And from experience, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah is certainly an achievement, not merely a coming of age ceremony. It was certainly the hardest thing I'd done by that age

And from experience, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah is certainly an achievement, not merely a coming of age ceremony. It was certainly the hardest thing I'd done by that age (13), and involves leading a full service in hebrew and reading from the Torah, also in (very antiquated) hebrew. Preparing for it involved tutoring for six months, in addition to biweekly hebrew and temple school classes for many years.