What to Expect

Raising the Bar is a special tool for learning. It was developed by Imperial Beverage's team of knowledgeable salespeople, who, vetting hundreds upon hundreds of questions, developed responses, categories of learning, and over time split this body of work into smaller, bite-sized pieces.

How it Works
Managers from restaurants, bars, or retail outlets may be signed up for Raising the Bar by their Imperial Beverage Account Manager. From this initial step, each Manager can then create his own credentials, and those for his staff. He can assign exam levels for each person on his team, and view their progress.

The Curriculum
Beer and Wine categories are divided into three levels each: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Coming soon is a Master Level offering, slated to include both beer and wine mastery as its foundation. Each exam will offer added material, increased difficulty, and comprehension skills to pass.

As you proceed, you'll first discover a syllabus that describes the content of the given level. You'll have the opportunity to read prepared materials from Imperial's Team, as well as view links to other online sites that will provide further information. The trick: these preparatory materials are intended to simply prepare the student by supplying a list of items to be contained in the exam, and additional places one may go to learn more on a given topic. However, it is impossible to provide every answer for every exam question in the material. It is important that each student study the items from the syllabus, using the Raising the Bar resources, but also studying on his or her own. Tasting is imperative to understanding the topics, and a large net should be cast in any student's tasting studies.

Practice Testing
In addition to the resources provided, practice tests are a terrific way to prepare. Practice test questions are pulled at random from a large "bucket" of potential exam questions. Because of this, actual exam questions will likely appear on your practice test! It's important to use these tests to prepare, as part of the learning process. Practice tests are not timed (unlike the Exam), and scores on practice tests are not reported back to the managers making staff assignments. Only the student can see what he scored on any given practice test, and correct answers are offered at the end of the test. Two practice tests may be taken for each level.

Exams
The final exam is timed, and time is counted down collectively across the entire test (each question is not timed individually.) You may not press the back button or go back to a previous question, so it is imperative that you have taken the practice tests to best prepare. The Exam score is reported back to the assigning manager, as well as to the student him or herself.