Hi Andy,

I’m looking for a written test to administer for the cooking merit badge.  Any leads? (Mike Rauh, ASM)

I’m hoping you never find any such "written test," and if I ever come across one, I'll do my level best to burn it straightaway! 

You're a COUNSELOR.  You're not a schoolroom teacher or examiner or any other such thing.  You're working with just one or two Scouts at a time (I hope!); not a roomful of 'em.  You're actually counseling them; not lecturing or trying to turn this (or any other merit badge) into some sort of "Scout School."

That's why the first several requirements for Cooking MB use the term, "describe," and not "take a written test."  "Describe" means VERBAL; not written.  "Describe" means the Scout and his Counselor have a CONVERSATION.

Boys don't join Scouting so that, in addition to grade school and high school, Sunday school, Hebrew school, and such, they can now go to "Scout school."  They join (and stay in) because Scouting's NOT like school... It's visceral, verbal, tactile, energetic, active, conversational, and learning-by-doing (and messing up and doing it again till it's right). Neither is Scouting about "passing" or "failing" (which "written tests" are made for); Scouting's about learning and doing until requirements are completed.

So counsel your Scouts.  Avoid tests and lectures and such and focus on hands-on learning, with you as their guide.  Teach through asking questions, of course, but make the questions building-blocks to learning; not inquisitions.  That's what Scouting's all about—Creating in the boy the desire to learn for himself, then watching him go!