Pet rocks, good... Pet students, bad

There was a little girl who road my bus when I was a kid, and she was picked on by some of the older kids.  One day, they threw her sweater out the window.  Everyone's parents got called and we all got in trouble.  I wasn't too worried since other people were the ones who picked on her, so imagine my surprise when I got the "I'm very disappointed in you" lecture from Mom.

Turns out that I should have helped that girl, instead of standing by.  "But Mom, she's weird." (Good answer, right?)  So with her typical wisdom,

Yes, actually you ARE ready for graduation

Okay, it's rare, but sometimes I do have students who are ready to graduate even though they think they need more time.  Often this happens for Black Belt exams, since we would all like to have more time to prepare ourselves for those.  As an instructor, we have to make sure students are mentally and emotionally ready so they don't get stagnant or complacent.  For them, it's about facing fears and taking on challenges.

Sometimes it's about the elusive perfection, or a student has compared themselves to someone else in class.  Either way, the instructor has to remove that student's self-evaluation (which is flawed), and establish the proper standards for progress

No, you are NOT ready for graduation

Did you ever try the "Mom, all my friends are doing it" approach to get permission for something as a kid?  I'm sure, like me, you got the standard response, "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do that too?"  That was before bungie jumping, so I really had no come-back, but if she asked me that question today, I might just have a snappy answer!

So what happens when a student notices that all of his classmates are graduating, but he isn't?  What is your standard reply when a student thinks they are ready for the next belt level and you know they are not?