BBKA Study notes

[psafloyd]

When people are paying for an exam it should be fair and accurate to all.

Couldn't agree more. If it's wrong, it's wrong. If ambiguous, there is a possibility the student may offer the 'wrong' correct answer and be penalised.

It is therefore imperative examining boards are utterly scrupulous in setting questions that are unequivocal when seeking a single, or absolute response.

 

[madasafish]

Remind me not to bother with BBKA exams..

 

[iball]

Remind me not to bother with BBKA exams..

Don't bother with BBKA exams.

BTW What is a commercial hive and why should I remember the frame size? I have a book with that information if I need it.

Ian

 

[RoofTops]

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

Ambiguity? Yes, easy to fall into the trap. When I first read the words above I assumed it referred to a steam turbine, in which case the answer is not so obvious. You could double the diameter of a steam turbine but if the blades in the turbine remained the same length as in the smaller turbine, which is quite possible, the increase in power would only be double.

However, one definition of a correct answer is the one that uses all the available information in the question.* In this case the reference to green environmentalists suggests we are probably talking about a wind turbine, where the blades would increase in length and power might be expected to increase approximately 4-fold - assuming the wind is blowing of course!

* Which is why the smart alec kid who put "here it is" was wrong despite what the adjudicators ruled as their answer did not make use of the fact that X was on the side of a triangle. If it was meant to be a "where's Walley" question the picture would have been different.

 

[madasafish]

Don't bother with BBKA exams.

BTW What is a commercial hive and why should I remember the frame size? I have a book with that information if I need it.

Ian

Precisely.
And as I have TBHs itt would appear 90% of the questions relate to things I know nothing about - and worse - things I need to know nothing about..

So to pass I would have to study loads of stuff which is totally irrelevant...

 

[Nellie]

Precisely.
And as I have TBHs itt would appear 90% of the questions relate to things I know nothing about - and worse - things I need to know nothing about..

So to pass I would have to study loads of stuff which is totally irrelevant...

90% really? What do you keep in your tbh? Cats?

If you ignore the philosophy of keeping bees which many users wrap up in their choice of a TBH then I'd say that with the exception of two questions, both a point each, that everything else in that exam applies to anyone calling themselves a beekeeper regardless of the beehive they use.

If your approach to swarm management is "let them swarm" then no, you wont pass the exam if you just write that but perhaps being able to demonstrate knowledge of what's involved in swarm management in a Top Bar Hive and why you'd undertake the steps that you do, in the context of an Exam looking at general husbandry practices if not your own beekeeping routine, might be useful?

That to me is the point and the value of doing it. It challenges my assumptions, what I think I know, makes me look at the alternatives and how I might perhaps approach using a different technique to the one I do use and why I might want to use it.

[edit] repetition, deviation, hesitation

 

[iball]

In my short time as a keeper of bees I have never once thought about the size of a commercial frame. I would expect that sort of question in a pub quiz, not an examination paper.

 

[Nellie]

In my short time as a keeper of bees I have never once thought about the size of a commercial frame. I would expect that sort of question in a pub quiz, not an examination paper.

I'm going to offer whoever is setting this year's paper a massive bride not to ask a question about frame sizes this year so every discussion on the Module exams doesn't have to focus for several pages on the futility of learning bloody frame sizes and how the entire structure of the things is fundamentally flawed because someone dared ask in a beekeeping exam, a 1 point question, whether you know what a commercial frame size is.

 

[madasafish]

90% really? What do you keep in your tbh? Cats?

If you ignore the philosophy of keeping bees which many users wrap up in their choice of a TBH then I'd say that with the exception of two questions, both a point each, that everything else in that exam applies to anyone calling themselves a beekeeper regardless of the beehive they use.
[edit] repetition, deviation, hesitation

The following questions are irrelevant:
1
2
6
8
11 (10 marks)

 

[Hivemaker.]

I'm going to offer whoever is setting this year's paper a massive bride

You might generate more interest if you offered a slim one.

 

[Nellie]

1 2 & 6 irrelevant to me as a 14x12 user who doesn't use foundation in supers full stop, but given the title is "HoneyBee Management" I learnt them anyway, yay 3 marks I didn't even have to think about.

8 applies, I've seen several different tbh feeders based on frame feeders and contact or rapid feeders, question answered. If they've got special names for TBH's list them, the question isn't what feeders do you personally use it's name two types of feeder.

Section 1 in question 11 applies to anyone and I nearly decided to answer that section using a tbh but in my opinion, the answer to the second part is "who cares" so I skipped that one and did the others.

 

[Richard Bache]

The following questions are irrelevant:
1
2
6
8
11 (10 marks)

I don't wish to be antagonistic, but I think you have overstated the point a little:

Question 1: agreed, if you don't have a Commercial hive, although you might expect an authority on beekeeping to know that Commercial hives take a 16x10 inch frame

Question 2: Again you could argue that it is important to know that you use thin unwired foundation for the use of comb honey (the honey regulations 2003 say so!)

Question 6: This is useful when estimating winter stores: i.e. if you had 3 fully capped (brood) frames of honey at the edge of your national brood box at the end of the season, you know that you would need about another 15Ib of sugar syrup to ensure that they had enough stores for the winter.

Question 8. I would think knowing about more than one feeder would be extremely useful: a frame feeder is used in completely different circumstances than a Ashforth feeder, for instance.

Question 11. I would interpret this as a question concerning your awareness of the relative merits of other hives. After all, don't all beginners want to know which hive they should buy? And how would you advise them?

COI: Passed the modules, assessor for the basic certificate, tutor for the BBKA correspondance course for the modules, not a spokesperson for the BBKA or their examinations board.

 

[drstitson]

the whole point of exams is to have you remember facts that in real life you would look up if you ever needed them.

the BBKA exams won't make you a better beekeeper.

 

[BobH1]

the whole point of exams is... .

... to allow the examiner to check that you have studied the syllabus and thoroughly understood it.

The exam won't make you a better beekeeper, but studying the material, understanding it and applying it under relevant circumstances, will.

One of the big problems with exams (take for example GCSEs and A Levels) is that people study to pass the exam and not to understand and use the underlying material! Higher levels of pass rate at GCSE are the result of teachers being better able to guide students to exam passing stategies of study. Which again is why the exam bodies regularly change the syllabus.

 

[Adam]

the BBKA exams won't make you a better beekeeper.

From personal experience, I can categorically say that they did for me. The depth and breadth of learning opened my eyes to many new methods, techniques, controvocies, simplifications, benefits, disadvantages of many aspects of beekeeping. The benefit to my beekeeping has been immeanse, in a postive way.

Adam

 

[BobH1]

From personal experience, I can categorically say that they did for me. The depth and breadth of learning opened my eyes to many new methods, techniques, controvocies, simplifications, benefits, disadvantages of many aspects of beekeeping. The benefit to my beekeeping has been immeanse, in a postive way.

Adam

the important thing is the learning!

 

[Black Comb]

But how does knowing the difference between protogyny and protandry make me a better beekeeper?

 

[Nellie]

I'm not sure I really see the point of this line of "questioning", you either see the value in how a broader understanding of botany might be relevant to someone keeping pollinating insects or you don't.

If it's of no interest, then that's fine, but what's the value in coming into a thread, the nature of which is clear from the title, just to make snide comments?

From personal experience, I can categorically say that they did for me. The depth and breadth of learning opened my eyes to many new methods, techniques, controvocies, simplifications, benefits, disadvantages of many aspects of beekeeping. The benefit to my beekeeping has been immeanse, in a postive way.

Adam

And, what he said.

 

[drstitson]

what i was saying is that being examined in the material DOESN"T help with your beekeeping. Reading, taking in and understanding wide range of information DOES.

 

[Black Comb]

To me the purpose of the exams is to make me a better beekeeper. If I wanted to learn botany in this detail I would study it. There are many things in the examination syllabus that will improve my beekeeping but it seems a minority percentage of things have been added for ? sake.

Whatever the point you see I don't.