Level 3 Bending

I’m wondering how good my bending should be before I take the Level 3 test. I realize that it could take a long time, but must I get past sounding like a “sick animal” before trying to move on to the next level?

Here’s where I’m at: half-step bends at holes 2, 3, 4 and 6; whole-step bend at 3 (usually); and half-step bend at 1 (rarely). Puckering, I can get a half-step bend at 1 fairly consistently and a whole-step bend at 2, most of the time.

Bending Study 2 is still somewhat challenging. Sometimes, my tongue slips, and I get sound from an adjacent hole.

Feelin’ for the Blues. I can play it through, but problems come and go, like a game of whack-a-mole. I’ve tried switching to puckering for the last 3 notes of the song, in order to get the whole-step bend at 2, but switching from tongue blocking to puckering at that point tends to trip me up.

I don’t want to rush the learning process. I’m willing to put in the effort necessary to play well.  I’ve been working on Level 3 for four months. I practice one hour a day, 7 days a week. I want to build a sufficiently solid foundation before I move up, but by the same token, I don’t want to hold myself back unnecessarily, because of an unrealistic expectation of perfection.

How do I know when it’s time to take the test?