BBKA Study notes

[blackbrood]

Mid Bucks Bee keepers Association have been kind enough to post some study notes on their blog for some of the various BBKA modules.

This link is for module 1

The others include basic assessment exam, modules 2,3,5,6 and 7 are down the right hand side. All in PDF format.

I already had some thanks to a fellow bee keeping forum member but now my e-library has been expanded.

If any one knows of more online ones, I would love to be able to read some more.

I am also interested in past papers if any one has any.

BB

 

[Black Comb]

Thanks BB. Very useful.

If I can get hold of some past papers I'll pass them on.

 

[blackbrood]

cheers. I have looked all over the t'internet and the only place i could find them was the BBKA site and they want me to pay a pound!!!! I dont think so.

 

[Nellie]

*cough*

If you want to take a look at the written exam, I've scanned this year's module 1 paper for you:

Click for full size images.

 

[blackbrood]

*cough* thank you

 

[oliver90owner]

All, or most of section A was flawed as a test.

Q6 was an ideal candidate for an entirely correct answer such as 'none' (or 'not very much' might be an acceptable alternative).

Probably get no marks, but when you think about it c a r e f u l l y, when a brood frame is full of brood there is no room for any honey! Reference should be made to the British Standard deep frame and nothing more.

One question I saw in a degree-level exam was 'if you double the diameter of the turbine rotor blades, how much more power would you expect from the turbine'. They were referring to a one megawatt turbine in the question. Answers in MW (and reason) from any of you green environmentalists out there?

RAB

 

[MuswellMetro]

you also need to learn current BBKA thinking

if we take Caste of bees then all the books , BKA beginners lectures i have read say 3 castes, Drone, worker ,queen but if you say that in a bbka exam you will be marked down

Their current wisdom is that there are two sexes, male and female and the female sex has two castes Worker and Queen but the drone is not a caste as it is not female it is just a different sex not a caste


so two sexes and two caste not three castes

 

[hedgerow pete]

One question I saw in a degree-level exam was 'if you double the diameter of the turbine rotor blades, how much more power would you expect from the turbine'. They were referring to a one megawatt turbine in the question. Answers in MW (and reason) from any of you green environmentalists out there?

is it not squared rather than doubled???

 

[MuswellMetro]

is it not squared rather than doubled???

or is it square of surface area


but i am red not green though

 

[Mike a]

All, or most of section A was flawed as a test.

Q6 was an ideal candidate for an entirely correct answer such as 'none' (or 'not very much' might be an acceptable alternative).

RAB

I agree, unless they also state which month they are talking about.

February - probably very little
April - again very little as hopefully its full of brood
September - Depends... some beeks remove all the honey and fill the hive with sugar syrup...

 

[oliver90owner]

S o o o, a question might be... when is a brood frame not a brood frame? You cannot have it both ways. The answer might be 'when it is a stores frame' or 'when there is no brood'. When a brood frame is full of brood it is full of brood. It is not a brood frame at all if it happens to be full of stores! Lets face some use the same size frame for brood and honey storage (as in a super).

At least all the GCSE questions now say 'the sun appears to rise in the East' when asking questions on the topic of the Earth's rotation on it axis in respect to the Sun.

Regards, RAB

 

[Moggs]

All, or most of section A was flawed as a test.

Q6 was an ideal candidate for an entirely correct answer such as 'none' (or 'not very much' might be an acceptable alternative).

Probably get no marks, but when you think about it c a r e f u l l y, when a brood frame is full of brood there is no room for any honey! Reference should be made to the British Standard deep frame and nothing more.

One question I saw in a degree-level exam was 'if you double the diameter of the turbine rotor blades, how much more power would you expect from the turbine'. They were referring to a one megawatt turbine in the question. Answers in MW (and reason) from any of you green environmentalists out there?

RAB

I'll have a go RAB. 2 x Diameter = 2 x swept area = 4 x output. 4MW? Do I get a cigar?

 

[DanBee]

All, or most of section A was flawed as a test.

Really? I thought it was a good paper and find little to fault in section A. What are your objections, e.g. to the answer for the size of a Commercial brood frame or indeed the two uses of thin unwired foundation?

Q6 was an ideal candidate for an entirely correct answer such as 'none' (or 'not very much' might be an acceptable alternative).

Probably get no marks, but when you think about it c a r e f u l l y, when a brood frame is full of brood there is no room for any honey! Reference should be made to the British Standard deep frame and nothing more.

I think you're being too pedantic there. I see many brood frames filled with stores during the year, brood other times. The point of the question was to see if there was any awareness of how much honey a full brood frame could store, as it is part of the assessment of sufficient stores for the winter. Know what a full frame would weigh, then you have an idea what those third- or quarter-frame arcs of stores over brood add up to

If you want to be similarly pedantic, the British Standards for hive components lapsed in the early 1980's, so there is no "British Standard deep" of which to speak.

The examiners are human, just like the rest of us, and it would be impossible to word each and every question so that no shred of ambiguity remained.

 

[oliver90owner]

Moggs,

of course not. The question was flawed in that it mentioned a IMW turbine. There is no way a 1MW turbine could operate at 4 MW!!

The swept area is proportional to the diameter squared (double the diameter so x2 x2 the area, so one would expect the answer to be 4 MW. They likely wanted that answer but the question was still flawed.

Regards, RAB

 

[oliver90owner]

DanBee,

I see there are a lot out there that use deep frames and shallow frames and extra deeps. Just because the deep happens to be the usual choice for brood is irelevant. They are shallows deeps and extra-deeps. The question should have been explicit, without any possible ambiguity. I actually use 14 x 12 (Jumbos or extra-deep National) as stores frames and shallows as brood frames, as do others.

Perhaps you wrote these questions? I am sorry if you did, but they are certainly not anywhere near GCSE standard for 'correctness'. I would not want to be associated with a paper like that.

RAB

 

[DanBee]

RAB - I had nothing to do with the paper, but do spend a lot of time learning, teaching and mentoring, so have worked through most of the available past papers several times over. I still don't really see the point you're making - it's obvious to me and, I would suspect, to most others what the question is getting at. I can't remember now if the 14x12 ever made it onto the British Standard or whether it was always unofficial, however you are trying to paint a picture of chaos where none exists. Have a look at the multitude of Langstroth 'standards' across the world, each differing from the next across the proliferation of available box styles (shallow, deep, etc.). There be chaos, and I'd be sympathetic to anyone asking "but WHICH Langstroth deep/brood/shallow/super/etc"...

Anyway, that was just one mark out of 75, so no real need to get hung up about it...

 

[Moggs]

RAB - I must remind myself not to act in haste and look for the ble****g obvious. Well, it was late...

 

[oliver90owner]

And that was a low value degree level question! No wonder 'lesser level' questions are sloppy.

One of the classic questions is a right angled triangle with length of two sides given. The third side was marked x.. The question was:Find x.

After adjudication they had to give the person, who put a ring around the x and added 'Here it is' the mark for the answer given!

The simple avoidance of any ambiguity was to word the question as: Find the value of x.

Square root values, times at midnight or midday (neither pm or am by definition) are likewise avoided, or carefully specified, as are a host of other questions, which could be construed as meaning something slightly different.

Regards, RAB

 

[oliver90owner]

DanBee,

Anyway, that was just one mark out of 75, so no real need to get hung up about it...

That may be so, BUT if your pas or fail DEPENDED on that answer, the examinee might just be a bit peeved if the decision went the wrong way. Likewise, repeated several times over, would, or could, be several marks. Whe people are paying for an exam it should be fair and accurate to all.

If, as you say 'I still don't really see the point you're making', it is a waste of my time trying to explain further; it is likely never to work.

RAB

 

[DanBee]

RAB - I may have misunderstood your sentiment, but you appear to be coming across as somebody looking to knock the exams because they don't like exams in principle, e.g. your assertion that "all or most of section A was flawed". If this is not the point you were trying to make then I have misunderstood you.

In saying "it's only 1 point" I meant that you are using one question to criticise the whole examination system, making a mountain out of a molehill, etc. Of course each point is valuable when sitting the exam but this does not appear to be the thrust of your argument.

Out of interest, have you taken any of these exams and if so what were your broad impressions of the process of study & assessment, and how it has influenced your beekeeping?