Going for my WSET 3 - which school should I sign up for?

I’m an internet e-commerce guy but have fallen in love with wine. I’ve listened to over 400 wine podcasts, read dozens of books and have traveled all over the world for wine the past 3 years.

I took the WSET practice tests with no study and got over 80% on them.

With that said, I want to take the WSET 3 just for fun and was wondering if any of you had experience with Napa Valley Wine Academy or The West London Wine School? They both have a 5 week course that would work for my schedule and I could get to either location pretty easily.

Thank you!

I took both Level 2 and 3 at International Wine Center in NYC. Having passed with Distinction and Merit, respectively, I recommend it.

Not applicable for you, but perhaps to others: I took the Diploma at the Austrian Wine Academy in Rust. It was a positive experience through and through with many great wine tours in addition to the classes. Highly recommended if you’re in this part of the world!

I took my WSET 3 from an online course through Napa Valley Wine Academy. Unfortunately was not able to attend the actual class sessions, and the online instruction was based out of WSET in the UK, but my experience with NVWA has been good during the experience and since. Good luck- it’s a fun class. Tons of writing instead of just relying on memorizing rote facts. It will put your mind to work. Cheers.

Matt could you elaborate on what you had to write about and I what depth of writing did you have to go to?

Took WSET 3 for fun about 12 years ago (passed with distinction) in Toronto via weekly class (about an hour commute each way), with own study at home. Can’t comment on the schools you mention, but as I have said in previous threads, I think once you hit this level & certainly for the diploma, you should have class time with peers. To do it all online without peer group discussion when tasting while possible, would not be optimal.

I thought it might be useful to have a WSET paper in hand if I wanted to get into wine jobs so enrolled into one WSET lvl. 3 exams (I was definitely not going to go to the whole course here in Finland, because it was something in the ballpark of +1500€ for a few weeks). Just the exam was something like 250€.

I studied the WSET systematic approach to tasting just because I knew I wouldn’t get through the WSET tasting part with my own approach to writing tasting notes. That was about it.

Passed the exam with flying colors, i.e. with distinction. I wish they would’ve sent me the exam paper, because I was pretty sure I was close to 100% correct in both the tasting and theory parts. It was a real walk in the park if you know your wine.

It’s been a few years, but basically the course is designed to make you explain “why.” Not just know facts but be able to explain them in writing. The entire online version of the class was written answer about the material, which was good because it prepared me for the test. A solid third of the test was written answer.

For instance a question showed me a wine label, and asked me to describe the wine - profile, price, why it might be the price point that it is, what it might taste like and why.

That’s just one example but most of the written exercises and test questions require you to know facts while also applying them.

Thank you for all your responses and feedback!