lessons... Now I'm skating 3 times a week and i take one lesson and everything goes mostly towards Ice Dancing. And that's because I was injured... I would have to go back to skating 4 sessions plus 2 lessons... My coach recommends 2 hours of practice for each half hour lesson.
I found this Canadian skating club guidelines to training time. It seams that for my level they recommend even more lessons then that, sounds like 4 half hour lessons and 2 hours of practice. AND they recommend lots of off ice training... And here is another guideline to how much time you need to practice to pass different levels.

Yeap, skating takes lots of time and money and I feel discouraged now.