I done an exam.

In wine.

It was a bit of a let down. I think I should have paid more attention to the level before signing up. I could have answered all but one of the questions before I started the course and I’m pretty sure I got that one wrong anyway. I appreciate that this was a level 1 course, but I’m also aware that really wasn’t just me. Everyone I spoke to during the course was already well above the level of the course. The tutor prefixed every answer to a question with ‘that is way above what you need to know for level one’. In the same way as doing the register was fun, so was the exam. It was one of those ones that you have to fill in the dots with an HB pencil. You also had to fill in your name in those dots in an alphabet matrix. Even with a four letter surname, it took me longer to fill out my name than it did to actually complete the exam. All this may go out of the window as I don’t actually know that I’ve passed.

The other side to this coin is that I did enjoy doing the course. It was fun. I guess I have to stop being an academic and stop focusing on the learning experience. I met some nice people and tasted some nice wines. I learnt how to taste these nice wines in a systematic way. That also wasn’t covered in the exam.

This all raises the question “Do I want to do level two?”.

I’m not sure. I hope the level 2 course is more in depth. It’s more than twice the length for a start. It’s also more than twice the price. You can buy a lot of very nice wine for £400. I like learning stuff and I have a sneaking suspicion that I like collecting qualifications. I do wonder if I’d just be better off buying £400 of nice wine and a book though. Then I could use my learning time to learn something else. I could learn shoe making or eastern philosophy or acrobatics.