I looked at distance learning, but you have to be able to attend SOME of the sessions at a place other than locally (so out for me) also when I looked the price structure it was not at all clear, so I gave up trying to work it out. May try for basic cert. next year - if I can do at home, but otherwise not.
If you want to do the exams, make it clear from the start that you would have difficulty attending another apiary to take the exam and see what they come up with as a compromise.
Teemore;John Wilkinson said:I passed mods one and two.
That was that!.
I realised that further mods were getting increasingly technical and of little value to the practical beekeeper.
Ask any question to a NDB person and you will get the same contradictory answers as amongst any other group of beekeepers
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for education but academic exercises for their own sake ,fail to attract me !
John Wilkinson
Quite a bit of exam passing is technique
For instance, people with experience in the taking of exams will suss out the questions with the greatest rewards(points wise)
,also they will have the advantage of knowing how to write an essay in such a manner as to cover all points raised by the question without too much added information and all in a tightly allotted time frame.
Pass or fail though, the breadth of reading is worthwhile.
Exams passed or not, beekeeping is still mainly down to experience. Yes, some parts may be appropriate for getting a particular position, or at least give an advantage to those candidates with the cerificate.
With the ease and likelihood of passing the basic, it is simply a money spinner for the arranging organisation; but against that it does introduce the examiners to 'marking' examinees and it also gives some learners the idea that if they can pass, they are a 'beekeeper proper'. That may or may not be the case.
I am still learning after ten years, but I have no intention of passing any exam unless I had a particular interest in that facet of the subject.
In most examination/learning environments prior knowledge and learning is taken into account to determine the starting level for different students. That seems to be absent in this series of certificated organisation. That seems very typical of particular organisations, if that is, in fact, the true position. Please feel free to correct me if my perception is incorrect.
Regards, RAB
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