I received my card as a certified instructor, or "blue card," back in April of this year, and am closing in on getting the last part, the "red card" for the second section of the Master's degree, toward the end of this year. It took a little less than a year and a half for the blue card, which includes all three proficiency lectures, all parts in opening and losing the lodge in all three degrees, as well as dispensing and resuming, all parts and floor work in conferring all three degrees, as well as the second sections and follow-on lectures. Standard is to recite in front of a panel of certified instructors appointed by the Grand Lecturer, with no un-self-corrected errors. The 2nd section of the Master's was carved out separately about 1997 or so for those who didn't want to mess with the "other" 30,000 or so words of the Work, so that's a separate, and a shorter test ;-)
The first thing you want to do is to get with a brother who is certified in the work, and start learning the parts just like you did for your proficiency lectures. Learn the words a phrase or two at a time, then start stringing them together. I turned off the radio in the truck on the way to or from work, and on road trips, and used the time to recite and lecture to myself. Go to degrees whenever you can -- you will hear "good" and "bad" work, learn to distinguish between the two, and pick up things. Once you get a little confidence, volunteer to do some of the parts; you learn as much or more by doing and getting that experience working out on the floor. Grand Lodge schools of instruction are a must... this is where you polish the rough edges and perfect your ashlar, so to say.
The more you keep it circulating in your mind, the better. Again, it is super-important to work with a certified lecturer or instructor rather than just picking it up from the back pew, as it is a lot easier to get the right word in your mind than it is to get the bad ones out.
I learned the lectures first, then the EA degree. Once you have the EA down pat, it's not too hard to transition to the FC and Master's, then to the other sections.
Again, practice practice practice. Before I was allowed to confer my first degree (an EA), my lecturer required me to recite all parts, word perfect, ten times ;-)
But it's fun, and in our small communities, you can really be an asset not only to your home lodge but to your neighbors.
------------- Tom Ezell Adoniram #288, F&AM Mablevale, AR
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