preliminary results?

mikepp

I took a CCIE written a few days ago and passed with a 750 (699 passing). I noticed it said the results were preliminary. I finished the test in 40 minutes because I was rushing to get back to work. Is this something new, or did I just not pay attention before. Is this something to worry about for someone who spent the past 3 months studying for this one exam?

Also, they didn't take a picture of me this time. Last time I took a cisco test they took a picture of me. Do they re-use the old picture?

Cheers Mike

dtlokee

The preliminary results are part of a number of security enhancements that have been implemented in the past year. The results of the exam are not official until they perform some forensic analysis on the results.

apd123

Ummm yeah I would say taking a exam in under half the given time is one way to try and set off alarms. Hope you did pass it the right way and go on to get your number. Interesting first post btw.

Forsaken_GA

Well, if he was dumping, I could hope he managed better than a 750.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, man. It freaked me out too when I first saw it on one of my CCNP exams. A few days later, the cert tracking tool showed my scores as confirmed. It said the same thing after I finished my last CCNP exam, but I got the email congratulating me on completing the CCNP from Cisco on my way home from the test center, so I'm betting the majority of their forensics is automated, and just flags it for a human to review it if it finds anything odd.

jovan88

I passed my ccna exams (legit) with a high score in a short amount of time, i'd like to know what they base people cheating on

I got the same "preliminary" warning aswell

Forsaken_GA

That's always been my worry as well, I'd worry about getting nailed with false positives. I'm a very fast reader, and my test taking style has always been 'Don't spend too much time on a question, if you're not sure, make an educated guess or move along'. I normally either finish with a high score and alot of time left, or with a middle to high passing score and not a whole lot of time left (because I actually had to make use of the scratch pad)

But I'm also confident that if I was ever called to account to explain my answers, I could give a detailed explanation of why I chose whatever answer, so they can have at it. The more cheaters they catch, the happier I am, I do not like the amount of paper certs out there that are diluting the value for the honest test takers.

dtlokee

Every score report is marked preliminary at this point, they review the results of every exam (automated system of course).

I have read alot of theories on how it's done but none of them seem to point to the time it takes to complete an exam or your score. I have also heard that the false positive rate is extremely low, less than 1 in several million with the way it's done.

Forsaken_GA

I just passed the CCDA, and interestingly enough, it is not marked as preliminary and my photo isn't on it, unlike any of the NP exams I've passed this year

ccie15672

I wouldn't sweat the time thing. I have always blown through the written tests.

I either know the answer (or know I can figure the answer out) or I don't know the answer, and I move on.

The result of that is I always pass, but not with flying colors.. and I get the test done in under 45 minutes.