The WSET Results Are In

[You guys, I don’t mean to make a big thing of it or anything, but this is my 100th post. !!! Does this mean I get a giant slab cake like they do for tv shows? #milestone]

I think the universe might have been listening to my last WSET post – a few hours after it went out into the world I got an email from the college where I took the course to say that my results were in and to expect them in the mail within the next week. FINALLY!

A few days later I got my certificate and official letter in the mail, and it contained the best news:

I passed with distinction!

Distinction means that my overall mark was 80% or more – woop woop! Slightly surprisingly, I passed the tasting unit with distinction as well. I passed the theory part with merit, which I’m a little sad about, but after remembering how tricky some of the short answer questions were I’m totally ok with it.

Sadly I’ll never find out my exact marks for the exam. WSET will give you your percentages for each unit (if you pay them, harrumph…) but it doesn’t seem to be an option to get my graded test back. The nerdy student in me (who is also considering going on to do the WSET diploma) really wants to get the short answer section back so I can know where I fell short and work on those knowledge gaps. But going back over my post about the exam itself I guess it’s pretty clear which questions tripped me up, so maybe I don’t need that anyway.

In any event, I’m really proud of myself for passing with distinction. This is what I was aiming for and even with all the time and effort I put toward that goal when I came out of the exam I wasn’t at all sure I’d achieved it.  

Plus, it comes with a fancy pin!

My promise to you

Just because I know some things about wine things now doesn’t mean I’m going to become snobby about it. I promise I will continue to be my regular goofy, informal, approachable friend you can come to for cool wine trivia and stories and answers to wine-related questions. Only now you can trust me even more!

So what now?

To be honest, I’m not sure. There is still so much more to learn about wine! I’d like to learn more about (and maybe participate in) how wine is made and the decisions that winemakers go through with each harvest. I’d like to do the WSET diploma, but I need about $8000 to do that so it’ll probably have to wait for a while. And even then, the WSET diploma would only be a stepping stone to what I’m really attracted to – a masters of wine.

So there’s a lot to think about! But right now? I think I’ll go enjoy a glass of something and re-read my results letter.