"CertGuard" <CertGuard - The Stronghold for Excellence in IT Certification>
wrote in message news:131mvok52rdbt0e@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Well, here it is...Part deux!
>
> The cheating industry that is devaluing IT certification - part two
> http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/13646
>
>
> These are the other links I posted from the Part 1 post, in case ya
missed
> 'em. ;-)
> http://www.networkworld.com/subnets/cisco/
>
> This is part 1 of the article:
> http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/13341
>
While I agree with you on concept about cheating hurting the certification
industry, I don't believe that is the real problem. You could almost
consider some of the ciscopress material as braindumps, since it is meant
to
help you pass an exam. In the end, you aren't that much closer to
understanding the material, you just have learned enough to pass the test.
Back in the early 90's, I started my networking career by going to cl*****
to get my Novell CNE. When I got all done, I was certified, but I would
have been scared to death to take over someone's Novell network, even
though
I knew enough to pass the tests. This was long before the days of readily
available braindumps. Also, I've hired contractors with certifications
that
didn't understand what they were doing - again before the days of
braindumps.
I think the real focus should be towards the tests themselves. I say make
these tests really hard, and open book/open resource. Then, braindumps
become useless. You would need to really understand what you are doing to
pass the test. Also, real life is open book. I use resources all the
time
to complete my work. All good engineers know how to be resourceful, not
just apply what is in the memory banks. That is really what needs to be
tested.
Now, I understand that this would make testing more expensive, but I am
all
for that. Personally, I despise paying $125 for a certification test that
really isn't testing my ability to do the job. I'd be much more happy
paying $500 for a more comprehensive open book test. And, I firmly
believe
that a certification received from that type of testing would be much more
valued than today's paper certs.
I think Cisco has it right with their CCIE lab tests, although I do think
it
should be a litte more open resource. Extremely comprehensive, proctored
and no way are you getting out of there with brain dumps. I'm not saying
every test should be quite this comprehensive, as the CCIE tests are
really
expensive and long (a full day). But, I think this is a good model that
should be built on for the other tests.
So, in summary, I think the focus here is in the wrong place. You aren't
going to stop the brain dumps from happening. Try changing the testing
industry to give us tests worth a certification.
<Jim now gets down off his high horse>
Just MHO,
Jim
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