VCEs, College - Opinion / Vent

MarcIT

I will provide my information for the purpose of this question/ vent (mostly vent)

I have started a course at an IT career college that covers a number of certs. My instructor has given everyone in my class a VCE software program to run exams on. I have not used the program, and never will because its a cracked version, and I don't believe in piracy. My classmates don't share this sentiment (which is kind of funny because I am 20-30 years their younger).
Also, I believe using this material to be cheating. For example, a classmate of mine recently took his A+ 220-802 exam, and said 20% of his questions were from VCEs.. and similar stories .. its absurd.

I just received my A+ cert this week, but it seems ridiculous that I am the only person in the class who got it without running through hundreds of **** questions. Already the instructor has tried setting up my classmates with 70-680 vce's.

I am beginning to doubt my classmates intelligence levels because of this situation (which is unfortunate) because the start of the Comptia cert exam clearly states that the use of 'brain ****' (or whatever term was used) will result in the loss of the certification etc. But more importantly I feel as if my certification/s have lost industry relevance now.

Any opinions, or similar situations? Anyone feel differently concerning VCEs?

EngRob

That's using brain **** to **** and pass, so they're just learning the questions without actually learning the content and theory. In the long run they will suffer in their careers because they will lack the foundation of the certs they claim to have and be caught out when interviewing.

Can't believe that a college is encouraging cheating, I'm assuming they aren't accredited. Does the instructor have to ensure that a certain percentage of the class pass?

As for VCE's, i'm sure they could be used for legitimate purposes such as creating your own practice test questions.

cyberguypr

We are very anti cheating here so we understand your point and absolutely agree. I wish people would name the entities who do this crap. Several years ago I personally confirmed that some University of Phoenix professors at my local campus engage in this practice.

Please report this crap to the appropriate school entity.

MarcIT

I am not aware of there being any requirement for students to pass their certifications, I asked the question before enrolling what was the pass-rate for the certification exams and I was told that generally at least one student would receive all certifications by course end (out of around 6+ certs). That sounds pretty dismal but I was confident in my ability and work ethic, and initially liked the instructors teaching style when sitting in some of last years classes, and for a number of other reasons decided to enroll - also we are small class sizes - my class is 6 students.

Granted, now I am not so hot on this program anymore, but I need to make the best of it regardless and succeed. But succeed honestly without the 'brain ****'.

The college is accredited as a private career college, and from reading your comments makes this scenario weird and unjustifiable for such an institution.

I am thinking about talking to my instructor concerning this in private or bringing it up in class, if by chance he isn't aware of the implications of these VCEs.

Thank you for the replies.

ssnyderu2

People who **** to get certified muddy up the job market and make life on the rest of us harder. I still remember this fellow that i worked with. He had just got A+ certified (this was 6 or 7 years ago) but could not find out a computers IP address from the Windows command line.

IIIMaster

I can see how you are mad about the pirate software but those brain **** ? Some of those **** are copied questions from legit test prep software such as cert blaster, pass 4 sure, etc all jumble together. Also a VCE program is nothing more than a test taking tool, you can also create your own **** on them. If someone say 20% of the test is on that **** that is not a good **** your teacher most likely added his own questions. I remember a couple of my teachers had it set up in their classrooms but no one made a big deal about it.

philz1982

With some of the systems (critical assets) that networks and the like control it's downright scary if the folks designing/working on the are cheating their way to experience....

MarcIT

Hey III, I appreciate the reply. I agree that a VCE program can be used appropriately for practice exam layout etc., but in my situation the VCE files that the instructor gave us I tracked to a brain **** website full of other ****. The particular VCEs he provided us may be a few months outdated, but he certainly didn't create them himself.

Also I still find 20% significant, if they are exact questions word for word found on the cert exam.

ratbuddy

Yeah, 20% cheating is still cheating!

IIIMaster

Yeah i get you but I recall taking a CompTIA cert course at school years ago. Our main course work was doing those cert blaster test questions until we score a 100 on it. Most likely some of those questions would be on the exam as they was prep to help with that particular cert. Heck I can make a CCNA **** on my own and pretty much make it 40-50% accurate. If you know about Cisco you kinda know what kind of questions they will ask. I can also highlight it within Cisco own documentation, Cisco docs are fun to read .
So I guess they are going through 100's of questions for 20 correct questions ? In my opinion its not worth the vent. But in the end if they do use it to memorize questions it is wrong and I do not support at all or I would have my CCIE by now. But here is an example how companies weave fake people out. I interview for a job earlier this week and they ask me seriously 20-30 networking questions and I was able to answer all of them with explanation because I am a true degree, experience and certification holder. Some type of technical review was required for almost every IT job I was a serious candidate for.

CCNTrainee

Is this really a college class going towards a degree or a bootcamp that is provided by a college?? I have never seen a "college class" do this but this is common in bootcamp environments that "cover alot" of certifications.