Your Study Practices and Habits

D-boy

Cheats never prosper

garv221

jasoninaz wrote:

I actually study with a beer, I find that it relaxes me and I'm able to get the infromation better.

Couldn't agree more! I do it with Rum & Coke or Vodka & Red Bull. Some days I come home from work & cannot see from working so hard & the only way to study is chill out.

Webmaster

Perhaps the 'do you understand?' came out wrong but I agree with LostinSpace. Nevertheless, let me explain the difference once more, hoping that you (twoschmoov_ballz) will understand why why your insinuations are not appreciated.

Braindumps are actual exam questions and answers stolen from the actual exam. In case of **** sheets in PDFs, several people get paid to take the test, and are equiped with a digital camera (that's why they also have the exact network diagrams in their 'products'. China, India, and Pakistan are the places where this happens more often than healthy for our certs.

Test prep questions are written by experienced professionals and writers like me. It takes an average of at least 15-30 minutes to write a single good question. If I hire a writer, it costs me $5-$10 per exam question.

I have no doubt that some reputable test prep providers base their practice questions on actually exam content. That's doesn't mean they are actual exam questions, there is still a huge difference mainly because the answers are different, including the incorrect answers (no blurry line at all).

I know from experience that it is impossible to write a complete set of practice questions without writing several questions that are very similar to the actual exam. There is really not 'that' much to ask about for one exam. Especially with MS exams. Examples are Last Known Good configuration, Driver signing, share and ntfs permissions etc.etc.

"You memorize the questions or associate something in the question with the answer, you pass the exam.", is the same thing done with exam preps.

No, there's a major difference. When using actual exam questions, you will not only know which answer(s) is correct, you will also know which are wrong, so there's no multiple choise during the actual exam. If you know answer A and B of question 10 in Transcenders are wrong, you still have to read answer A and B of the similar actual question, and possibly rule them out.

For almost 2 years I've worked with MS, CompTIA, VUE and several other organizations and sites like ours that are working together to fight braindumps. Comparing the major test prep providers with braindumps is just missing the point entirely. Trust me when I say that the former mentioned companies would definitely take legal action if there was any truth in your point.

Having said that, I agree that some test prep products are getting awfully close to the line. The line however is pretty sharp and clear.

forbesl wrote:

One of the reasons I like this forum is that it IS braindump free. Because it is, all of the riff-raff and spammers stay away. Kudos to the webmaster on keeping it a clean forum.

Thanks
We do get those spammers once in a while, but those posts are removed at first sight. As several of you know, we block/censor all known **** cheet and braindump sites. And occasionally, once every 1 or 2 months, I ban an account for repeatingly mentioning such products. The reason for this should be obvious. Another reason for me to be so eager to remove them, is partly that I reject more money every month than I earn, by rejecting **** sheet advertisers (simply for ethical reasons), hence I don't want their products to be 'advertised' in posts either.

Garv wrote:

I do it with Rum & Coke or Vodka & Red Bull.

An excellent combi I enjoy more often than I probably should

/usr

Another reason for me to be so eager to remove them, is partly that I reject more money every month than I earn, by rejecting **** sheet advertisers (simply for ethical reasons), hence I don't want their products to be 'advertised' in posts either.

TeKniques

Is it possible for the testing vendors to take legal action against the braindump sites either within the US or not?

Seems to me it would be a copyright violation or something. :

/usr

You would think so, especially when they sell the questions, not simply post them for others to see.

Webmaster

Thanks again I don't want to sound like a saint though, as I've made my mistakes with advertisers in the past as well (at that time so did cramsession.com certcities.com and mcmcse.com), not at this site though.

Is it possible for the testing vendors to take legal action against the braindump sites either within the US or not?

That's pretty much the question that kept me scratching my head for way too long.

Seems to me it would be a copyright violation or something?

Yes, as simple as that. A copyright violation, theft of intellectual property. (note the agreement a test taker must agree to before the test)

Unfortunately Pakistan (the main source of such products) does not have copyright laws and US and international copyright laws do not apply there. You can buy Windows XP for $1 on the streets; imagine the average test center...

China, another premier source of braindumps/**** sheets, well... I guess we all know about their lack of respect for copyrights, 'knock-offs', get your Rolex or Levis 501 for $10. You wouldn't believe how much web content is stolen and translated and put online as if it were their own.

India, also a premier source, is a country from which you would expect to have respect for copyright laws and do something about violations of those rights. Nothing is further from the truth though.

(Perhaps based on this, one could say that if you are against outsourcing, you shouldn't buy or even visit **** and **** sites either...)

I and other similar site owners, pretty much stopped our efforts, apart from 'defending our own sites/communities', because we too feel that the exam vendors can do a whole lot more. (which doesn't mean their not working on it, they truly are spending a lot of money, people and time on it.)

Anyway, I'm retiring from this discussion, and will return to answer more useful input for the actual subject of this and other threads and hope you'll all do the same.

You can find a lot of info about MS, CompTIA, and others starting and winning and losing law suits against such companies in both the US and overseas (it think Denmark was the first overseas case) at www.certcities.com