Tasting Exam Cramming

[johnrm]

Any tips or pointers for last minute cramming?

[Rossa]

Off flavours and how to rectify them.  Flowery language.
Practice your math or bring a calculator.
On time is late.

[johnrm]

You left out a bit.

Floss.


If I have a Calculator Lock screen on my Phone will this do?  :
Whats a calculator for? Totting scores?

[Tom]

NO ESTERS NO DIACETYL, I seem to remember Padraic mentioning.

Also, fill every line.

[beerfly]

NO ESTERS NO DIACETYL, I seem to remember Padraic mentioning.

Also, fill every line.

unless there is esters and diacetyl 

should not need a calculater, thats more for the written exam.  you only need to count to 50.

be descriptive, try to write everything you see smell and taste

[johnrm]

I thought it was NO DMS, NO DIACETYL

[EDIT: Nope, No Diacetyl]
Note DMS if present.

[Hop Bomb]

I printed 10 score sheets. Gona practice writing tonight while I drink. Good luck tomorrow everyone!

[Dunkel]

If you're going to be drinking ten different beers tonight, then good luck to you too! It'll be interesting to see your state at 9.30 am 

[beerfly]

and no curries

and it has not be said yet, Dont forget your certs _{bet i'll forget mine}

[imark]

Good luck tomorrow y'all!

[mr hoppy]

+1

[brenmurph]

go to bed yis feckers.. ye have a busy day tmora

[Will_D]

Subtitle: Lessons Learned!

I have just been crunching some numbers and it is obvious that to do well on the numerical scoring you need to match the judges score as closely as possible and not just score the beer as you would in a competion.

For example the really good beer should score 44 or 45 so is that what you would score it?

No way as the chances of a judge awarding MORe than you are remote to say the least. They are more likely to mark the beer lower say they mark 38. You mark 44. The difference is 6

If you marked it down to say 42 then the difference would be 4 (National level)  If they marked higher then they could go to 46 and the diff would still be 4!

For the really good beers ( in your opinion ) then this approach should help

The same logic applies at the bottom end!

As regards the first beer: I fell into the same trap on the online-exam: "Category 8 A, B, C cannot be obtained in bottles in the US" I naturally put down false but its true! It states in the guide that the style notes apply to the cask/keg versions. These are hard to find in the US in cask / kegs and the stuff the brewers bottle is NOT the same beer! Its brewed to a higher abv with no regard to other critical factors like IBU!

One final note: If I had scored all beers as 29 or 32 the average diff would be 4, If 30 or 31 would be 3.666

Its easy enough to do with excel!

Now we wait for 3 months!!

[Shane Phelan]

I was waaaay out with my scores. I just assumed there were going to be 3 or 4 perfect examples of the styles with the rest being home brew. I was standing right in front of Gordon when he read out the scores, when he saw my "WTF? face" he was quick to point out that the points difference only counts for 1/6th of the total score. If your descriptions are good then you will be fine.

[Will_D]

Yeah I know

The BJCP states "These will likely be mainly homebrew with max of 3 commercial beers. Most likely there will be 2 beers with distinctly noticable faults/characteristics, one should be an excellent example (45 - 50) of the style".

Their highest was 38 !

Anyways so as we don't come over as whinging paddys lets wait and see what happens