You can go by average's, statistics or some poll taken... bottom line in my opinion is to stay in each class untill you are either a; getting bored with your current class and/or are comfortable and ready yourself to move up, or b; you are forced to move up because you are dominating every contest you go to in your current class.Iremember getting kicked out of sportsman when I was a teenager... by my friend, and CD of the Walker/Creswell EAC contest. Gave me that one friday to learn advanced.. Istill got second place