Microsoft adds unscheduled breaks to most certification exams Microsoft is to permit unscheduled breaks into its exams, bringing relief to students working through the often lengthy process. It has been possible to request a break in advance in the past, but leaving the keyboard without prior agreement was a definite no-no. Even with some certification exams moving online in some regions …
> Relationship to the real world ? What has that got to do with anything ?
I work as a solution architect for one of the big consultancies and there is constant nagging to pass one of these exams - for the sole reason that they can say we have X certified staff.
I work with a large Government client mostly so there is no way on earth that I will get actual access to their cloud infra: any exam that tests me on the buttons to press to deploy code or to add more storage to a server is a complete waste of time.
"any exam that tests me on the buttons to press to deploy code or to add more storage to a server is a complete waste of time"
Exams of this kind actually serve several purposes, for example:
[1] they keep the CPD industry in revenue
[2] they absolve HR departments from the perceived need to asess the actual competence of candiates
[3] they help to promote vendor products and services
[4] as AC points out, they raise the PR image of consultancies and "membership bodies"
Whether or not they reflect actual capacity to deliver appears to be very low down the scale of priorities. But even non-vendor quals of this "button push" kind do no better.
[2] they absolve HR departments from the perceived need to asess the actual competence of candiates
Letting HR departments anywhere near the process of assessing the competence of candidates is a bad move.
Letting HR departments anywhere near candidates is also a bad move.
In fact, HR departments are just a bad move.
We had a contractor start with us a while ago.
They had all sorts of certificates and certifications from both Red Hat and Microsoft, and interviewed really well (apparently, I wasn't involved in that one).
Day 3 of their contract with us, they were looking up simple Bash scripts on Google (I mean a 'Hello World' equivalent that I would expect a junior sysadmin to know how to do).
Suffice to say, when they requested out of the contract after a month we let them go.
Exams prove a lot less than experience.
Yes. It's worse with some interview-related tests I've had, where there is a time limit for all questions but the system will not allow you to see any future questions or go back to ones. You have to judge when to stop working on question 1 and hope you've left enough time for questions 2 and 3. If you did and you'd like to improve your answer to question 1 in the time remaining, too bad for you. I've seen this too many times, given that not all interviewers even have take-home timed tests.
Most tech computer based exams, you can’t see the all questions at the start.
Certainly the ones I have done is start with question 1 solve that, and then you see question 2.
Yes I do do these and hold Ccnp enterprise, Ccnp security, a load more Cisco specialist and some azure qualifications (used to be certified Novell as well).
But before anyone says it is paper qualification, I have been a network admin for 15 years working on large enterprise networks. There are things on the training courses and exams you don’t use everyday but you are glad you can recall them when things go wrong.
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