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How WSET Diploma students can pass ‘The Beast’ D3

03 July 2024 By db staff writer

WSET Diploma students think they must learn every tiny little detail – but they don’t, according to Anne McHale MW.

WSET Diploma candidates, particularly when they come to the daunting D3 module (informally known as ‘The Beast’) which is worth 50% of the whole qualification, feel under pressure to learn every tiny detail contained within the 600-page textbook (think annual rainfall in mm, maximum permitted yields in hl, endless lists of indigenous grape varieties and their budding times/ripening times/susceptibilities to disease, to name but a few).

Often, they get so overwhelmed that they procrastinate and end up trying to cram it all at the last minute, which rarely yields positive results. Some students do successfully learn most of these details, and still don’t pass the theory exams — and they simply can’t understand why.

This is where Anne McHale MW steps in. She has been coaching WSET Diploma students for a decade, and has seen it all.

Double award-winning Diploma graduate herself, as well as triple award-winning Master of Wine, Anne knows a thing or two about how to succeed at wine industry exams.

Her mission

She has made it her mission to help WSET Diploma students proceed through this high-level qualification with less of the stress that often accompanies a challenge of this nature.

“I was walking over London Bridge one day in 2018 after tutoring a D3 session at the WSET school when I had a lightbulb moment”, Anne recalls.

“I’d been coaching Diploma students on an ad-hoc basis since 2014, and teaching at the WSET London school for around a year. It was evident to me that I was tutoring smart, motivated people, but that there was a disconnect between the knowledge that they were absorbing and their understanding of how to apply that knowledge in the exams.”

“I realised that I could put the learnings from my own trial and error when preparing for these exams into a strategic system which would help future students avoid making these same mistakes.”

Diplomatherapy

And thus Anne’s signature coaching programme, Diplomatherapy, was born.

It is a global online community which supports students with tasting and theory preparation, strategic exam technique, accountability check-ins and mindset and motivational support (the ‘therapy’ part!). Members join from all over the world and have the chance to meet Anne and their fellow students in person at her annual Diplomatherapy in-person meetup in London.

Two former members of the programme, Georgina Rice DipWSET and Carole Sharp DipWSET, offer additional support in the community by encouraging members to stick to their study plans.

One of the key tenets of Anne’s teaching is debunking the myth that you need to know all the detail in the textbook in order to pass. It’s much more important, she argues, that you have a really understanding of the core concepts of wine production and the market, and that you learn how to demonstrate this understanding by answering the question as set.

No one has ever passed the Diploma through rote learning alone.

Teaching

If you’d like a taster of Anne’s teaching style, she is currently running a free online masterclass entitled “How much detail do I need?!” aimed at those sitting the D3, D4 and D5 theory exams.

You can register here.

Participants will leave with a free copy of Anne’s model answers (both pass and distinction level) to a past question from the May 2022 D3 theory exam.

Anne believes that all Diploma students deserve to walk across that stage in London’s Guildhall at their graduation, as recognition of the huge amount of effort that they have put in – and that they deserve to feel supported and confident whilst they’re on the journey there.

She’s made it her mission.

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