I dont want to be "certified for life" so I signed up to take the BJCP National written test in October. I wanted to hear from anyone on BA who has taken this test. In particular how you studied and what you studied. I have enough judging points and tasting score so this is just for the written test. Any info or help would be appriciated. Thanks.
You really need to know two things: 1) All of the details of all of the BJCP beer styles (except specialty, fruit, spice/herb, etc.) 2) All of the information in the BJCP exam study guide http://www.bjcp.org/docs/BJCP_Study_Guide.pdf. The study guide is key. All of the possible exam questions are in there, along with all of the possible style combinations. Be sure to learn the wording of the questions and be able to answer all parts of the questions. About half of the exam deals with beer styles, and the other half with technical/process/beer fault information. You also have to know program information and beer judging technique for 20 T/F questions; no credit for this but penalty if you get any wrong. Again, the entire list of T/F questions with answers is in the guide, so there's no excuse to miss any. The biggest problem most people have is time management. Practice writing out by hand your answers to as many of the questions as you can, shooting for 15 minutes per question or less. I see many exams with 3 beautiful answers and two that amount to a few generic sentences. It's hard to get above barely passing with 3/5 decent answers. If you know the material reasonably well and manage your time, upper 70s-low 80s are easily within reach. Getting a master level score requires a high level of detail hard to achieve on all of the questions. You will be taking the last written exam using the 2008 Style Guidelines. Good luck! Mike BJCP Exam Director
Christ, just took the BJCP entry exam and thought I was pretty beer savvy. Well the exam proved me wrong. LOL. Did pass my certified beer server exam which was really pretty simple. The BJCP not so much.
I share the respect for the knowledge that is out there and am aware of my own limits, and often find myself in amazement at how much people overestimate their beer knowledge.
Have answers to every question down pat and committed to memory before you walk in to the exam. Practice physically writing them out beforehand and time yourself. Keep refining your answers until you've narrowed it down to exactly what needs to be said. There's no credit for superfluous language and there's certainly no time for it. Get all your thinking out of the way beforehand, because it will only slow you up during the test.
