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In the last post, I wrote about my second attempt at the Advanced Cicerone exam in Texas in October 2016.
I had a couple of options after getting a 78 overall on my first attempt and choose to go to Dallas to retake the written only. In hindsight, I should have taken both the written/oral and tasting portions. I wouldn’t make that mistake again when I went to Miami and finally passed in the Spring of 2018. But by retaking the written exam, I got my overall score to 79, 1 point shy of passing.
Next up, attempt 2.1. I had a new strategy.
Since I just got my written/oral exam score up a few points on the retake, I only needed to bump my tasting exam score from 75 to 79 to get my overall to the magic 80 overall. A tasting-only exam was scheduled in July 2017. If I had a good day, I’d hit 80-85 easy.
I didn’t have a good day.
Not only did I completely blow the exam with a score of 66, but the day got even worse. After the exam, I dropped my Apple Watch and destroyed the face. Then my flight was canceled at 11 pm, and I had to make last-minute lodging arrangements while hoping to get a flight back to Nashville the next day.
Not one thing went well all day, except maybe the breakfast.
I arrived in Chicago late Thursday evening and checked into the room at my Airbnb a few blocks from Cicerone HQ. I was in a lovely room in a finished basement, not far from the laundry room and the litter box.
Litter box = cats
I’m allergic to cats.
So, not off to a good start. But I got a good night’s sleep and a solid breakfast at a little diner on West Irving Park, a few blocks from Cicerone HQ.
The exam was tasting only (thank god, no essays). There were about a dozen of us, and everyone in the room had an acceptable score on the written/oral exam but were short of the overall score because our tasting exam score was too low. We were all there for an hour and took the four 15-minute sections of the tasting exam.
I was off.
Way off.
I’ve said this before, but when you’re having a lousy palate day, nothing can fix it. It happens. Biology is tricky, and some days you’re sharper than others.
Especially when you slept in a cat-filled house the night before.
When you take a Cicerone tasting exam, you have a good idea of how you did on it when you walk out the door. I knew I didn’t do well. I was sure I didn’t get a 79.
A bunch of us went across the tracks, drank amazing lagers at Dovetail Brewing and commiserated about our shared experience of the tortures of Cicerone certification.
About half thought they passed, a few were unsure, and the other half were sure we blew it. I blew it, but the Dovetail lagers were exceptional.
I got my scores a few weeks later, a whopping 66. I was surprised. I honestly thought I did worse.
In the past year and a half, I had taken the full Advanced Cicerone exam, a written/oral retake and a tasting retake. And I still hadn’t passed.
Damn.
That’s when it hit me.
The Advanced Cicerone exam ain’t gonna be as easy.