DSC1
- Thread starter ratty66
- Start date
8x57
Distinguished Member
You could start by looking at the big three organisations first - BASC, NGO and BDS. Then you could look at the likes of Jelen and the many other training providers many of whom or mentioned regularly on this forum.
Oracle
Well-Known Member
As has been discussed on previous threads; in the past some candidates have been told they have passed on the day however later confirmation check of the paperwork has revealed they have in fact failed. Errors can occur - embarrassment all round.
As I understand it the Assessor now pre marks the candidates written papers, the papers are then sent to an Internal Verifier to ensure the marking is correct/no errors. A certain percentage are then checked by an External Verifier to oversee the entire process.
Yes, you probably are because that is a totally unrealistic expectation! Five (six if you do the additional trained hunter qualification) assessments to mark and then be submitted for validation checks (plus possibly external validation too) times by the number of people on the course plus all the administration that probably goes along with it all.
bottletopbill
Well-Known Member
Just got my result from the end of October thank god it was a pass .
OK I didn't realise there were quite as many modules, but you are still paying for this service and 6 weeks is a long time! They manage to mark GCSE's in a shorter time frame!
No of course not. DSC2 requires you to cull a deer, stalked on foot not from a high seat, then demonstrate to the AW a full gralloch and carcase examination, all the lymph nodes examined, and other aspects, yourself, without prompting. It is a practical demonstration of your actual prowess. And if you don't already have the trained hunter qualification it qualifies you for that.
It is IMO of far greater value than the theoretical paper examination that is still part of todays DSC! but which no longer gets you a trained hunter number, as it used to do in the past (I have the old "blue" DSC1 which did get me my trained hunter status), but in isolation gives no practical exposure to actually doing it. Nowadays it seems that there are other routes to trained hunter status, e.g. Lantra awards, but I have no knowledge of what these courses cover, nor if there is any practical exposure, even if only a demonstration by an instructor on an actual carcase.
Quite. When I did mine our instructor did check our multiple choice papers afterwards and let us know whether he thought we had succeeded, and what our marks were, but made it clear that they were to be sent away for independent marking before we would get the result back. the same also applied to the shooting test, where our target inserts were also sent off for independent marking as well. Some were certainly told when they had failed, but nobody was categorically told that they had passed, on the day.
Marking of multiple choice exam papers is not as simplistic as it might seem, there are methods used nowadays to detect e.g. cheating, collusion, "teaching for the test" rather than imparting knowledge etc. The papers are printed on the day of the test, and the selected questions and tick boxes re-arranged each time.
Personally I have doubts about some of the online courses which seem almost to be "teaching to pass the test" I studied the training manual intensely for several weeks until I was pretty sure of what the correct answers to the question bank were (and even stuff not in the question bank), and most importantly, why. Not by repeatedly guessing and re-trying until I could do it by rote using an online system.
TBH the only aspect that I was not so confident of was the photo recognition test, all sexes, ages and, seasons of the year and different surroundings, with which I had very little experience, having only shot four fallow, one roe, half a dozen muntjac by then, and always had known what species were likely on those outings. And of course the seasonal conditions and likely state of the quarry, pelage, antler growth etc. But thanks to our excellent tuition only dropped one mark on that. And one in the multiple choice papers.
But I was prepared, as best I could, prior to attending the training, so I think got far more out of it than some others who had clearly not done so, didn't even seem to know their way around the training manual, but seemed to expect it all to be taught on the course. I came prepared with post-it notes on some pages where I wanted clarification about some of the questions that were still puzzling me, which the instructor clarified for us all. They didn't do so well, most did poorly, some failed. A couple took that badly, despite being offered a chance to re-sit their failed papers the next day, refused the offer and went home in a huff. Probably realising that they still might fail again the next day, rather than spend the evening doing intensive revision.
This is not like O or A levels where you get a grade, it is pass or fail. And to be of value, some will fail, otherwise it would just be an attendance course.
Never mind, when my wife did her Fellowship exams so that she could make progress in her chosen career this was a two part exam carried out some years apart so she had acquired the requisite experiene as well as the theoretical knowledge. They just failed the bottom 70% of all the candidates in part one and then failed the bottom 70% of the group for part two. I am eternally grateful that DSC is not that brutal.
David.
David.
Morkai
Well-Known Member
The Lantra one is the same as what you cover in DSC1 except during the course you get an additional test paper to do on top of your DSC paper, no practical parts to it.
Depends ion where you are and who you want to do it with, just did a BASC DSC1 (finished yesterday) in Cirencester - was great, really well done, nice fellow 'students' and great instructor (Paul Hill) with Corinium. Must say it's not that easy....Reading all these posts about DSC1 has got me searching for a course!!I seem to have picked the wrong time of year though!
BDS, BASC - any approved by the DMQ are valid.
Look on BDS or BSC webpages - they usually list them by date and area - good luck, very well worth doing.
bottletopbill
Well-Known Member
Well done .
Morkai
Well-Known Member
I only looked at the material 2 days before the course but tbh I'd have passed it without doing any reading.
They cover everything you need on the course, depends how you are with retaining info and paperwork.
You could sign up to dsctraining for a month and do some of their mock tests.
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