CSS Exam

So I took my CSS exam yesterday.  For those who don't know, that's the Certified Specialist of Spirits exam from the Society of Wine Educators.  I'm fairly certain that I passed, although it will likely be 2-4 weeks until it's official.

My advice to anyone else thinking of taking it is don't stress out.  The exam was actually much easier than I had expected.  Get a copy of the study guide, and get some good online flash cards.  Even a couple reads through the study guide and a couple of passes through your flash cards should be good enough.

The test itself is 100% multiple choice questions.  Meaning that if you're studying flashcards, that say, for instance: what are the production requirements for bourbon?  You will be overpreparing, because the question will be: which of the following is not a requirement for producing bourbon?

Interestingly, the phrasing on some of the questions is a little tricky, meaning you need to be sure to read each question correctly.  But the content questions were actually not all that hard.  While I'm sure the questions very from test to test, here are some general tips based on the questions I got:

-The questions on spirit production tend to cover aspects which apply to all or multiple spirit categories.  Very few (if any) questions on maturations.  No questions on individual still types.
-Historical data based primarily on the names, not the dates.  If a specific brand or distillery is mentioned in association with a historical development in the study guide, the two instances I recall on the test both asked for the name of the brand or distillery, NOT the date.
-In fact, any time a particular distillery or brand is mentioned (aside from proprietary liquors, or in a list of some sort), pay extra special attention.  I think there were three specific distilleries singled out in the study guide, and all three appeared on my exam.
-Know the geographic requirements for spirit families (or lack thereof), as well as any specific, protected AOCs.  There were AT LEAST 5 or 6 questions on this, which, when you think about it, is actually quite a bit.
-I had heard, before taking the test, that the liqueurs are hard, just because there are SO MANY liqueurs out there.  Maybe the test has changed sine that information came floating my way, but, based on my exam, I would say all you need to MEMORIZE is the broad definitions of liqueurs.   Individual proprietary and generic liqueurs didn't come up in the sense of knowing the details of flavor source, history, origin, etc. of the specific liqueur.  Instead, it tested your knowledge of whether something was proprietary or generic.  If you understand the difference between the two, and have a little bit of reasoning ability, you should do fine on this, even if you are not familiar with each of the individual liqueurs.

Overall, definitely a test worth taking (or at least studying for-I learned a lot), and not as difficult as I thought.  That being said, I'm sure different questions appear each time the exam is given.  Plus, I could be totally wrong about this since I don't actually know if I passed yet.