Christopher Sawtell wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 21:30, you wrote:
I think thats a fine attitude, but some people will want a
qualification.
I fear most people will want the cert. much more than the 'real thing', which
is of course the ability to actually get the beasts to sit up and beg. In
order to be able to do teh latter you have, imho, to be able to write
programs or at least scripts, hopefully both. A subject, which I suspect is
not particularly amenable to being tested by one of those multi-question
computer automated testing sessions. Sad, but true.
Writing code in a non-multi-choice exam is still very difficult
to do, difficult to mark, and difficult to create to minimise
the first two difficulties.
The biggest problem with multi-choice exams is explanation.
Somebody with poor expository skills might have a
problem with a question such as "Explain the difference
between /etc/mtab and /etc/fstab", whereas they might
get the answer correct if it were multi-choice.
The biggest benefit with multi-choice is that it is easy
and unambiguous to mark.
Having said that, and having been on both sides of a
classroom, if I did the course, I would still be
focussed on passing the exam rather than learning
anything. Sad, but true.
Cheers,
Carl.
