What’s to Come

There are eight assignments in Colored Stone Essentials:

  1. Introduction
  2. Understanding Color and Phenomena
  3. Clarity, Cut, and Carat Weight
  4. Market Awareness
  5. Treatments, Laboratory-Grown Gemstones, Imitations, and Disclosure
  6. Durability, Care, and Cleaning
  7. Presenting Colored Stones
  8. Presenting the Big 3

Distance education is a wonderful learning method. You can set your own schedule, work at your own pace, and learn in a comfortable environment. But with this convenience comes the danger of relaxed study habits. To complete Colored Stone Essentials and any other GIA distance education courses, you need a dedicated study area and a study schedule. You’ll also need a Number 2 pencil for the questionnaires.

You’ll find your retention increases as your study habits become consistent. Underline or highlight italicized words in the text and keep a dictionary handy. All the gemological terms are explained in the course, but you might occasionally come across words that are unclear to you.