50 on my course. 3 over the age of 18, although none between 18-30. I'd be amazed if 1/4 of those on the course are still refereeing and it was only 11 months ago. They were only interested in playing football, and the poor refs (who were both young themselves) trying to control them did admirably well but struggled to get them to be quiet in the classroom. The exam questions were a group exercise and my group (All 16 an under) would've had no chance if it was a proper test or if I wasn't writing the answers. The tutors actuslly stopped talking for 10 mins to try and get them to be quiet, whichbdidnt work so the adults on the course used plan b and took it on ourselves to shut them up sharpish as we weren't there to have our time wasted and wanted to learn of the ref tutors.
We all got assigned to a local youth league for our qualifying matches and I couldn't get a game assigned and went off my own back to get over Sunday league games in a different county to qualify! From about October I got texts and emails from the youth league asking me to ref so I'm assuming alot didn't carry on reffing which is a real shame. Some of them would've made excellent refs, some were just little twits lol.
Don't worry about the exam, it can't even be called that. I first did the old level 3 exam at Stockport School in 1998 as a 14 year old and we had to go in a booth and were asked questions individually about the diameter of the ball and such things! It's changed alot has the qualifying, and it's the qualifying that I've experienced more than most, twice lol. It's alot more practical now which is better.