The BJCP’s Education and Training Directorate recently held a Grader Training session at the 2014 National Homebrewers Conference in Grand Rapids, MI. The purpose of the session was to provide judges eligible to grade (National+) standardized instruction on how exams should be graded, and the objective metrics by which exams are evaluated to determine a score (and associated rank).

The Grader Training session was developed by Regional Training Coordinator David Teckam, formerly the West Region Representative. David was appointed as the Regional Training Coordinator by the board with the charge to formalize pre-existing standards for grading and graders, and to ensure that those standards and training material focus upon objectivity and consistency across graders. The Regional Training Coordinator role arose because of a desire by program members, and approval by the board, to provide better resources for graders.

The training was presented at the National Homebrewers Conference by Brian Joas, an Associate Exam Director, and Randy Scorby, the Continuing Education Director.

While the materials covered in the training session are directly relevant to National+ level judges eligible to grade, current and potential judges at any level will find their content insightful. The presentation (above) spells out the exact scoring mechanisms by which judges evaluate scoresheets of a tasting exam. The intent is for the grading to be a “transparent and consistent process,” and to “minimize subjectivity” that can oftentimes creep into the grading process due to the largely distributed nature of judges eligible to grade and their experience levels.

The presentation provides background on the grading process, discusses the components of scoring (scoring accuracy, perception, descriptive ability, feedback, completeness), covers suggestions for grading and proper proctoring, as well as examples of good and bad scoresheets and how they should be graded.

Reactions to the training were fairly positive, with several attendees noting that they were excited to get more insight about the mechanics of how grading occurs. The BJCP has provided materials as to the high-level process for grading a set of exams, previously, but never publically provided details into the specifics of how exam graders analyze scoresheets to meet specific competencies by rank.

In addition to the new training being made available to graders, Exam Directorate leadership, who coordinate the grading of exams, are now using the training to ensure that graders themselves are applying the standards covered in the training consistently between exam sets.

The training is intended to be updated periodically to provide further details as the number of graders and examinees grow. No specific timeline has been established for those updates, however.