I passed the first level referee exam

[Colin L]

It's a good thing though that we have saunas at the club houses when the weather does get bad. :D

What luxury. We only have access to a wee dram (which I hate) or a few glasses of Rioja (which I love.)

But no alcohol if we are refereeing internationals, England or juniors.

 

Just thought I'd complete the sentence for you since I (a Scot) don't particularly like whisky but am definitely partial to the odd glass of Rioja.

[Newby]

You have the odd ones, I'll have the odds and the evens.

[Halebopp]

We had a second level referee training weekend a week ago but got the scores today. I scored 90/100 (or 18/20 questions right) which actually was slightly disappointing for me. But hey, at least I passed and came second in the class. The next step would be to apply to become a candidate for what I assume to be Mr. Bean and QEight's level.

 

Sorry to disappoint but I am officially still on level 1 even though my vast knowledge would let you know otherwise...

 

Onnittelut!

 

Kiitoksia! I have to admit I was slightly surprised to learn that. I'm quite sure you're in the more knowledgeable half of the level one refs though. :D

 

It's a good thing though that we have saunas at the club houses when the weather does get bad. :D

What luxury. We only have access to a wee dram (which I hate) or a few glasses of Rioja.

But no alcohol if we are refereeing internationals, England or juniors.

 

In a country of 5.5 million people and over 3 million saunas, they are more of a basic requirement rather than a luxury. :D

 

They actually brought up alcohol and refereeing over the weekend. Their suggestion was not to drink. They said it most probably doesn't matter if you get a ruling wrong on the course nor is anyone probably raise the issue if they can smell you've a had a beer or two but if you smell of alcohol and get a ruling wrong, there's most probably going to be some issues.

[rogolf]

We had a second level referee training weekend a week ago but got the scores today. I scored 90/100 (or 18/20 questions right) which actually was slightly disappointing for me. But hey, at least I passed and came second in the class. The next step would be to apply to become a candidate for what I assume to be Mr. Bean and QEight's level.

 

Sorry to disappoint but I am officially still on level 1 even though my vast knowledge would let you know otherwise...

 

Onnittelut!

 

Kiitoksia! I have to admit I was slightly surprised to learn that. I'm quite sure you're in the more knowledgeable half of the level one refs though. :D

 

It's a good thing though that we have saunas at the club houses when the weather does get bad. :D

What luxury. We only have access to a wee dram (which I hate) or a few glasses of Rioja.

But no alcohol if we are refereeing internationals, England or juniors.

 

In a country of 5.5 million people and over 3 million saunas, they are more of a basic requirement rather than a luxury. :D

 

They actually brought up alcohol and refereeing over the weekend. Their suggestion was not to drink. They said it most probably doesn't matter if you get a ruling wrong on the course nor is anyone probably raise the issue if they can smell you've a had a beer or two but if you smell of alcohol and get a ruling wrong, there's most probably going to be some issues.

 

"Getting it right" is the mantra of Rules officials - don't forget the tools you have, including the radio. Phone a friend.

[Halebopp]

 

"Getting it right" is the mantra of Rules officials - don't forget the tools you have, including the radio. Phone a friend.

 

Of course that's the objective but even so mistakes are possible (they told an example where the two, well-qualified, teachers had both agreed on a ruling in a tournament and they had gotten it wrong). The point they made and I tried to convey here was that you might not be in much trouble if one of those two things happens (players are likely to forgive an error when you let them know and apologize) but some excrement is likely to hit the fan if you happen to check both boxes.

[Sawgrass]

 

They actually brought up alcohol and refereeing over the weekend. Their suggestion was not to drink.

 

I hope no one offered you one, because IMO it's a serious breach of etiquette to refuse a drink.

 

(You could get yourself distilled!)

[Mr. Bean]

I made it level two of our referee system!

 

We had a second level referee training weekend a week ago but got the scores today. I scored 90/100 (or 18/20 questions right) which actually was slightly disappointing for me. But hey, at least I passed and came second in the class. The next step would be to apply to become a candidate for what I assume to be Mr. Bean and QEight's level.

 

 

First of all, congrats for the achievement! Not a bad score, either.

 

But.... to become a candidate is the 3rd level and there are still 2 more levels to go...

 

To clarify our national system to all those not familiar:

 

Level 1: A referee on a club level; basic knowledge of most used Rules and vague knowledge of conducting a competition. Duties on club level only.

 

Level 2: A referee on a regional level; basic knowledge of Rules and ability to use the Decisions Book. A bit more understanding of conducting a competition. Duties on club level and as assisting referee on lower national level.

 

Level 3: A candidate to be a national referee; as Level 2 but assigned and trained to be a national referee. Duties as assisting referee on national level.

 

Level 4: A referee on national level. Has been refereeing for several years and participated and passed various practical training and evaluating sessions organized by the National Federation. Comprehensive skills to conduct a competition. Duties as referee or chief referee on national level, or as a director of competition.

 

Level 5: A referee in international level. Has undergone the R&A 3rd Level training (TARS) and passed the test. Duties as a referee or a chief referee in international competitions nationwide, or as a director of such a competition.

 

So, Halebopp, there are still stairs to climb, but rest assured, you will be assisted every step of the way.

 

Well done!!

[Halebopp]

Hopefully a bit of shameless self-promotion isn't too badly frowned upon but I just passed the R&A Level 3 exam with distinction! TARS, here we come! Far from perfect but good enough. 🙂

 

The exam was done online with the standard structure, 95 questions in 90 minutes but all of them were set up as multiple choice questions. The ones that aren't usually multiple choice had ten answer options to choose from.

 

It's funny how unsure of yourself you can get when the pressure is on and how you can't do things at quite the same pace as when doing the practice exams. But to my surprise I got the perfect score from the Committee Procedures and Model Local Rules part, the one which kept me from doing the test much earlier.

 

Maybe now I can finally start reading up on the 2023 rules! 🙂

 

Thank you once again to everyone here who has inspired me to get involved with the rules and officiating and shared their knowledge with the rest over the years, you know who you are, never forgetting Sawgrass and hoping Cancun is simply enjoying life outside of WRX. 🙂

Edited December 17, 2022 by Halebopp

[antip]

14 hours ago, Halebopp said:

Hopefully a bit of shameless self-promotion isn't too badly frowned upon but I just passed the R&A Level 3 exam with distinction! TARS, here we come! Far from perfect but good enough. 🙂

 

The exam was done online with the standard structure, 95 questions in 90 minutes but all of them were set up as multiple choice questions. The ones that aren't usually multiple choice had ten answer options to choose from.

 

It's funny how unsure of yourself you can get when the pressure is on and how you can't do things at quite the same pace as when doing the practice exams. But to my surprise I got the perfect score from the Committee Procedures and Model Local Rules part, the one which kept me from doing the test much earlier.

 

Maybe now I can finally start reading up on the 2023 rules! 🙂

 

Thank you once again to everyone here who has inspired me to get involved with the rules and officiating and shared their knowledge with the rest over the years, you know who you are, never forgetting Sawgrass and hoping Cancun is simply enjoying life outside of WRX. 🙂

Well done, enjoy the moment. I have one request, if you can recall any of the (clearly) limited number of questions that beat you on the day, please bring them here.

Edited December 18, 2022 by antip
Ffor some reason, it posted pre-input.

[limegreengent]

Congratulations Halebopp

Reward  for hard work -  no short cut route unless employed / part of the officiating authorities.

    Was your exam based on the pre 2023 new rules - I imagine so??

 

    Many top referees ,  who officiate for national bodies , will be required to re_ affirm their standing before officiating in 2023 - now that new rules have come in.

 Normal practice to have to requalify every 4years .

 

i do not think that the R@A would wish you to disclose any of the questions which formed the basis of your exam - despite Antip’s search for knowledge - as these exam papers are not always written afresh.🤫🤫🤫.

[antip]

In light of limegreengent's defence of a secret squirrel approach to rules education, let me re-phrase.......

 

which rules themes did you find the most challenging (no specific questions mentioned please)?

[Halebopp]

30 minutes ago, antip said:

Well done, enjoy the moment. I have one request, if you can recall any of the (clearly) limited number of questions that beat you on the day, please bring them here.

 

Thank you! There were a couple of questions that left me scratching my head because there was insufficient information available and one with what must've been a typo. 🙂 Unfortunately I can't recall what the problematic ones were but hopefully we'll get the answer sheet in January once the exam period has closed.

[Halebopp]

59 minutes ago, limegreengent said:

Congratulations Halebopp

Reward  for hard work -  no short cut route unless employed / part of the officiating authorities.

    Was your exam based on the pre 2023 new rules - I imagine so??

 

    Many top referees ,  who officiate for national bodies , will be required to re_ affirm their standing before officiating in 2023 - now that new rules have come in.

 Normal practice to have to requalify every 4years .

 

i do not think that the R@A would wish you to disclose any of the questions which formed the basis of your exam - despite Antip’s search for knowledge - as these exam papers are not always written afresh.🤫🤫🤫.

 

Thank you!

 

Yes, we did it with the 2019 rules as we, and I'm sure many others, don't have physical copies of the 2023 rules yet. We'll have our own exams about 2023 rules coming up in early April.

 

We have our own six-tiered referee system in place - club official, regional official, candidate national official, assistant national official, national official and international official (Level 3 in the R&A). To keep the national status you need to score 88/100 in our test every other year, for international level it's 90/100 alongside other requirements becoming more stringent. Counting back the years, the national union has been pushing me through the ranks at a rather quick pace.

[Halebopp]

38 minutes ago, antip said:

In light of limegreengent's defence of a secret squirrel approach to rules education, let me re-phrase.......

 

which rules themes did you find the most challenging (no specific questions mentioned please)?

 

I'd say remembering where certain issues are in the Committee Procedures, whether something about preparing a course was explained under either, the general play section or the competition, or possibly within one of the model local rules. Partly it comes down to how little time I've spent on those sections over the years in relation to Rules 1-24 and Definitions. After all most of the learning happens through questions asked on internet forums or from you personally. Nor has that section been a part of our own tests. It's simply extremely rare for someone to ask about course preparation, or local rules you don't deal with in real life. So I'd definitely pay extra attention to the Committee Procedure section and have a good idea of where everything is. Also going through the Local Rules carefully to know if the explanation of some rarely-seen local rule can also be used to cover other, similar situations not explicitly stated in the title.

 

I'm not sure if there was any particular rule theme that gave me trouble, the pressure hits when you know the rule but can't locate the Interpretation, or the exact wording in a rule quickly, especially when some specific case might be under several different rules and you don't find it where you expected it to be. The nerves kicking in don't help the process at all. 🙂

 

[davep043]

21 minutes ago, Halebopp said:

 

I'm not sure if there was any particular rule theme that gave me trouble, the pressure hits when you know the rule but can't locate the Interpretation, or the exact wording in a rule quickly, especially when some specific case might be under several different rules and you don't find it where you expected it to be. The nerves kicking in don't help the process at all

I know the tests are different, but I have the same experience. I recently took the USGA test for the 2023 rules, and there were a few times when I knew a specific issue was addressed somewhere, I was pretty sure I knew the correct ruling, but I just couldn't find the right spot in the rules to be certain.  I expect to get my results in a couple weeks, I hope I did as well as you did.

[Halebopp]

58 minutes ago, davep043 said:

I know the tests are different, but I have the same experience. I recently took the USGA test for the 2023 rules, and there were a few times when I knew a specific issue was addressed somewhere, I was pretty sure I knew the correct ruling, but I just couldn't find the right spot in the rules to be certain.  I expect to get my results in a couple weeks, I hope I did as well as you did.

 

I'm certain you did well!

 

Knowing such a ruling, or guidance is in the book is much better than reading something and thinking you've never heard of it before. 🙂 I stumbled upon a couple of such questions, or answer options and I still haven't figured out if one of them is in the Official Guide at all. 🙂

[antip]

5 hours ago, Halebopp said:

 

I'm certain you did well!

 

Knowing such a ruling, or guidance is in the book is much better than reading something and thinking you've never heard of it before. 🙂 I stumbled upon a couple of such questions, or answer options and I still haven't figured out if one of them is in the Official Guide at all. 🙂

They are the kind of themes (as opposed to specific questions) that interest me - can we actually find relevant bits in the depths that can help. Consider if you can bring something in that area without spilling the beans on any specific "secret". 

More generally, this notion that you can be in the business of educating but still keep certain questions secret leaves me very cold- isn't the educator's job to raise all awareness of the topic?

[antip]

13 hours ago, Halebopp said:

 

I'd say remembering where certain issues are in the Committee Procedures, whether something about preparing a course was explained under either, the general play section or the competition, or possibly within one of the model local rules. Partly it comes down to how little time I've spent on those sections over the years in relation to Rules 1-24 and Definitions. After all most of the learning happens through questions asked on internet forums or from you personally. Nor has that section been a part of our own tests. It's simply extremely rare for someone to ask about course preparation, or local rules you don't deal with in real life. So I'd definitely pay extra attention to the Committee Procedure section and have a good idea of where everything is. Also going through the Local Rules carefully to know if the explanation of some rarely-seen local rule can also be used to cover other, similar situations not explicitly stated in the title.

 

I'm not sure if there was any particular rule theme that gave me trouble, the pressure hits when you know the rule but can't locate the Interpretation, or the exact wording in a rule quickly, especially when some specific case might be under several different rules and you don't find it where you expected it to be. The nerves kicking in don't help the process at all. 🙂

 

Thanks for these observations. I'm that nerd that turns up for exams under both regimes and the contrasts are interesting. IMO, the USGA versions are superior, better written, better proof read and better executed. I think that reflects that the rules education resources in the USGA are deeper/better resourced and their exams and workshops are conducted on a larger and more centralized scale. Every R&A exam and test exam I have seen has some poor questions (simply no unambiguous answer available), I haven't seen that on the USGA version. The style of questions also can be a bit quirky on the R&A - eg, they have a number of what is the rule number questions and among them will be one or two where there may be more than one correct answer, but they subjectively mark one of them wrong. So a person that knows the rule perfectly for applying on the course in a ruling/refereeing role can be told "you got that question wrong". This gives me the impression is the R&A has a culture of hating it if anyone gets a 100 per cent result and the way they pitch the questions and answers will make that less likely. That is not my impression of the USGA.

All that said, I would still encourage anyone to commit to and participate in any exams available to you, it is a valuable experience that will make you much more rules aware and useful out on the course.

[Halebopp]

8 hours ago, antip said:

Thanks for these observations. I'm that nerd that turns up for exams under both regimes and the contrasts are interesting. IMO, the USGA versions are superior, better written, better proof read and better executed. I think that reflects that the rules education resources in the USGA are deeper/better resourced and their exams and workshops are conducted on a larger and more centralized scale. Every R&A exam and test exam I have seen has some poor questions (simply no unambiguous answer available), I haven't seen that on the USGA version. The style of questions also can be a bit quirky on the R&A - eg, they have a number of what is the rule number questions and among them will be one or two where there may be more than one correct answer, but they subjectively mark one of them wrong. So a person that knows the rule perfectly for applying on the course in a ruling/refereeing role can be told "you got that question wrong". This gives me the impression is the R&A has a culture of hating it if anyone gets a 100 per cent result and the way they pitch the questions and answers will make that less likely. That is not my impression of the USGA.

All that said, I would still encourage anyone to commit to and participate in any exams available to you, it is a valuable experience that will make you much more rules aware and useful out on the course.

 

That's an interesting take on the R&A. I remember reading about the resources at the R&A being somewhat limited, so some of the issues might lie there rather than in malice, or to protect the perfect score or the higher merits.

 

That being said, the preparation material certainly had questions, accompanied by answer options none of us would've allowed to be in any sort of a test. One was a question in which a player unknowingly holed a blind approach shot and conceded the hole before the ball was found in the hole. We should've been able to tell the result of the hole without any knowledge on the number of shots taken etc. Another one was about a fence lying OB and to get the answer right, you would've needed to assume a part of the fence was on the course and that part was interfering with the stroke.

 

Because of such issues I emailed them to inquire whether or not such questions would come up in the actual test and will there be situations in which we need to make assumptions about facts not explicitly spelled out based on the answer options. For the concession question the reply was that the questions in the actual exams would be prepared more thoroughly and merely confirmed it was assumed a part of the fence was on the course.

[antip]

9 hours ago, Halebopp said:

 

That's an interesting take on the R&A. I remember reading about the resources at the R&A being somewhat limited, so some of the issues might lie there rather than in malice, or to protect the perfect score or the higher merits.

 

That being said, the preparation material certainly had questions, accompanied by answer options none of us would've allowed to be in any sort of a test. One was a question in which a player unknowingly holed a blind approach shot and conceded the hole before the ball was found in the hole. We should've been able to tell the result of the hole without any knowledge on the number of shots taken etc. Another one was about a fence lying OB and to get the answer right, you would've needed to assume a part of the fence was on the course and that part was interfering with the stroke.

 

Because of such issues I emailed them to inquire whether or not such questions would come up in the actual test and will there be situations in which we need to make assumptions about facts not explicitly spelled out based on the answer options. For the concession question the reply was that the questions in the actual exams would be prepared more thoroughly and merely confirmed it was assumed a part of the fence was on the course.

I'm sure there is no "malice", possibly just a sense that a "perfect" score would somehow challenge their sense of the real world in which everyone, at some time or another, gets one wrong. But examiner failure to carefully edit/proof read an exam is disappointing and even more so when a question, literally, does not supply appropriate information to answer the question. Your reference to preparation materials matches what I have seen - it can have multiple holes - and that is truly disappointing that they don't apply the care to ensure they are not misinforming the rules student. The level two preparation material for calendar 2019 (ie first of the new rules) was a genuine horror story - it contained half a dozen errors before they managed a corrected version months down the track. At the time I was helping some club members prepare for the test and they found it distressing that the R&A was telling them certain things and 'ol antip was telling them that was BS.

[Mr. Bean]

18 hours ago, Halebopp said:

Because of such issues I emailed them to inquire whether or not such questions would come up in the actual test and will there be situations in which we need to make assumptions about facts not explicitly spelled out based on the answer options. For the concession question the reply was that the questions in the actual exams would be prepared more thoroughly and merely confirmed it was assumed a part of the fence was on the course.

 

The problem I have experienced in many tests (and not only related to golf) is that the prepared test has not been tested before being launched. If one needs to assume something that should come up in the pre-testing phase and not only in the actual test conducted by course attendees/pupils.

 

Writing down a test question does not differ from anything else written down. The person writing it down knows what s/he is thinking but if they fail to put it all on paper then there is hardly a chance to understand the text as expected. It is a challenge and not everyone passes it, that is why it helps to have someone else to read it and comment on it. Wrt tests in golf this is often overlooked, unfortunately.

[antip]

13 minutes ago, Mr. Bean said:

 

The problem I have experienced in many tests (and not only related to golf) is that the prepared test has not been tested before being launched. If one needs to assume something that should come up in the pre-testing phase and not only in the actual test conducted by course attendees/pupils.

 

Writing down a test question does not differ from anything else written down. The person writing it down knows what s/he is thinking but if they fail to put it all on paper then there is hardly a chance to understand the text as expected. It is a challenge and not everyone passes it, that is why it helps to have someone else to read it and comment on it. Wrt tests in golf this is often overlooked, unfortunately.

My experience indicates there is a significant difference across the ditch on this (bolded) aspect.

[limegreengent]

Well Guys 

 How satisfying that we don't need our postings proof read - after all - they are only available to be seen  by thousands .✍️✍️

 

Have a Mary Mary Chisstmust!!

Oops.😂😂😂

 

[Halebopp]

13 hours ago, antip said:

I'm sure there is no "malice", possibly just a sense that a "perfect" score would somehow challenge their sense of the real world in which everyone, at some time or another, gets one wrong. But examiner failure to carefully edit/proof read an exam is disappointing and even more so when a question, literally, does not supply appropriate information to answer the question. Your reference to preparation materials matches what I have seen - it can have multiple holes - and that is truly disappointing that they don't apply the care to ensure they are not misinforming the rules student. The level two preparation material for calendar 2019 (ie first of the new rules) was a genuine horror story - it contained half a dozen errors before they managed a corrected version months down the track. At the time I was helping some club members prepare for the test and they found it distressing that the R&A was telling them certain things and 'ol antip was telling them that was BS.

 

I can only imagine the added stress for those not as familiar with the rules as we are. Such preparation can't be very helpful for self confidence and, if it becomes a recurring theme, can even discourage people from continuing on this glorious path to fame and riches. 

[Mr. Bean]

7 hours ago, limegreengent said:

Well Guys 

 How satisfying that we don't need our postings proof read - after all - they are only available to be seen  by thousands .✍️✍️

 

Unfortunately...

[Mr. Bean]

1 hour ago, Halebopp said:

 

I can only imagine the added stress for those not as familiar with the rules as we are. Such preparation can't be very helpful for self confidence and, if it becomes a recurring theme, can even discourage people from continuing on this glorious path to fame and riches. 

 

Is there any way to put it better than that?

[davep043]

On 12/18/2022 at 10:33 AM, davep043 said:

I know the tests are different, but I have the same experience. I recently took the USGA test for the 2023 rules, and there were a few times when I knew a specific issue was addressed somewhere, I was pretty sure I knew the correct ruling, but I just couldn't find the right spot in the rules to be certain.  I expect to get my results in a couple weeks, I hope I did as well as you did.

 

On 12/18/2022 at 11:39 AM, Halebopp said:

 

I'm certain you did well!

After the kind words, I wanted to post again once I got my results.  They just came in this afternoon, and I again scored at the Expert level (90 or more correct)

 

in the USGA 100-question exam, bettering my previous best score!  We don't have a tiered system of exams here, but the letter from the USGA says that in order to officiate at a national event, an official must have scored at the Expert level.  I'm absolutely certain that's not the only requirement, but I have at least one box ticked off.  

5 hours ago, Halebopp said:

this glorious path to fame and riches. 

Things must be VERY different here, when I've officiated I'm lucky to get a turkey sandwich and a bag of chips (or crisps to some of you).

[Mr. Bean]

12 hours ago, davep043 said:

Things must be VERY different here, when I've officiated I'm lucky to get a turkey sandwich and a bag of chips (or crisps to some of you).

 

We get about 150 euros per competition day and clothing for free (!!!).

[davep043]

1 hour ago, Mr. Bean said:

We get about 150 euros per competition day and clothing for free (!!!).

Yeah, I did get a couple of shirts, I forgot that.  And the local PGA tournaments (mostly club professionals) are often sponsored, the staff makes sure that each volunteer official gets something, a dozen golf balls or another shirt.  I've had a couple of opportunities to work for pay for low-level professional tours, but the timing hasn't worked out.  After my first full year, I'm happy with the chances I've been given, I hope that more will open up as I gain more experience.

[rogolf]

Don’t give up your day job hoping to make a living as a referee!  Do it for the love of the game and to help others.