Attempt Number Two

Most of you know I just made my second attempt at becoming a Certified Cicerone! I wanted to give you a brief update on how I feel things went!

Also, if you’d like a better breakdown of how the test works, you can check out my previous post after my first attempt here. The Certified Cicerone Test

While I’d love to share EVERY question asked on the test that I can remember, especially the essays and video portion, I can’t. We sign a waiver before we take the test stating that we won’t share specific details. 

We’ll start with the tasting portion because we get the answers at the end of the test for that. The first 8 beers are cut and dry, black and white. There’s no chance for partial credit on these questions. Four beers with off flavors in a control beer and four style determination questions. I aced those. 

The last four questions didn’t go as well. You can get some partial credit, because these involve explanations. I got one fully correct. These last four questions are weighted more heavily as far as scoring goes. So my counting on an improved score is probably out the window. This was a hard tasting. Others who were taking the test for a second time agreed. 

I know I can do better on this portion of the test. Unfortunately, I just made some mistakes. Some common “off flavors” are actually appropriate to a certain extent in particular beer styles. I knew what I was tasting on the first beer in that set could be appropriate, but I overthought it and added something to it. I just overanalyzed it.
The good news is that my old score was passing, and they’ll use whichever score was best. The night before the test, during my practice tasting, I easily picked up a flavor I typically struggle with. And I got that off flavor right on the test, too. I struggled last night with a flavor that’s typically VERY easy for me to pick up, and I failed to pick that up on the test the other day in one of the last questions. At least my nose is consistent!

Onto the written! I knew a lot more of the content, and confidently answered most of the questions. Probably 95% of these are fill in the blanks with no word bank. I left probably 7 blank that I thought I’d return to later to just guess on, because I was drawing blanks. When I returned to them at the very end, I knew the answer to every one!

I know I did well on the short essay question. It’s largely objective and this one involved a beer and food pairing with a complex dish. I think I got anywhere from an 85%-100% on that. I spun off of a classic pairing, and I’m confident. I got to pair something with my favorite beer style, which was fun!

And I nailed the video portion! I had the exact same question I had screwed up on big time before.

And most importantly for how much it impacts the written score, I NAILED all 3 essays!

I missed a style ABV range by 1% and I missed the highest SRM range by 2 degrees I think. My top ABV was too high, but my starting ABV was right on. The quantitative aspect of that essay was the only part I know I didn’t get fully correct. But I hit the ranges with the exact starting quantity for all of them, and came very close on the ranges. They break down how that essay is graded in chunks. I think quantitative measures was worth 20% of that question. And I’ll bet I get awarded a 12% for those answers.

That gives me a 92% on that essay and a 100% on the other two. (This is realistic optimism speaking here.)

I need to get an 80% or higher to have passed the written portion (and to become a Certified Cicerone!). 

I thinkkkkkkk I did it…

It usually takes about 6 weeks to get the results. That means that I should find out the week of Christmas! (Or HOPEFULLY before.) Gah!!!!! Waiting is the worst. Fingers crossed, friends!

This girl is ready to trade in her Certified Beer Server pin for a new, sparkly Certified Cicerone one!

And now… we wait!