should anyone be surprised that Cisco too is becoming victim to the certification craze?
1) cert tests for everything under the sun 2) reduction of the CCIE Lab from two days to one 3) obsolete and EOL'd equipment in the Lab 4) lower level tests that have too many filler questions centered around marketing materials 5) poorly worded questions? sometimes I wonder if this is just the excuse of those who don't really know the materials, but since I know your work, Robert, in your case I will accept your judgement on this It would be impossible for Cisco to test for everything out there - old and new. The question becomes this: is any certification forward looking or backwards looking? Face it, the whole reason for certification is for companies to go to the marketplace and show potential buyers that if they buy a particular company's products, there are plenty of people around who can work on it. This goes for any technology - from Microsoft to Linux to Cisco to anyone. Certification is nothing more than a marketing tool, and one more means to help companies sell. If certification is too easy, then sure, there is some marketplace backlash, but if certification is too hard, requires too much expertise, too much experience, then that has negative effects as well. One would hope that being a beta test, Cisco would throw out a lot of the bad questions just because their analysis shows them as bad questions. But you never can tell. I sometimes suspect that Cisco deliberately keeps a certain percentage of bad questions in their exams just so that you have to be smarter than the average bear to pass, because you have to do so much better with the remainder. Does that make sense? ""Robert Padjen"" wrote in message [EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]... > Greetings all - > > I have a discussion point that I am curious to get > feedback on from the group. I recently took another > Cisco certification exam (beta) and was amazed at the > questions. > > For example, at least four questions regarded products > that no longer exist - Cisco end-of-lifed them some > time ago. Other questions included choices that don't > exist - at least I am unaware of a (sic) series router > for serial connections (it was a switch that does not > have a WIC slot). Still more questions had no > reasonable way to answer them without having > previously read or learned specific Cisco materials. > > My observation is that this is bad for us as > certification holders. And, since we pay for the tests > and represent to our employers that they represent a > certain level of professionalism, I think I have a > real issue. The issues are not complaints regarding > poor writing or syntax on the exam, although I am > concerned about this for non-native English speakers > taking the English exam. Rather, I am concerned that > the test is outdated even when its in beta. This is > not the first test (production or beta) that I have > noted this with. I still haven't seen tests on MPLS, > VPN, 4224 switches, IMA, etc., yet this would seem to > be relevant on the CCNP/DP exams. > > Please share your thoughts. > > BTW - If this is considered an OT item please > disregard. It is my hope to gain some understanding > and then address the issue with Cisco if there is > agreement that there is an issue. As the content of > the tests is of concern to all of us I hope that the > potential benefits are valued. > > ===== > Robert Padjen > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Try FREE Yahoo! Mail - the world's greatest free email! > http://mail.yahoo.com/ Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=38081&t=38063 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
