[Tim McManus]

Does anyone know anything about this site?

http://www.beerjudgeeducation.com

Some parts of the web site work, others don't.  Doesn't seem like it's too professional.  There isn't any contact information listed and their privacy policy and terms links don't work either.

Does anyone know if this is legit, and does it seem like a reasonable way to study for the test?

Thanks!

[dbeechum]

Don't know. I saw flyers out at the Hospitality Suite table for a little while.

[ghumphrey]

Yes, I can unequivocally say that Beer Judge Education is indeed legit. I'm one of the partners and we are just getting started - in fact, the site was launched on the first day of the National Homebrewers Conference last Wednesday. I just verified that all links work as well as our contact page.

Let me give you a quick rundown. Like I mentioned, we're just getting started and have plans for more web-based beer and brewing related courses and webinars. Our first and flagship course is a study series called "Better Beer Scores" - live, interactive, two-hour webinars designed to assist participants in studying, and ultimately passing, the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) Examination.

The beta group of courses are slated to begin in August. We are offering participants in these first courses a 50% discount.

All instructors are experienced, BJCP certified judges and professional educators - culling experiences from public and private education institutions and business coaching environments. Each of us not only knows what to teach, but how to teach and how to help people study, especially in an online environment.

Our intention is not to simply slap some PowerPoints together and call it a class - our goal is to provide the best, in-depth course of study to provide our participants the tools they need to not only pass the exam, but to be first class sensory judges as well.

Needless to say, the Better Beer Scores course won't be easy and will take some dedication on the part of participants, but we believe that the payoff will be worth the effort. Plus, if students don't pass the exam, they can retake the course at no charge, providing that they participated actively throughout the 12 weeks of the course.

If you would like more information, please either contact me here, via PM, or via the contact page on our site. I would more than happy to answer your questions.

Thanks and cheers,

Geoff Humphrey
Beer Judge Education - Webmaster and Instructor

[Tim McManus]

Links are broken:

http://www.beerjudgeeducation.com/contact

Brings up:


The detailed course list just started working.

Thanks!

[ghumphrey]

Thanks Tim. There was a setting that I neglected to check allowing unauthorized users access to the contact page. I just spent the last hour verifying that all links work, all should be working now. Moving a Drupal site from staging to live can be a bit of a pain...

[MDixon]

Wow, good luck to you. If the course is going to ultimately cost $250 your class size is certainly going to be self limiting  

Might want to put on your thinking cap about what you are presenting. The exam format will change for first time examinees and ANYONE with less than a National score around the first of 2012. Current judges would be required to retake the taste to earn a National or better taste score BEFORE being able to sit for the separate essay exam. Prospective judges will take a timed online M/C, T/F and fill in the blank exam which will be either Pass or Fail. If passed they will be able to take the taste portion and that will determine their rank. The highest rank one can achieve with the online exam and taste combined is Certified. Those questions for the online exam will not be publicized and the question pool will have thousands of questions which will be randomized with randomized answers. (What is A on one exam may be C on another.) The taste exam will move from 4 beers to 6 beers.

On the traditional exam, history has shown an 80-85% passing rate so your guarantee to pass is practically guaranteed not to fail  

EDIT: In case you missed it
http://www.bjcp.org/docs/newexam.pdf

[Tim McManus]

I signed up today and am willing to give it a go.

Thanks to you and Jonathan for the prompt and thorough feedback!

[ghumphrey]

Mike, thanks for the information - we will be ready for the switch to the new testing format. Actually, I believe that the new way of exam administration is long overdue and very welcome. We look forward to prepping people for it.

Our plan from the get-go was to be agile enough to respond to not only changes in the testing procedures, but also (and most importantly) to the needs of our students. "Reflective teaching" is what it's commonly called in the education world.

Truthfully, we (or at least I) didn't know that there was a 80-85% pass rate. That's great! We hope that we can help push that number up a little.

And Tim, thanks for giving us a chance. We're excited to get things rolling and will definitely be seeking loads of feedback from these beta groups.

Cheers all!

[MDixon]

There is a tome of information regarding the exam analysis and judge ranks in the Database section of the BJCP website. http://www.bjcp.org/apps/reports/BJCP_Reports.php Of course 60% or greater is passing.

[ghumphrey]

Wow, good luck to you. If the course is going to ultimately cost $250 your class size is certainly going to be self limiting.

Indeed, in crunching the numbers, the $250 price boils down to just over $20 per two hour class session over the 12 week course. In comparing to other training programs (e.g., professional development, seminars, and learning webinars), the per-session rate is quite reasonable. Some might say a steal.

My partners and I do not want to make access to this learning opportunity cost prohibitive. We are offering a refund to any participant if they are not satisfied with the program after the first three sessions. Additionally, we are exploring payment plans to make it easier on the wallet.

[thomasbarnes]

Dave Teckham (BJCP Grand Master judge) offers something similar as part of his "no beer judge left behind" program.

There is also some discussion of test-prep resources and exam prep on the BJCP member forums (http://www.bjcp.org/phpBB3/)

I could see the Beer Judge Education program being useful for folks in the back of beyond who are prepping for the exam on their own, people who have access to test prep classes through their local HB club probably don't need it.

[ghumphrey]

I could see the Beer Judge Education program being useful for folks in the back of beyond who are prepping for the exam on their own, people who have access to test prep classes through their local HB club probably don't need it.

Exactly our thinking, Thomas. Each of us is fortunate enough to belong to robust, involved homebrew clubs that offer steady BJCP exam prep opportunities. In fact, my partner Jonathan has headed up at least two for his club over the last two years. His organization of those sessions were the impetus for our learning venture: instead of bringing people to the learning, bring the learning to to the people leveraging the Internet.