Cicerone.org

Hi all,

Thought I would share a couple of insights about the Certified Cicerone exam.

First, all five who passed the April 18 exam had scored at least a 90 on the Certified Beer Server exam when they took it.  And I know for a fact that the person with the lowest CBS exam score out of the group that passed had been studying very hard for the Certified Cicerone exam.

There is a general correlation between CBS exam score and Certified Cicerone exam success . . . although one person who had a 95 on the CBS exam didn't pass the Certified Cicerone exam, so that's not a 100% correlation.

So, you need to study the syllabus and learn more about the areas where you may be weak. 

Also: you've got to be able to do the tasting portions--that's essential. The tasting part was the hardest, all agreed. No one got everything right on the tasting portion. Of the three sections in the tasting, the off-flavors portion was the hardest.

On the written exam, the hardest part was the section on keeping and serving beer (as indicated by it having the lowest average score). 

The easiest part was the portion on beer and food pairing (everyone passed that section). 

'bout it for now.

Ray