How to Pass the Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) Exam
The exam isn’t easy. But it’s worth it.
My journey to obtaining the CSW certification was by no means a straight path. I started looking into the certification back in late 2021 after I had just passed my WSET 3 exam. I told a fellow student that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next, and they told me, “You should look into the CSW. It’s not that much of a lift from the WSET 3” (Cue the narrator’s voice: “This advice was, in fact, misleading.””). So I ordered the CSW book and workbook with the hopes that I would get the certification within the next year.
2022 ended up being a huge transition year. We moved from California back to New York, then decided to keep going east and ended up travelling through Europe for nearly 6 months. With the misguided idea that I would have plenty of free time to study, I decided to cart my CSW books with me from country to country. In actuality, I didn’t get much free time to study: we would hit the ground running in every place we traveled to, trying to drink up as many experiences as we could before packing again and heading to the next spot. Nevertheless, I gained so much knowledge during this trip: I was able to visit wine regions I had only read about until that point (such as Bordeaux, the Loire Valley, Southern Rhône, the Mosel, Wachau, Valpolicella…). I spoke to winemakers, saw the terroir firsthand, and tasted wines that were little known outside of their region. Despite all the travel, I still managed to get through the entire textbook and about two-thirds of the workbook, which wasn’t my original goal but I was okay with that.
We returned to the States at the end of 2022, and between moving, trying to land a new job, and planning our wedding, I ended up abandoning my studies until nearly the end of 2023. At this point (already 2 years after ordering the book!) it felt like the textbook was staring at me, accusatorily, from its place in my ‘to-do’ pile. I decided it was time to hunker down and get this certification. I took a practice exam and …. Oh my, it was a disaster! I couldn’t even get through all 100 questions. So I spent a few months reviewing the book, took another practice exam and … ok I got through all 100 questions, but I only scored a 23! I realized passing this exam was not going to be a walk in the park. I wasn’t going to just pass it with my WSET 3 knowledge, my experience traveling through wine regions, and vibes. So I signed up for the CSW prep course (more on that later) and got serious. And after 5 months of studying, I passed in November 2024. I was finally able to put my textbook on the shelf in the ‘done’ pile. The feeling was indescribable.
I wanted to tell the story of my journey because I want others to know that the road to certification is not always a straight line. Life is going to get in the way, and that is okay. You can, and WILL, achieve the goals you set for yourself when you put your mind to it. But sometimes, you have to take care of some other things first.
With that out of the way, here are my top tips for passing the CSW exam:
Take the prep class. Society of Wine Educators (SWE) offers a prep class for the CSW. It is free for SWE members who have purchased an exam credit (you have to show proof of exam credit in order to confirm your place in the class). So yes, in order to sign up for the class, you’ll need to pay to become a member and for the exam credit. This may seem cost prohibitive at first, plus a bit daunting to purchase a credit for an exam you’re not ready for (you have 1 year from purchase to use the credit). But believe me, it is 100% worth it. The instructor, Jane Nickels, boasts an 85% CSW exam pass rate for students who have taken her prep class, and now that I’ve done the class I understand why. Her knowledge is incredible and she breaks down the material into easy-to-digest sections. If you follow her study plan and do all her recommended prep work, you will absolutely be much better prepared for this exam (and in my case, ready to take it the week the class ended)!
Read the entire book once through before class starts. This will allow you to get familiar with the content. It will also help ease some of the workload that you’ll have once the class begins (there’s a lot!).
Follow the prep class’s lesson plan. And I mean FOLLOW. Every week, you’ll get assigned chapters to read in the textbook plus the corresponding workbook chapters, as well as supplemental work for deeper learning. Do it all. This is also when you’ll be reading through the textbook a second time - but it’ll go faster since you’ve already read it once before. This time, read to gain a deeper understanding. Take notes. Make charts to organize the information. If there are extra videos, articles, worksheets etc. from Jane, do all of them. Make sure to take all of the quizzes she assigns, too, in order to test your knowledge.
Learn to love maps. To be successful in the SWE exam, you HAVE to know your wine region maps. There is no way around it. I was able to pass my WSET 3 exam with a general knowledge of each country’s map. You won’t be able to get away with that for CSW. For example, you will most likely have several questions in your exam asking to choose the correct list of a country’s regions from north to south. As part of your SWE membership, you’ll get access to blank maps of all the major wine regions. Choose those over the maps that are already completed. Take the time to fill in the maps yourself, label the wine regions, and write in the main moderating influences. Creating these maps will help you to learn them.
Purchase the practice exams. You can purchase full practice exams through SWE. I recommend purchasing them so you can see where you stand and also to get a feel for the actual exam. I even saw a few questions from the practice exams in my real exam! After I finished the prep class, I took a full practice exam to see how I would score, and also to see which topics I was still shaky on so I could come up with a post-class study plan. Which leads me to …
Read some of the book again (third time). Once you take a practice exam and come up with a list of the regions/concepts you’re weakest on, do a targeted third read of the book. This time, only read the sections you have to review. You are looking to gain an even deeper understanding and to catch patterns and information you may have missed the first two times (when you’re ingesting so much information it can be hard to notice some of the smaller pieces of information the book gives you). As you read through these sections again, take both Jane’s quizzes for those regions again as well as the free mini-quizzes that come with the practice exams. Keep repeating the quizzes and exams until the material feels second nature.
So those are the 6 tips that ultimately lead to my passing the exam. It was only when I decided to essentially live and breathe this material that I could finally pass. Now that I am finished, I can truly say that the knowledge I’ve gained has been indispensable. I am definitely a stronger wine student and professional thanks to the journey I underwent to get this certification. I hope these tips help you in your journey to becoming a CSW, too!
Cheers, friends. - J