On Friday 16 June 2006 02:37, ross brunson wrote: > On Jun 13, 2006, at 8:21 PM, Alan McKinnon wrote: > > As I said in the earlier mail, completing the question on > > hands-on only shows that the candidate can perform THAT action. > > You can't extrapolate it to mean anything more than that. > > Answering a question on a multiple choice exam only tests just that > action or situation too, it's back to my point about how you have > to structure the exam and objectives so that they HAVE to prepare > for ALL the objectives, since they don't know what they will get. > You can't tell me that all the domains/sections that are hit in an > LPI exam currently test the candidate on ALL the objectives, they > use the same logic as a hands on, you must prepare for all since > you can get any combination.
With that comment I was debunking a common meme that somehow hands-on tests are intrinsically better than, and far superior to, multiple choice exams. I find in the real world that I continually run into this. People tell me "Hands on is so much better, as it mimics real life" and then they proceed to extrapolate all sorts of conclusions about the candidate's ability, which are simply not true. I believe multiple choice and hands-on are equally good when used correctly, and that LPI, RH and Novell all made the correct selection for their respective certs. But in my experience the general market tends to over-rate hands-on, so I find I have to adjust that perception back down to match the reality. -- If only me, you and dead people understand hex, how many people understand hex? Alan McKinnon alan at linuxholdings dot co dot za +27 82, double three seven, one nine three five _______________________________________________ lpi-examdev mailing list [email protected] http://list.lpi.org/mailman/listinfo/lpi-examdev
