[gmwren]

I've always heard it was beer nerds deciding which beer nerds get let into the club. (I'm still waiting the results of my exam...)

[AmandaK]

I've always heard it was beer nerds deciding which beer nerds get let into the club. (I'm still waiting the results of my exam...)

Except that the exams are graded blindly.

When grading, you have no idea what city's exam you'll get until the exam is being sent to you and the only identifying mark on an exam is a random number assigned to the examinee.

I am also waiting on the result of an exam, but I'm not posting false rumors on forums about it.

[udubdawg]

I've always heard it was beer nerds deciding which beer nerds get let into the club. (I'm still waiting the results of my exam...)

Except that the exams are graded blindly.

When grading, you have no idea what city's exam you'll get until the exam is being sent to you and the only identifying mark on an exam is a random number assigned to the examinee.

I am also waiting on the result of an exam, but I'm not posting false rumors on forums about it.

I know what you're saying, but I took the previous post to be talking more about what level of beer geekdom deserves to get into the "club" rather than what individuals. 
I do believe we have some graders who are too harsh.  I want a bunch more National judges, so they can help grade and I can grade less.   

It's the people that complain about how long it is taking that annoy me.  I've had my co-grader lose their job or have an immediate family member have a medical emergency while we were grading.
I found 84 spare hours in a one-month period to grade my last set.  That's a ridiculous amount of time to volunteer for 20 exams, let alone the 9 I got.  Most don't take that long or I'd never do it again, but even the fast sets are a huge % of my free time to donate.  I would prefer people just said "Thank you" and accepted that a purely volunteer organization is going to take some time...

/threadjack...

cheers--
--Michael

[dkfick]

I've always heard it was beer nerds deciding which beer nerds get let into the club. (I'm still waiting the results of my exam...)

Except that the exams are graded blindly.

When grading, you have no idea what city's exam you'll get until the exam is being sent to you and the only identifying mark on an exam is a random number assigned to the examinee.

I am also waiting on the result of an exam, but I'm not posting false rumors on forums about it.

I know what you're saying, but I took the previous post to be talking more about what level of beer geekdom deserves to get into the "club" rather than what individuals. 
I do believe we have some graders who are too harsh.  I want a bunch more National judges, so they can help grade and I can grade less.   

It's the people that complain about how long it is taking that annoy me.  I've had my co-grader lose their job or have an immediate family member have a medical emergency while we were grading.
I found 84 spare hours in a one-month period to grade my last set.  That's a ridiculous amount of time to volunteer for 20 exams, let alone the 9 I got.  Most don't take that long or I'd never do it again, but even the fast sets are a huge % of my free time to donate.  I would prefer people just said "Thank you" and accepted that a purely volunteer organization is going to take some time...

/threadjack...

cheers--
--Michael

Thanks.  Now go grade my exam ;-)

haha J/K.  I am bummed that my exam from early January won't be graded before the NHC so I can't retake it there if needed... but w/e.  I know my set was 'odd' and that's the reason it hasn't even been started yet.

[rainmaker]

So, is the backlog based on a region, or simply due to the ratio of exam takers vs graders?

[james]

Thanks.  Now go grade my exam ;-)

haha J/K.  I am bummed that my exam from early January won't be graded before the NHC so I can't retake it there if needed... but w/e.  I know my set was 'odd' and that's the reason it hasn't even been started yet.

Why not just retake at NHC anyways?  $15 bucks and a bit of time isn't much to waste if you don't need the score

[dkfick]

Thanks.  Now go grade my exam ;-)

haha J/K.  I am bummed that my exam from early January won't be graded before the NHC so I can't retake it there if needed... but w/e.  I know my set was 'odd' and that's the reason it hasn't even been started yet.

Why not just retake at NHC anyways?  $15 bucks and a bit of time isn't much to waste if you don't need the score

You can't retake the exam if you have one pending being graded already.  I could cancel my first exam and retake... but I don't really see the point in that... as I could have passed it with my needed 75.  At this point I don't really care about going > National.

[AmandaK]

So, is the backlog based on a region, or simply due to the ratio of exam takers vs graders?

Exams are distributed across the entire country. The backlog is most likely volunteer grading time when it comes to exam turnaround.

[james]

Thanks.  Now go grade my exam ;-)

haha J/K.  I am bummed that my exam from early January won't be graded before the NHC so I can't retake it there if needed... but w/e.  I know my set was 'odd' and that's the reason it hasn't even been started yet.

Why not just retake at NHC anyways?  $15 bucks and a bit of time isn't much to waste if you don't need the score

You can't retake the exam if you have one pending being graded already.  I could cancel my first exam and retake... but I don't really see the point in that... as I could have passed it with my needed 75.  At this point I don't really care about going > National.

I've never seen this rule anywhere, can you point it out to me?

[dkfick]

Thanks.  Now go grade my exam ;-)

haha J/K.  I am bummed that my exam from early January won't be graded before the NHC so I can't retake it there if needed... but w/e.  I know my set was 'odd' and that's the reason it hasn't even been started yet.

Why not just retake at NHC anyways?  $15 bucks and a bit of time isn't much to waste if you don't need the score

You can't retake the exam if you have one pending being graded already.  I could cancel my first exam and retake... but I don't really see the point in that... as I could have passed it with my needed 75.  At this point I don't really care about going > National.

I've never seen this rule anywhere, can you point it out to me?

No clue if it's posted somewhere.  I was told this directly.  I did find this where it states it's strongly discouraged and that they may implement a policy where they throw the new exam out... This is basically what I was told would happen... so maybe said policy was in fact put in place. lol.
http://www.bjcp.org/news/2014Q1/2014Q1_ExamProgramUpdates.html

We strongly discourage people from retaking the same exam when the results of a previous exam are still pending. We've discussed having a policy that says a retake while a pending exam hasn't completed grading will just be ignored (just thrown away and not graded). We may well need to officially say that.

EDIT: I don't mean to say I don't understand it... Why make an already bogged down system of graders grade multiple exams from the same person when for sure 'one of them' is going to be overrided by the other...

[james]

Thanks.  Now go grade my exam ;-)

haha J/K.  I am bummed that my exam from early January won't be graded before the NHC so I can't retake it there if needed... but w/e.  I know my set was 'odd' and that's the reason it hasn't even been started yet.

Why not just retake at NHC anyways?  $15 bucks and a bit of time isn't much to waste if you don't need the score

You can't retake the exam if you have one pending being graded already.  I could cancel my first exam and retake... but I don't really see the point in that... as I could have passed it with my needed 75.  At this point I don't really care about going > National.

I've never seen this rule anywhere, can you point it out to me?

No clue if it's posted somewhere.  I was told this directly.  I did find this where it states it's strongly discouraged and that they may implement a policy where they throw the new exam out... This is basically what I was told would happen... so maybe said policy was in fact put in place. lol.
http://www.bjcp.org/news/2014Q1/2014Q1_ExamProgramUpdates.html

We strongly discourage people from retaking the same exam when the results of a previous exam are still pending. We've discussed having a policy that says a retake while a pending exam hasn't completed grading will just be ignored (just thrown away and not graded). We may well need to officially say that.

EDIT: I don't mean to say I don't understand it... Why make an already bogged down system of graders grade multiple exams from the same person when for sure 'one of them' is going to be overrided by the other...

I figured it would be discouraged so you don't take up seats and potentially taking the spot of a new judge waiting for an exam, with the expanded set at NHC there shouldn't be an issue with number of spots.  Of course they do all still need to be graded.

I'm still waiting on results from a tasting last year to decide if I'm going to retake either of the tests at NHC this year.

[Jimmy K]

I don't think that policy was made official yet. Regardless, last year there were empty spots at the Philly tasting exam. If you want to take it and you'll be there, I can't see it would hurt to ask to be put on the list - even if you ask to be at the end of the waitlist. Or just show up that morning and see if there are openings.
 
 

[dkfick]

Well I have a slot for the written exam but they told me I needed to have my first exam graded or ask to have it dropped before I could take the exam.

[dkfick]

I did pretty much decide to just skip it as it would be the only reason for me to drive there a day early and pay for an extra day at the hotel...I would also miss my carpool... so maybe for the best... I'll just retake it in 2015 if needed (hopefully not)

[Jimmy K]

Well I have a slot for the written exam but they told me I needed to have my first exam graded or ask to have it dropped before I could take the exam.

Oh, then maybe they did add the policy.