G.G. - I passed the Diamonds & Diamond Grading course!

[asscher_girl]

Hi Ps''ers! I''ve been meaning to start a new thread with an update of my progress of my G.G. and I wanted to let everyone know I took my final last week for the second course (Diamonds and Diamond Grading) and I just found out I passed!!!

The first course was Diamond Essentials and it was pretty easy. Most of it I already knew from all of my hours on PS

They give you 3 months to complete that course, it has 7 sections/assignments, but I completed it in 7 days!

The second course was Diamonds and Diamond Grading, which I stared back in late July. They give you 15 months for this course and I completed it by September (there were 20 sections called "assignments" in this course). It took a while for me to take my final though. For this course you have to have a Proctor, so working that out with a friend of mine (she''s a lawyer) took a little longer than planned. But that''s okay, it gave me plenty of time to study! I learned a ton in this course, it was really interesting to learn that much about Diamonds, from how they are formed, to all of the different mining techniques, to the cutting process and eventually the sales cycle.

So my next course is Colored Stone Essentials so I''m sure I will be frequenting the CS forum on here pretty often

I''ll be sure to keep you all updated as I enter the world of Colored Stones!

 

[kenny]

Many congratulations.

 

[dani13]

Congratulations, AG!!!!! How exciting!!!!! Im so happy for you!!!!

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 10/14/2009 8:55:43 AM
Author:asscher_girl
Hi Ps''ers! I''ve been meaning to start a new thread with an update of my progress of my G.G. and I wanted to let everyone know I took my final last week for the second course (Diamonds and Diamond Grading) and I just found out I passed!!!

The first course was Diamond Essentials and it was pretty easy. Most of it I already knew from all of my hours on PS

They give you 3 months to complete that course, it has 7 sections/assignments, but I completed it in 7 days!

The second course was Diamonds and Diamond Grading, which I stared back in late July. They give you 15 months for this course and I completed it by September (there were 20 sections called ''assignments'' in this course). It took a while for me to take my final though. For this course you have to have a Proctor, so working that out with a friend of mine (she''s a lawyer) took a little longer than planned. But that''s okay, it gave me plenty of time to study! I learned a ton in this course, it was really interesting to learn that much about Diamonds, from how they are formed, to all of the different mining techniques, to the cutting process and eventually the sales cycle.

So my next course is Colored Stone Essentials so I''m sure I will be frequenting the CS forum on here pretty often

I''ll be sure to keep you all updated as I enter the world of Colored Stones!

Thats brilliant news, many congratulations!

 

[MonkeyPie]

Awesome, congrats! I think Coati just got hers, too!

 

[geckodani]

Congrats!!!

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Congrats!!! Do you plan to switch career fields?

 

[isaku5]

Congratulations!!! Well done!

 

[jewelerman]

Brilliant!

 

[D&T]

Congrats!!! after hearing this... I so want to start taking the courses, been meaning to, looked into last year, but life got busy.

 

[tigian]

Very cool! Congratulations!

 

[beaujolais]

Congrats AG !!!! Yay !

Questions:

Does that class have a lab?

So, it''s just one final at the end that you have to take with a proctor?

Thanks.

 

[snlee]

Congrats AG! How exciting!

 

[asscher_girl]

Thank you Kenny, Dani, Lorelei, MP, Gecko, isaku, jewelerman, tigian, SDL, Snlee!!!!!

Thanks Tacori, as of right now no, but hopefully sometime in the future I will get into this industry

You totally should D&T! Let me know if you have any questions!

Hi Sonoma, So there''s a total of 8 courses, 5 which you can take at home and 3 Labs that you have to take at a campus. Each couse has a final, the first course (Diamond Essentials) has a final which can be taken online, then the 2nd course (Diamonds and Diamond Grading) has a final which has to be done with a Proctor, the 3rd course (Colored Stone Essentials) final can be done online, and I believe the 4th (Colored Stones) and 5th (Gem Identification) courses finals have to be done w/ a Proctor. Then the labs are in person so you don''t have to worry about a proctor.

However I do think I''m going to take the 5th course (Gem ID) at a lab/campus if I can because that course requires a microscope and you have to ID 500 stones and I really don''t think I want to do that at home. But I''m not there yet so I''m not sure what I''m going to do.

 

[VRBeauty]

Congrats AG -- how exciting!

 

[butterfly 17]

Congrats! I have always wanted to do this.

 

[beaujolais]

Thanks Asscher. Congrats again !

 

[AmberGretchen]

Congratulations asscher girl - you are awesome

 

[Dancing Fire]

Congratulations, AG!!

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Congratulations! Good work!

 

[chiapet]

Good job! Have fun learning about Colored Stones.

 

[autumngems]

Asschergirl,
Did you have to purchase any equipment/stones to do this course or is this one all book? I have wanted to start but needed to know what the start up costs would include?

 

[asscher_girl]

Thanks VRBeauty, Butterfly, Sonoma, AG - thanks! How''s TX????

Thanks DF, Diamanteblu, Chiapet!

Hi Autumngems, for the first 4 courses all you have to pay for is the course and the book. So far, it''s just been 1 book per course. I believe the labs will also have a book but no equipment. It''s only the last class, Gem ID, that requires a microscope. They do send you stones for that course but you don''t have to pay for them (unless you loose them). You can either buy your own microscope or loan one if you have connections, or you can buy a student package from GIA for about $2k. I haven''t decided what I''m going to do yet for that, but I have a while till I get there. Roughly I''d say if you do distance education with the 3 labs at a campus, plus books/shipping it will cost about $10-12K total (that''s based on 2009 pricing).