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RD2
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« on: January 03, 2008, 03:01:30 PM » |
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Hi all,
In case you missed the email (spam filters) the Certified Beer Server Exam is now available for people to take. This is the first step in getting to the Certified Cicerone (tm) exam that will be given later this year. Of course you also get bragging rights and a certificate that may be good for impressing your boss if you work in the business.
I took time creating the questions and testing them in advance to try to make sure that there would be as few problems as possible, but of course I'm sure some errors will emerge as more people take the test. Feel free to contact me or post questions here.
All for now,
Ray Daniels
Director, Cicerone Certification Program
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Ray Daniels
Director, Cicerone Certification Program
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Grant McCracken
Posts: 27
Mc Cracken
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« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2008, 08:13:02 PM » |
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Thanks Ray! Very well done! I took the exam and there were no glitches for me. The only thing that wasn't intuitive was that you had to go to the "exam center" once logged into the exam site. I was looking for the "next" at the bottom and top of the page to show itself as a link, but it wasn't showing up...turned out I just didn't read the directions fully and needed to go to the exam center  Very minor detail though. Other than that, I think the exam itself was fair for the Certified Beer Server title. I would have liked more questions (maybe around 100), but that's about it. Those with a BJCP background shouldn't have a problem passing. Thanks again for putting this together and creating such a great program. Well worth the wait. Oh yeah, and I passed (missed one!) Proud to call myself a Certified Beer Server, Grant |
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Christopher Bowen
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« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2008, 08:25:15 PM » |
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Make that 2 Certified Beer Servers , thanks Ray !, boy if I would have held off just one more day asking that other question....patience grasshopper  |
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Don Ferris
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« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2008, 11:06:09 PM » |
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I have also taken (and passed, whoo hoo) the exam without a technical glitch.
The only thing that I did not see was after the test. That is the "certificate". I saw where you could review your exam for the question(s) that you missed and a score report for the knowledge area breakdown, but no "click here to print your certificate" type link.
Overall I thought it was a good test. I was a little concerned about the 30 sec a question. One question I missed was from reading it to quickly. In the end, time wasn't really a factor, I finished well before the 30 min mark.
Great work Ray on the program and the exam!
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Joel Armato
Posts: 8
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« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2008, 06:53:00 AM » |
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I can't seem to get into the test folks. When I enter my User ID and Password it says that I must be enrolled to enter. What am I missing here?
I am logged into the site and following the link to the test but can't get past the screen to log into the test.
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Joel Armato
Posts: 8
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« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2008, 09:40:34 AM » |
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Forget it, i'm good. I didn't realize you had to go to the Course List first.
I passed.
I like the section afterwards where you can review your stats in each category.
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Grant McCracken
Posts: 27
Mc Cracken
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« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2008, 09:43:55 AM » |
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Whoops, little late. cool man!
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Gavin Guest
Posts: 9
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« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2008, 12:43:36 PM » |
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Some feedback:
1. The Credit card validation thing is a bit screwy. It wouldn't accept the verification code from my discover card. I finally just clicked "no code" and it let me through. There's probably little Ray can do about this.
2. In one spot it says that there is a 30 min time limit and in another it says 60 mins. If you're a concerned test taker, this is important to know.
3. I think I had 4 questions about Blonde Ale and 3 about Milds and I was asked one question twice with only one choice different. If it's important in Ray's eyes to REALLY know these two styles then it worked.
But it seems that the random question pool could be refined to pick random questions from sub pools so that I get questions about lots of different styles instead of a bunch about one or two.
4. There were two questions that were unclear to me from a wording standpoint. I neglected to copy them though. If you have the ability to review exactly what questions I was asked, one of the really confusing ones was the last question on one of the pages (20,30 or 40 I think). Apparently I got them both right though because I don't see them when reviewing.
5. Overall, it seemed like a nice test to make sure that folks know what they're doing and what they know. It properly highlighted the areas that I know the least about. Two questions that I missed I would have gotten correct with just a smidge more thought.
Good work Ray!
Gavin Guest
Certified Beer Server
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RD2
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« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2008, 05:02:23 PM » |
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Hi all,
Thanks for the comments--this is great!
First, I know that the interface it a bit screwy and for now we will just have to live with it. I looked at several testing/learning programs and for the cost, this was the only real choice for now. We are giving some thought to writing our own test system . . . but that's a bit more involved.
I appreciate hearing the trick about using Discover: that will probably save some other people some grief in the future if I can figure out a way to communicate it.
I certainly do want to get the 30/60 min thing fixed so I will go in and review that right now. When I first set up the test, I thought 60 mins might be needed for some folks, but every person who has taken the test seems to have finished in well under that (the system doesn't tell me how long people spend on the exam). As a result, I cut the time to help prevent the temptation to cheat. If you all feel like it is too short now, let me know.
I can review each exam to see exactly which questions were missed by each person. I fixed up several confusing questions during the trial phase but I'm sure there are a few that could still be improved. Thanks for the feedback. To
The certificate comes in an email as I recall, so maybe it got caught by a spam filter in Don's case. I'm pretty sure I can resend that but I'm not sure I can manually generate and send it. In any case, I'll check.
Finally the question mix: the questions _are_ divided into about a dozen different pools by topic and you are supposed to get a certain number from each pool. Certainly Brit, Belg, German and American are all different categories so you should see questions on all of them. I'll review to see what happened.
Overall, I think we are off to a great start! Keep those comments coming.
Cheers,
Ray
Ray Daniels
Director, Cicerone Certification Program
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Ray Daniels
Director, Cicerone Certification Program
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RD2
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« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2008, 06:03:15 PM » |
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Next: Thinking about creating a page on the website for listing those who have passed the exam. In the long term, I see this as a way of both promoting those who have earned the various credentials and providing a check against improper use of the various titles. With a public list, any employer or customer could check to make sure that anyone who claims to be a Cicerone has actually passed the test.
So the question is this: would you be willing to have your name listed on the website for this purpose? I'm thinking we'd give first and last name and some geographic identifier. For the geo ID city and state of residence make the most sense; zip code might be an alternative. In any case, I think some bit of ID beyond name will be essential in order to clearly identify individuals who have earned each credential.
What do you all think? Willing to be listed? What geographic ID do you prefer?
Secondly: we might do a job page where people could list jobs and post resumes. Interested?
Cheers,
Ray
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Ray Daniels
Director, Cicerone Certification Program
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Gavin Guest
Posts: 9
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« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2008, 09:07:01 PM » |
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I did get questions about American, German, Belgian and English styles, but it seemed heavy on Blonde and Bitter, that's all.
Other than my Discover card oddness, I didn't have any technical difficulties. I don't think that the ROI on building your own test system would be worth it. If you do decide to go that route, I am a professional UI designer. I'm happy to help. However, while there are some less than ideal things about the way that it's setup now, i don't think that they're obstacles that can't be overcome by a novice computer user who simply clicks the links until they find what they want. The number of choices is quite limited and they'll find what they need quickly.
The UI of the test couldn't be any simpler. Again, as a UI designer and Software Product Manager I don't think that there's much advantage to making your own software. You're likely to simply make different mistakes, not eliminate the mistakes of the software you've chosen.
I also think that 30 mins is plenty of time for those who know their stuff. 60 mins would promote cheating for those on the edge of passing. I got 88+% in about 14 minutes. If I'd felt like cheating, I could have gotten 100% in those 30 mins. So, depending on how difficult you want to make the test, adjust the time accordingly.
I want to stress the point that the test as it was given to me properly highlighted what I knew and what I didn't know. That's exactly what a test should do.
My certificate was delivered almost immediately via e-mail in PDF format.
I'm willing to be listed based on my current cert. level with my city and state and and e-mail address.
A jobs page would be cool, but I'd place this below the certification verification in order of priority.
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Alex
Posts: 1
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« Reply #12 on: January 06, 2008, 09:30:27 PM » |
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I had no trouble with the credit card proccess, but the entire website failed when I submitted my exam. This is a pretty major blunder...
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Grant McCracken
Posts: 27
Mc Cracken
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« Reply #13 on: January 08, 2008, 12:40:22 AM » |
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I'd be willing to have my name/email/geography posted.
It might be nice to have the listing pull the location and/or email from we have in our profile, that way if our location and/or email changes, the listing will reflect the info without manual intervention. Updting that kind of information could be a real pain once the listing starts to grow.
Thanks,
Grant
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Michael Agnew
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« Reply #14 on: January 08, 2008, 11:50:03 AM » |
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I had no trouble with the exam and the question mix seemed good. I did have an assortment of beer styles represented.
30 minutes really is long enough. I finished in 15 and had time to go back through and review (unfortunately I apparently skipped a couple of questions in my review as there were two that I missed but should have gotten correct.) Essentially I scored a 95 in 15 mintues. I would think about making the test harder.
One question that I found poorly worded was "How many flavors can you percieve with your sense of smell?" I answered correctly, but the word "flavor" seemed tricky. I wanted to answer according to sweet, salty etc, but guessed that the question really wanted to know about aromas.
I think you should post the names and geographic information of those who have passed.
Thanks,
Michael
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