Slowly peeking out above the parapet.

MW exams are done (again), for another year at least.

Dan Kirby

Jun 09, 2025

Oh. Hi. It’s been a while.

First thing to address is the dwindling subscriber numbers.

People who read for free: UP 📈

People who choose to pay: DOWN 📉

To be expected. It has gone beyond the point of being worth subscribing at this year.

BUT, for those of you that pay, my MW outgoing for the last 9 months including trips, travel, wine samples, tastings, hotel stays and such have been around £2,500. Your combined subscriptions are around £1,000 over the year. You lovely lot!

The more I write this, and I will be back at it over the summer of course, the more I realise it’s a helpful safe space for other students. I know a lot of students, and potential future students read it, and honestly, as challenging as the MW process sounds sometimes, it’s still worth it.

I *think* I’ve got comfy with the idea of not becoming an MW.

I’ll tell you why.

Firstly, it’s hard.

Secondly, I’ve seen better people than me drop out, for so many reasons. More knowledgeable people, better tasters, better writers, and they’ve all put in as much effort as possible, but decided the programme isn’t for them, or couldn’t quite pass either.

I looked around the MW Exam hall last week, and there were fresh faces of friends sitting for the first time alongside the resilient faces of people like me who are going again. There were people who’ve got theory in the bag, but just haven't nailed the wines on the day, yet. There were people who’ve got through tasting, but still need to get theory over the line.

Then there’s me. One of the 50 people highlighted in the examiners report from last year who didn’t pass a single paper in 2024.

Apparently I should “Seriously consider my readiness for siting the Stage 2 Exam.”

Examiner Reports

I might get in trouble for this, but here are a couple of excerpts from the Theory Paper examiner reports. I’m not sure how widely these are distributed.

These are not a pick-me-up. They’re not an encouraging read. They are a brutal assessment of the disparity between candidate ability and examiner expectations.

They do not hold back in laying out the level of detail examiners require pass.

There’s almost a sense of amazement from the panel chairs that the breadth of information required wasn't at the fingertips of every student. The pass rates are uncomfortable to read.

From 2023: I passed one paper in 2023.

“The stark reality is that 66% of candidates who failed this year’s exam [2023] failed all five papers.”

From 2024: I actually did overall (net) worse on my 2nd attempt, not sure if I’d clearly articulated that before. Though better on some papers and worse on others.

“There did appear to be a higher than usual number of particularly ill-prepared candidates this year.”

You think they’d just make it a bit easier, right? Well, I for one, wouldn’t want to be an MW if it was any easier. So, whatever.

A Quick Bit of Maths.

With figures taken from the examiners reports.

In 2023: 66% of people failed all five papers.
In 2023: 33% of people passed at least 1 paper (me).
In 2024: 21% overall pass rate. “Lower than in 2023.”
Therefore in 2023 = more than 21% of people passed overall.

Meaning, in 2023 (First attempt 2 x C, 2x C+, 1 x B) I was in the middle 10% bracket who passed one or two papers but didn’t pass overall. If I’m being competitive, I’m pretty chill with a silver medal on reflection1.

But in 2024 (second attempt 3 x C+ and 2 x D) I was in the lower (55% - 65% ???) of people that didn’t get a single passing grade.

BUT. If you average out all the grades, from all the brackets, taking the middle values. Regardless of the grade for each individual paper, I got an aggregate grade of ~60%, an overall C+ on BOTH attempts.

Which, LET’S FUCKING FACE IT, is not a disaster.

Theory Prep.

From the Student Guide:

“To pass the theory component you need to average 65% or more across all five papers, with a minimum of 55% in any one paper.”

I need a 5% point average increase across the board to give myself a chance to get over the line in Theory this year.

Armed with this knowledge, I worked even harder this year. Turned things down for study. Got up early to drive 2hrs to blind tastings every other Saturday. Focussed on grammar, and language and sentence structure to make my thoughts read more analytically.

Ignored pretty much all social media, I essentially stopped writing this newsletter (sorry), I reached out to people, had zoom calls with people who work in QA & QC, joined in some theory study sessions that forced me to take a cold hard look at what I was writing2. I think I figured out what ‘good’ looks like.

Getting Comfy.

Which brings me on to the third reason I’m comfy with not getting through this year.

Because, I don’t think I have it in me to do any better and I’m proud of myself for getting this far.

Someone who was studying for WSET 3 exams a couple of months ago asked me for a quick bit of advice. We tasted through 10 wines Ive never tasted before and I was very clearly able to articulate the specific differences between the wines, decode the winemaking, explain how to differentiate that between the major points. She said I should teach because I was good at it.

In reality, the comms comes from knowing so much more than I did 3 years ago, being able to distill it quickly, articulate it with sound reason and explain it. That’s what the MW does for you.

But, obviously I’d love to continue. I’ve given it 4 years so far. Quite a bit has changed. I’ve changed jobs a couple of times. I’ve travelled a bit. Been involved in two harvests at the vineyard. And, obviously, it would still be fucking cool to be an MW.

What’s Next?

I’m taking the summer off from study, and I’m tentatively considering opening Instagram again.

I’ve realised my comfy place is as a communicator, a performer if you will, and I’d like to do more of that. I’ll come and talk to you about wine in person, if you want.

With that in mind, I’m planning to run through the practical papers in more detail this year. I think I might do some long-form video run throughs. Once they announce the wines, I’ll buy a bottle of each, all 36, and taste them alongside what I thought they were. That might be fun?

I’ve never seen anyone to a post-exam taste through of the wines in much detail. Let me know in the comments if you think you’d watch that??

Mostly because if you didn't sit the paper, you’ll never ever have the right to state what you’d have said. It’s the reverse equivalent of shouting at the little footballers on TV for not kicking the ball how you’d have done it. I am one of only about 200 people on the planet who can actually give people a real life perspective on the exam.

SEE YA LATER.

Just a reminder:

B = 65% + (Stage 2 pass)
C+ = 60% +
C = 55% + (Stage 1 Pass)
D = 50% +

Thanks Tash.