We just bought a paper MCSE

So I hit up my boss for authorization to purchase study materials and practice exams for the MS Exchange 2003 this weekend. I had pointed him in the direction of Transcender since I had used some of their stuff years ago and was somewhat familiar with them, but he mentioned our offsite tech had completed MCSE training and his instructor had pointed him in the direction of something better.

Intrigued, and on my boss's instruction I asked the guy for more information... it was such a wonderful deal, he went on about how the exam question matched the real test word for word, it was the best thing he had ever seen! I won't mention the name of the company here but it is "THE" site as mentioned here before.

So needless to say I had to report this to my boss immediately. He had unknowingly contributed to the growing pile of paper MCSE's out there. I was VERY disappointed and have lost all confidence in this particular tech now. The boss was so mad that this instructor would do this and invalidate or greatly lessen the value of the training our company shelled out thousands for. The whole thing just ticks me off like you wouldn't believe. I guess some training centers feel a few more passing marks will improve their bottom line.

Just wanted to blow off some steam.

Blargoe

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Comments

rachel_sears

interesting read.. you play games and you can still pass 13 exams in 17 months!! wowsers, that's like an exam every month! you never fail? i don't think even a braindumper could do that many!

well done!!!

lol, took me 6 months just to pass the XP exam!

i was wondering do you go on the recommended courses? they are usually 5 day courses, i went on the microsoft 5 day course for xp, which was ok, but certainly no preparation for the actual exam, no-one could do the course and just pass the exam.. strange really, the recommended course contains less than 40% of the information you are tested on in the exam.

you must be someone who is around 35 and has spent nearly 15 years in the IT industry, and you probably drive an audi tt and have a house with a swimming pool, and you also have an xbox360 and playstation3 already... am i right??

and you probably have an electric toothbrush.

how long did you study for your CCNA? I'm trying to profile what it takes to be a genius like you!!

can you teach me please!!

take care... what games do you play? ever played chuckie egg? it's the best!!!

xxxxx

Mishra

rachel_sears wrote:

interesting read.. you play games and you can still pass 13 exams in 17 months!! wowsers, that's like an exam every month! you never fail? i don't think even a braindumper could do that many! well done!!!

lol, took me 6 months just to pass the XP exam!

i was wondering do you go on the recommended courses? they are usually 5 day courses, i went on the microsoft 5 day course for xp, which was ok, but certainly no preparation for the actual exam, no-one could do the course and just pass the exam.. strange really, the recommended course contains less than 40% of the information you are tested on in the exam.

you must be someone who is around 35 and has spent nearly 15 years in the IT industry, and you probably drive an audi tt and have a house with a swimming pool, and you also have an xbox360 and playstation3 already... am i right?? and you probably have an electric toothbrush.

how long did you study for your CCNA? I'm trying to profile what it takes to be a genius like you!! can you teach me please!!

take care... what games do you play? ever played chuckie egg? it's the best!!!

xxxxx

You really only need drive/ motivation/ interest/ self control/ and all that good stuff to be so crazy. But the most important thing is that you are happy... I'm having fun trying to get certs at the moment so I've been dedicating a lot of my time to them.

Ahriakin

rachel_sears wrote:

i

how long did you study for your CCNA? I'm trying to profile what it takes to be a genius like you!! can you teach me please!!
xxxxx

As much as it all seems like sarcasm, just in case...:

I failed the CCNA the first time I sat it. Passed the 2nd - took about 8 weeks total, it's the only one I've failed (so far...with a few close to the mark, got the Sec+ by one question)
My first exam took about 3 months of study (Security+). You train yourself on study techniques as you go so each one is a bit easier. I made up a lot of time with exams that overlap (eg. 70-270->290, 291->293, Cisco PIX->VPN->SND etc.). The ones that seemed to share a good bit of content got rushed within a week or 2 of the last. Not much sleep....
11 Years in IT, don't drive so no Audi, Xbox-1 but I do have Chuckie Egg on it (C64 emulator

) and it does indeed rock. But nope nowadays its UT 2004 Onslaught.

The main thing with certification is to love the knowledge, pretty paper (and MCPs aren't that pretty...) won't keep you motivated. Each one gets easier if you do them as close together as you can, you get into a study and exam state of mind.

malweth

Regarding completing an entire cert (all tests) in a couple of weeks:

There are legit bootcamps out there. Given someone with a good networking background (RL experience), a bootcamp can be a good way to bring it all together and concentrate on the requirements for the test.

The company I've used prescreens their students (even for the CCNA) and does not braindump AFAIK. Some of their questions are close to the exam questions, but they are the exception (put two CCNPs together and ask them to create 1000 questions and some will match

). It's a small company with good teachers.

There are some issues with long term retention when that much information is learned in such a short time, but that's par for the course for any topic you never actually use IRL. The concepts behind it all can never really be lost and anything else is quickly re-learned.

Kaminsky

malweth wrote:

There are some issues with long term retention when that much information is learned in such a short time, but that's par for the course for any topic you never actually use IRL.

That's exactly the point Mal!

If I were a line manager again and putting my staff through one of these courses (if at all), I would make sure they had the certification study books 6 months in advance and unless they could prove to me they knew the material, I simply wouldn't send them on one of these courses. However, if they knew their stuff that much, there would be little point in sending them on one of these courses and save my training budget a bunch of cash in the process. Just give them a train ticket and book the exam for them.

Personally, I believe that is the most responsible way to encourage, nurture and certify your staff. They get the knowledge and retain it which, if I were a line manager, is exactly the outcome I would want. Line managers who just throw their exployees on these courses and expect them to come back in a week as a fountain of knowledge are just deluding themselves. You will get paper!

It is exaclt the same for those that jump on a brain **** site and memorise and get through the certification. Paper, Paper, Paper!

malweth

That's exactly the point Mal!

If I were a line manager again and putting my staff through one of these courses (if at all), I would make sure they had the certification study books 6 months in advance and unless they could prove to me they knew the material, I simply wouldn't send them on one of these courses. However, if they knew their stuff that much, there would be little point in sending them on one of these courses and save my training budget a bunch of cash in the process. Just give them a train ticket and book the exam for them.

not sure what you mean by "line manager," but unless your employees were actually using all aspects of the cert on a regular basis it will degrade. You could have them study daily for it (even after reaching certification), but that's clocked time. It's exactly the same situation as a boot-camp cert... you study ahead of time, the boot camp helps solidify the knowledge, and you take the test. The amount of retention is about the same.

I have a bigger problem with "memorization" (whether from a book or brain ****). Some memorization is always necessary, but understanding of concepts is more important.

It's sounding more and more as though I'm the odd case out (which is why you should never dismiss a resume offhand). I actually use a lot of cisco stuff and took both of my cisco certs (via bootcamp) AFTER I'd been using it for a long time. Our shop is R&D so I also have a lot of exposure to features unused or lightly used by many major networks.

I'm just saying that a good bootcamp should be able to do its job given the right candidates (and good bootcamps raise their pass rates by selecting candidates, not by using braindumps).

Ahriakin

It's kinda funny that most folks (myself included) automatically frown on Microsoft Bootcamps but don't bat an eyelid at their acceptance for something like the CCIE. I think the assumption is that to even consider the CCIE you have to be at a very competent level already and the Bootcamp is a final cram session after months/years of work, and the Msoft bootcamp is purely for those seeking a bit of paper. I think Malweth has a good point, as long as the Bootcamp is a primer for the exam that is based on your own foundation of work experience/other studies it's not a bad thing regardless of the certification. Taking one out of the blue to certify on something you haven't really had exposure to though is nuts.