Academy Exams and Advancement

Hi all,
I am looking to implement an exam and advancement system into my Academies, And was wondering if anyone has done this and can give some advice on the do's and don'ts, I remember reading a post by someone saying that they had done this but I am afraid I have been unable to find the post so am not sure who did it. I want to do it in my military as well as civil academies.
I am looking at providing a list of applicable subjects to that academy to test the graduates on, a pass of 50% on the overall combined subject courses allowing further courses and advancement a fail meaning no advancement possible but can still graduate in what the recruit was trained as.
A fail requiring another attempt at a pass after a set time (say two years) a second fail means no further advancement is allowed.
Also I wish this system to generate personalities with random skills, I was thinking of a pass mark of say 90% in one or more of the test subjects generates a graduate personality with a distinction in that subject with a maximum of say 10 possible personalities (but could be less) generated from the 1000 recruits in the academy that year.

Any thoughts and ideas ?

One Grain.

I think it would work for developing a civil service, except for you as an Ottoman power I think at this time your Janissary families inherited civil service posts. I also think your nobility would be less keen on this for an officer academy or something which they feel inherently entitled to due to their inalienable right to be at the top of society rather than exams being used. I am certain this would be different in China where there is an advanced structure of exams for civil service posts. In the west at this time I think it was still common for jobs, civil and military to be purchased.
My advice would be to work with how society was then, rather than how we would like society to be now.

Thanks Basileus.

You have given me food for thought (jam tarts mainly) I think it may be better to mull this over for a little longer and ask for more advice from my Viziers on this.
as I still have certain named Brigands keeping a low profile in-country without breeding more willy-nilly.

Cheers,

One Grain.

May keep the Nobles happy as they are usually the only ones who can read & write, so it will strengthen their position in society, may cause problems with the military if you introduce promotion exams, could mean incompetent rich officers get overlooked for promotion while young poorer dynamic officers pass exams & progress.

May be a good way to improve the technical servives with exams for artillery & Engineering officers.