Recommendation for IT Certificate.

[innen_oda]

. And that test wasn't considered easy- I was told after having passed the test that there was a job retraining scheme for university graduates who were paid to receive 1 year of full-time training and preparation for this test, and less than 50% of the participants passed. That really blew my mind.

Keep in mind that it is in the test provider's interests to create the perception (accurate or not) that a given test is difficult. Not only does it raise the status of the test, it also encourages those who have finished the test more likely to boast . . . sorry, more likely to share with others their incredible accomplishment - creating the overall perception of some sort of elite status or closed 'membership' which others want to join.

My reference to intelligent problem-solving was more about resolving the small-scale wicked problems which inevitably crop up in complex environments, where truly talented individuals can save a company millions*, and where black-and-white so-called 'logical' thinkers become a bag of grit in the engine. IT attracts logical mindsets - VERY logical mindsets, mindsets which sometimes become so analytical that they lose theory of mind, and struggle to handle non-rule-based, complex issues that do not have two-value outcomes.

I don't blame test-takers for gaming the system - just as the test-makers are.


*depending on your local currency, of course

[Thorne]

they are used to cheat on the exams.

At the risk of being pedantic, is this actually cheating? It might be missing the spirit of an exam, but using this resource would be, I think, in line with the rule of an exam.

One could argue from an employer perspective that these brain-dumps are awful in that you end up with a technically qualified but practically useless employee. Or from a ethical perspective that these suck and potentially diminish the value of education and certifications.

One could also posit, however, that it is the certifications themselves that are cheating employers and employees, because it's not testing true ability, but rather memorisation talents. When a rote-memorisation test is required for employment in an industry, it can leave out those who are intelligent problem-solvers, and include instead those who lack critical-thinking but can talk the talk.
And then for those who have been in an industry a while but suddenly need to have the right bit of paper to continue their livelihood, a brain-dump study resource like this might offer the avenue to continue to have employment, without having to devote hours of study to relearning the theory and take overpriced 'bootcamp' courses for a practical application they already know how to perform.

If a college's Cisco programme is grumpy about brain-dumps, the real anger should be towards certifications and outfits that are so lazy in their testing that mere memorisation is sufficient to pass.

Ah! An interesting question, and I shall join you in pedantic revelry. Whether it is cheating or not, that very important distinction depends on the certifying organization. For roughly one half of the cert exams I've investigated or taken, braindumps are explicitly mentioned in the bylaws of the agreement (which you sign prior to taking the exams) as being considered "cheating" and thus leading to a nullification of exam results if discovered. For the other half, that distinction probably does mean it isn't cheating to use dumps.

I actually don't really care if someone braindumps, what I care about is whether someone knows how to apply the knowledge in real-world situations. People like dfrecore's husband, with years of experience and a great deal of knowledge, skill, and ability in their field, should not be held back by an exam that only requires rote memorization.

[Zardoz]

. And that test wasn't considered easy- I was told after having passed the test that there was a job retraining scheme for university graduates who were paid to receive 1 year of full-time training and preparation for this test, and less than 50% of the participants passed. That really blew my mind.

Keep in mind that it is in the test provider's interests to create the perception (accurate or not) that a given test is difficult. Not only does it raise the status of the test, it also encourages those who have finished the test more likely to boast . . . sorry, more likely to share with others their incredible accomplishment - creating the overall perception of some sort of elite status or closed 'membership' which others want to join.

It is true that test providers attempt to create the perception of difficulty, but that's ancillary to the main objective, which is to create the perception of practical competency in a given domain. And that is what test-takers who have passed the test actually want to boast about.

But that perception doesn't necessarily match reality, because the tests don't actually validate practical competency. What they validate is rote memorization, abstract logical reasoning and perhaps more than anything else, the test taker's motivation/determination/grit to actually pass the test. To be sure, these are very desirable qualities. They are just not the quality that the test purports to be validating and that the successful test-taker typically represents him/her/xirself to be having.

[dfrecore]

It is true that test providers attempt to create the perception of difficulty, but that's ancillary to the main objective, which is to create the perception of practical competency in a given domain. And that is what test-takers who have passed the test actually want to boast about.

But that perception doesn't necessarily match reality, because the tests don't actually validate practical competency. What they validate is rote memorization, abstract logical reasoning and perhaps more than anything else, the test taker's motivation/determination/grit to actually pass the test. To be sure, these are very desirable qualities. They are just not the quality that the test purports to be validating and that the successful test-taker typically represents him/her/xirself to be having.

For the record, my husband doesn't boast about having passed tests.  He just takes them because his companies occasionally ask him to for various reasons.  I've never heard him actually talk about it with anyone - he only tells me because he sometimes needs to study for them and it takes up time that he would probably be spending doing something with the family.