Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4224349-20150122232405/@comment-26812261-20150125052443

I don't think they rigged the test because they thought he wasn't ready, but instead because they knew it wasn't necessary because he's long-since proven he was ready. Pearl said it herself, the reason for the Sea Spire test was to see if Steven was ready to go on missions. They were obviously satisfied with his performance there because in subsequent episodes he was going on missions with them. Plus, any mistake he made would have revealed the test was fake, which implies that the gems had enough confidence to assume he wouldn't make any mistakes.