In addition to being Certified Master Craftsmen, Examiners for dry stone wall certification tests need to attend the Standardization event at least twice every 6 years. There is a lot to being an examiner and to the standardization event. The standardization event is based around a test day where actual test candidates are taking their tests. Examiners mark each wall as one would during a normal test day, but don’t confer on the marks. Until the following day when all the examiners marks are tallied. The examiners than discuss what why they what they saw and why they marked the way they did. This discussion allows all examiners to be able to score as evenly as possible.
As a first time participant of the Standardization this spring I was welcomed warmly and found everyone helpful and friendly. The organizers at the DSWA did an incredible job with the organization and the event ran smoothly through out. It was great to meet examiners from all over the UK along with a few of us from the USA.
Thank you to Alison Shaw, Ray Stockall, Richard Love, Andy Loudon, and everyone else that made it such a great event. Those of us in the US rarely see the organization and effort that the DSWA-GB puts into maintaining it’s Certification program that we all use and test with at The Stone Trust.
I hope you enjoy seeing photos of the test site and and a time lapse video of the test day.
-Brian Post
