• Basic requirements

    In general, at least five examinees are required to schedule a BJCP exam. Only one type of exam (beer or mead) may be given at a single site at a time. You must designate the type of exam you wish to give when registering the exam.

    Any club or other entity can sponsor (i.e., set up) an exam. The sponsor contacts an Exam Director to request a tentative exam date. The request should include a completed Exam Data Administration Form (EDAF). Please remember to include the appropriate mailing address and contact information.

    To ensure the participants actually are committed to take the exam, the sponsor should consider collecting the entire exam fee as a non-refundable deposit from the examinees in advance. When an exam is potentially over-subscribed, this method should definitely be used.

    Advance Planning

    You must schedule an exam at least four months in advance, since this is when new scheduling will be closed for that month. The proposed exam date must be approved by an exam director. Note that the number of exams per month is limited. Please don't ask to schedule an exam before checking the list of scheduled exams to be sure the schedule is not full or the month has not been closed for the exam month in question.

    You will need people to administer and proctor the exam. The exam administrator and proctors should be BJCP National or higher-ranked Judges. This requirement can be waived at the discretion of the exam director, if sufficient cause warrants it (e.g., geographic or scheduling considerations). The administrator must be approved by an exam director. The exam administrator cannot also take the exam. While the exam director can assist in finding potential administrators, the responsibility ultimately lies with the exam sponsor. A list of potential exam proctors is available to help you find eligible judges in your area.

    In order to arrange for suitable volunteer graders to be available, it is extremely important that you complete and return the EDAF at least four months in advance of the exam. If this form is not received by the exam director in the specified time frame, the exam director may, at his/her discretion, cancel or reassign the exam date.

    For anyone teaching an exam study course, remember that to receive CEP credit, you must follow the procedures found in the CEP section of this website.

    Registration Limits

    On May 19, 2010 the Exam Directors changed the limits related to scheduling BJCP examinations. The new system reduces the number of people allowed to sit for the examination at a given exam site but increases the number of sites allowed per month. The grading of larger exam sets causes delays in the grading and review process. The scheme is intended to make the BJCP examination more widely available but reduce the grading burden somewhat.

    The BJCP Exam Directors handle the scheduling of examination sites. Examination sites should be scheduled at least four months in advance. The list of approved examination sites is shown in the exam calendar. Note that when the schedule says a month is closed, it means it is now too late to schedule an examination site in that month. If a month says it is full, it means we have reached the limit of the number of examination sites for that month and no more sites can be registered in that month.

    The BJCP Exam Directors do NOT handle the registration of the individual examinees for a given site. That is the responsibility of the listed contact person for an examination site. Please contact that person to find out if there are still seats left at the site. Also contact that person if you need to know the exact location and/or time of the exam. Examination sites are limited to 12 people sitting for the examination.

    The Exam Directors will occasionally approve some sites to sit as many as 20 people for the examination. However, that approval is expected to be rare and is unlikely to be granted more than six months in advance. Further, in months where there are approved 20 seat sites the overall number of examination sites will be reduce since these larger sites impact the grading system. The reductions are shown below.

    • 8 sites per month at 12 seats maximum == 96 seats per month.
    • 5 sites per month at 12 seats + 1 site at 20 == 80 seats per month.
    • 3 sites per month at 12 seats + 2 sites at 20 == 56 seats per month

    To make it clear which limits apply to which exams, the site limits will be shown in the exam schedule.

    Fees

    The fees for the BJCP exam are US$50 for non-BJCP members (i.e., first time takers of any exam) and US$30 for BJCP members (i.e., existing members retaking any exam or taking a different type of exam). Partial retakes (of either the written or tasting portion) of the beer exam are permitted, at US$15 each. Partial retakes of the mead exam are not allowed.

    Thirty percent of the gross exam revenue is designated for the exam administrator to cover his or her expenses, or to compensate travel expenses for out-of-town proctors. If there are additional expenses that exceed the thirty percent retention (such as room rentals or transportation), please request advance pre-approval from the exam director. If approved, remember to save the receipts to send to the exam director after the test. The sponsor is responsible for directing registered examinees to the BJCP Beer Exam Study Guide or the BJCP Mead Exam Study Guide, as appropriate (both available at www.bjcp.org).

    Exam Handling

    Approximately two weeks before the exam, the administrator will be sent the exam questions and other exam paperwork. The administrator will need to make copies of these forms for each examinee. The administrator will also need test beers or meads and other materials for administering the exam. Additional specifics regarding these will be provided with the other exam paperwork you will receive prior to the exam. If you do not receive the exam paperwork at least one week before the exam, please contact the exam director immediately. Likewise, sponsors are expected to notify the exam director promptly if a scheduled exam is cancelled or postponed.

    Results

    We make every effort to return the exam results in a timely manner, but due to the demands on our graders, it realistically can take from three to six months before exam results are available. The bulk of this time is used by volunteer National and higher-ranked judges to do the initial scoring of the exams. Their scoring and feedback is then reviewed by both an Associate Exam Director and the Exam Director before being sent to the Assistant Exam Director for processing. Since the number of exams administered annually has been rising steadily, we had to impose limits on the number of examinees and exam sites. We are often short of qualified graders, but we do the best we can.

    Other Info for Potential Examinees

    • The beer exam is closed book and consists of ten essay questions and four beers to be scored over a three hour time period. The mead exam format is described here. Good time management is needed to complete the exam in the time allotted.
    • Most questions can be answered to a passing standard in one to two pages. Partial credit is given for incomplete answers.
    • The exam requires payment in advance.
    • The test beers and meads are evaluated as if they were entered in an AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition.
    • Examinees with physical disabilities or limitations should contact an Exam Director prior to registering for an exam to see if their limitations can be reasonably accomodated. Disabilities that prevent a potential examinee from performing the core duties of a judge (i.e., assessing the sensory aspects of a beer or mead and conveying the information in a limited amount of time using handwriting on a BJCP scoresheet) are unlikely to be accomodated.

    Administration and Proctor Points

    Exam administrators must be approved by an Exam Director. The administrator receives two non-judging experience points and ten GMSR credits per exam, regardless of the number of exam takers. This system was revised in 2005 as part of the implementation of new GMSR rules. The administrator may not proctor the exam, unless the administrator has no knowledge of the exam beers or meads being served. One person may not receive both administrator and proctor points for the same exam.

    A minimum of two proctors is required for the exam, but the BJCP allows up to three proctors to be used. Each proctor, who serves as an independent taster of the exam beers or meads, receives one judging point for completing detailed scoresheets. The proctors are to evaluate the beers or meads with only the same information that is given the examinees — namely the style in question. They are not to consult and resolve scoring discrepancies. The proctors should be informed that their scoresheets will be evaluated by the graders and director for quality, and points may not be awarded if the proctors' work is substandard. Similarly, some or all of the administrator's points may not be awarded if it is apparent that these instructions were not followed, or the exams are not received within ten days of the exam date.