How to deal with training provider giving out braindumps?

OctalDump

I am currently doing a VMware ICM course run by a VMware IT Academy. They have given us some practice questions. They looked a little polished, and then some had images with watermarks of a notorious braindump site. I suspect the whole lot was taken from brain **** sites.

Honestly, I'm surprised that this training organisation would do this. I've done previous courses there, and they have had quite realistic conversations about what happens when you use **** - yes they exist, but they are against the rules, and ultimately harm you and the value of the certification. The fact that they are a VMware Academy as well...

It's also makes me angry. I have VCP5 already, I earned it legitimately (an ICM course, experience and wading through a 600pp text book, official practice tests, labs). Potentially the fact I've even seen these questions puts not only that certification at risk, but any future VMware certifications.

This is the word from VMware:

You will neither: (i) provide nor accept improper assistance; nor (ii) use unauthorized materials in attempting to satisfy certification requirements (including unauthorized certification content provided by third parties).

and

You understand and agree that, if for any reason and at its sole discretion, VMware believes your exam results do not accurately reflect your true knowledge or mastery of the subject matter of the test and/or that you have violated this Agreement, VMware has the right (without refund of any kind) to deny you any further participation in the test, cancel a passed test result, revoke any pre-existing VMware certifications, your VMware certified status and any other rights previously conferred on you by VMware, and to permanently bar you from any further participation in the Program.

What would you do?

shochan

I would call in

bpenn

I would definitely report that to VMware. For the amount of money that we pay to attend official training/boot camps, you would think they would focus more on actually teaching the material and preparing students for real-world. Instead, they are probably just more concerned with their pass rate.

blargoe

Definitely report them.

And be sure to hurry up and take the test while the questions are still fresh in your head........... j/k

E Double U

Snitches get stitches

NavyMooseCCNA

Report them; they need to be publicly slammed.

swamprat

Report it here. certification@vmware.com

If you're worried about blowback, create a throwaway email address to send it. Just realize that if you don't report it, every other person in that class using those **** is removing a portion of value from the certification you're trying to get on the up and up

PCTechLinc

swamprat wrote: »

Report it here. certification@vmware.com

If you're worried about blowback, create a throwaway email address to send it. Just realize that if you don't report it, every other person in that class using those **** is removing a portion of value from the certification you're trying to get on the up and up

ESPECIALLY since VMware just raised all their prices...

Iristheangel

Report them. You paid for them to teach you and just giving you the answers at the end is a cop out.

OctalDump

I have reported it to VMware. I've put my name to it. I'm kind of prepared to take potential blowback. Losing VCP, or not being able to take the VCP6, or the worst case of permanently being excluded from VMware would suck, but I will survive. The money isn't a personal issue, since I'm getting the course for free. I am just using it as a refresher before I do the VCP6 renewal.

I was debating whether to bring it up directly with the trainer, but if they are doing the wrong thing it seems silly to warn them. And honestly, there's more likely to be malicious blowback from a dodgy trainer than from VMware. If people lose their jobs or promotions or bonuses or certification over this, then it's through their choices and not mine.

Obviously, I have no way of knowing for sure if these are actual questions. They could be official practice questions and they've done a google search for images. Pretty unlikely, though. Only VMware can answer that, so they are the best to report to.

If they are handing out braindumps, then they need to stop. It's pointless. Just teach the materials, run the labs, answer questions, and give people information about what they can do to finish prep for the exam. It's not an easy exam, but it is achievable. If people really need something easier, they can do the VCA. If they can't pass the VCA after doing an ICM course, then maybe IT isn't for them. I certainly wouldn't want them running an infrastructure I rely on.

They have probably had a few hundred people go through this course (ICM v6), so that's a large number of people potentially affected. And if it's their first taste of training or certification, they might think this is normal. It shouldn't be normal. I think we all have some responsibility to change the culture.

I'm not sure I understand why they'd be worried about their pass mark, since the ICM isn't by itself sufficient prep for the exam. Do the VMware IT Academies get judged on how many students end up getting certified?