diff --git a/application/modules/courses/models/CourseModel.php b/application/modules/courses/models/CourseModel.php
index 931de27a69ea3ce480f0d51e1cb5c650e57768e6..d7f4c1a73f41d7aed426da94856b790baf170c65 100644
--- a/application/modules/courses/models/CourseModel.php
+++ b/application/modules/courses/models/CourseModel.php
@@ -3925,11 +3925,13 @@ class Courses_CourseModel extends Unl_Model
                 // invalid ace recertification array, reset
                 $this->_data['aceRecertification'] = null;
             }
-        } else {
-            $select = new Zend_Db_Select($db);
-            $select->from(array('a' => 'creqCourseAceRecertifications'));
-            $select->where('a.generation = ?', $this->_data['course']);
-            $record = $select->query()->fetch();
+	} else {
+            if($this->_data['course']){ // if there is an existing course this request refers to
+                $select = new Zend_Db_Select($db);
+                $select->from(array('a' => 'creqCourseAceRecertifications'));
+                $select->where('a.generation = ?', $this->_data['course']);
+		$record = $select->query()->fetch();
+	    }
 
             if($record){
                 // for AceRecertification record, get the questions and answers
@@ -3962,6 +3964,7 @@ class Courses_CourseModel extends Unl_Model
             }
         }
 
+	// No previous ace recertification data found -- Last resort is to just load the most recent question set version.
         if (!is_array($this->_data['aceRecertification'])) {
             // load current empty question set
             //SELECT q.* FROM creq.creqCourseAceRecertifyQuestionSets as s