The exam that I sat with gmwren was my first shot at the exam. I had no idea as to what I had bitten off. I went from not knowing how the BJCP was organized to sitting for the entrance and beer judging exam literally within the span of a week. Looking back and knowing what I know now, it's amazing that I was able to get that far. Luckily, I did not know enough about the beer judging exam to attempt to "game" it.
I had the opportunity to re-sit for the beer judging exam early last fall as a high number on a waiting list. I am glad that I spent time judging before sitting for this exam session because no doctored beers were served. The real world flaws in the beers served during this session were much more subtle than the heavily doctored beers that were served at the exam that I sat with gmwren (he was not kidding when he stated that three awful beers were followed by a beer that appeared to be ringer). I just did my best to describe the beers that were placed in front of me, and I made certain that I filled the white space on each score sheet. My motto is now, "When in doubt, fill the score sheet out!"
Good to see that you listened to some of the tough critics and tried again, and had a better result.
I need to try the tasting again.