How many & which certs could you get without studying at all?

N2IT

Okay so here is the situation. Let's say you had 0 time to study, I mean none! How many and which certifications could you pass without studying at all, just pure experience?

I am hoping to get a big turn out by the way!

I am thinking I could of pass any of the MOS exams. I've been doing MS support pretty much all my IT career. Even on the helpdesk they saw how good I was at those applications and usually deemed me the expert. Kind of like a tier 2.5 so those I am confident I could pass. 2003-2010. A+ is another one I am confident I could pass now. Security and Network +, I'm not so sure. I might fail those without book study to be honest. ITIL V3 F I could of passed since most of the organizations I worked for followed this methodology to a T. So assuming you have the experience but no books or extra time to studying which certs could you obtain?

My list

MOS 2003-2010 any of them
A+
ITIL V3 F

Asif Dasl

I had plenty of experience before I started getting certs, but even going for A+ & Network+ I knew the majority of the material already but would I have remembered the smaller details - the kind that get asked on these tests and if you get them wrong can add up to a fail, probably not. Even if I was taking A+ again, I would go over a new book just to make sure.

So if I had 10 years experience or one - I would still go through books & CBTs. Most people would not be able to pass MCSE/SA/EA exams without any study.

PC509

I could do a few, but still they would require some study. I've learned a LOT myself. But, a lot of my techniques and many industry techniques still aren't the "official, approved" way of doing things. Those are what are on the exam. Plus, there are usually some obscure things that can throw you off.

That said, the CIW Javascript was 0 study, so was Server+ (took the beta with no study). My Sec+ was very little, as was the A+. I'm sure I could pass the Net+ with zero study, as I already have studied higher certs in the same domains. But, most certs have their little quirks that can really make you go "Huh!?".

kriscamaro68

Going off what I know right now I would say I could pass the test for all the certs that are under my username. Thats if I had to retake them but some of them required a little study time before I passed them the first time around.

I am sure I could pass a few CIW certs without issue. I could probably pass quite a few MTA certs if you want to include those. I might be able to pass the SSCP by the skin on my teeth

DigitalZeroOne

I have been taking certifications exams since 98, and so far, there is the test for the exam, and then the "real world" test. I don't think I could pass any of those exams with experience alone, because there are always those stupid questions that you could find online in 10 seconds, but they expect you to remember some obscure number that can change with an update to the product.

ptilsen

Very few tests, I think. I could probably pass any tests I've already taken, but given that I studied for them prior to taking them the first time, that doesn't seem relevant.

I could maybe pull off 70-646 without studying, and possibly Server+ as well. If I had to do it all over, I think I might have managed 70-642 without studying. I might be able to pull off CCENT if I had a bit more IRL time with Cisco products.

As DigitalZeroOne said, there are two many "gotchas" in pretty much any certification exam to pass on experience alone. Maybe the CompTIAs, but even they have too much minutia and CompTIA-specific stuff to be doable with NO study. There aren't too many certifications I can imagine taking with no study at all, for this reason alone.

I won't mention MTA or CIW because I do not consider them to be certifications. They are in the same vein as CompTIA "certificates".

N2IT

@ Asif Image how much more valuable the MCSE would be

PT you brought up a good point.

No offense to CompTIA, but when is it time to let go of the junior level certifications? There has got to be a time when listing A+ and N+ is just useless and poses more of a risk than an opportunity.

Thoughts?

Asif Dasl

CompTIA are more popular in the US, cause you've got more levels on the totem pole. That and they are really expensive outside of the US. I got them cause it cost me nothing but it didn't add anything either - since CE, they offer very little value unless you get Sec+ for DoD work. Go for Cisco & Microsoft, much better career value.

the_hutch

I dunno, that's kind of a hard one to answer. But if you are willing to pay the exam fees, I would be happy to find out the answer for you

meadIT

I passed the VCAP5-DCD beta exam with about 1 hour of review. That's probably the least amount of time I've spent on an exam. For VCP5, I spent about 4 hours or so.

N2IT

Hutch, I'll pay for you to take the PowerPoint 2010 exam, but you have to pass and list it on your resume and certifications section on here.

kurosaki00

none
not even A+ or N+

Cert exams dont ask you is DDR : a memory, b a cake, c what

They ask you in a way that you will only answer well if you read their stuff
Is they way they ask not what they ask.
specially cisco.

tr1x

N2IT wrote: »

No offense to CompTIA, but when is it time to let go of the junior level certifications? There has got to be a time when listing A+ and N+ is just useless and poses more of a risk than an opportunity.

Thoughts?

I think it's good that these certs are available to new people in the industry. But you're right, they only hurt your resume when they're listed next to prestigious certs. I believe a lot of people here don't list them on the resume (or even on the forum!) for that reason.

jibbajabba

Did A+, Server+ and Storage+ without studying (don't know the result of the latter but passed the former ones).

jibbajabba

Oh and yes, they don't appear anywhere on my resume. only did them because they were beta and therefore free

N2IT

jibbajabba wrote: »

Did A+, Server+ and Storage+ without studying (don't know the result of the latter but passed the former ones).

Jibba exactly, I think a lot of people are selling themselves short saying they couldn't pass a test just on technical knowledge. I know I could of done A+ with experience and all the MS office applications. I use them all the time and support them.

WafflesAndRootbeer

jibbajabba wrote: »

Did A+, Server+ and Storage+ without studying (don't know the result of the latter but passed the former ones).

It's possible to pass without studying but nobody should ever take that statement as being inherently true as the questions are randomly chosen and cover a variety of things, including technical minutiae like pinouts for different connectors that almost nobody ever learns or remembers and old stuff from the 90's that doesn't really apply to today's technology.

the_Grinch

I don't think I would ever not study for a cert. Figure if I am spending the money, I better pass.

erpadmin

kurosaki00 wrote: »

none
not even A+ or N+

Cert exams dont ask you is DDR : a memory, b a cake, c what

They ask you in a way that you will only answer well if you read their stuff
Is they way they ask not what they ask.
specially cisco.

^^^ This.

That is 100% true. Network+ N10-001 was proof of this. I thought I could just sashay in there, pass and call it a day. Heck, Storage+ was the same way...if I had studied a little bit for either of those exams I would have passed. Both certs were failed by like hairs...it was disgusting.

When I took A+ and Network+ again, I made sure I studied with the Mike Meyers book and Transcenders (I've been taking PCs apart since I was 14...was dealing with IRQ and COM port settings while the lot of you were thankful for Plug and Play!) Took me a couple of weeks, but I passed all three of those exams like nothing. I heard Security+ SY0-001 was hard, so I left that one alone. Darril Gibson didn't exist then. (Well, his study guides anyway.) When I went through his book, I got a 870--which, to date, is my best score out of any cert exam.

The one cert I passed with hardly any studying was CIW 1D0-510. I had to be talked out of buying uCertify...glad I heeded that! But I did buy the uCertify for CIW 1D0-435. Of course, I passed that exam too, but that one was by one hair. LOL.

zenhound

You don't see a lot of sashaying in IT. We need more of it.

ptilsen

erpadmin wrote: »

Darril Gibson didn't exist then. (Well, his study guides anyway.)

I was too busy laughing at the idea of Darril himself being too young to have existed a few short years ago to get to the parenthetical there. Well played.

Priston

When I took the A+ and Network+ I only put in 3-5 hours of study time. So I know I could pass those now without studying.

Daniel333

Most exams are tied to the training material at the hip. That is to say, the testing companies (microsoft comptia cisco) add an irrational trivial component to the exam and supply that to information to their content produces. It eventually leaks out, but at the start you can't get around it.

That said, I'd like to think I have a solid chance at CCDA, Cloud Essentials, TS: Win 7/Vista and maybe CIW JavaScript?

ptilsen

Daniel333 wrote: »

TS: Win 7

I'm going to say no. Unless you are regularly involved in deployment projects and some of the other material covered, there's just no way you could pass it without studying. Vista I might believe, but Win7 is not an easy exam.

ChooseLife

N2IT wrote: »

How many and which certifications could you pass without studying at all, just pure experience?

RHCSA/RHCE

I looked at their syllabi today and 95% of it maps to my daily sysadmin work, and since it's a practical exam, theoretically there should be no problem passing them based on experience.

That being said, this is only because the exam is hands-on with conditions similar to those of work environment. While I can pass RHCE, I'd probably fail an attempt at introductory LPI exams without preparation - if they require memorizing command attributes and other minutia that most people page out of memory in the sake of keeping more important information...

Qord

the_hutch wrote: »

I dunno, that's kind of a hard one to answer. But if you are willing to pay the exam fees, I would be happy to find out the answer for you

This exactly!!!

Seriously though, I think I could pass Net+ without studying. I might not do well, but I think I could pass it.

N2IT

I figured most people could pass at least 1-3 exams without studying. At least that is what I thought.

BTW that's pretty sweet about RHCSA/RHCE. Very nice certifications.

erpadmin

ChooseLife wrote: »

RHCSA/RHCE

I looked at their syllabi today and 95% of it maps to my daily sysadmin work, and since it's a practical exam, theoretically there should be no problem passing them based on experience.

I don't doubt that, but I think a lot of these certification exams focuses a lot on gotchas. For all the work you do with Red Hat, there's probably a lot more than 5% that you probably don't use because it doesn't relate to your job, but you're familiar with it, but you just don't need to use it so you don't care for it. When you study for the Red Hat exams, they mention that 5% and you study enough about it so that you can, at worst, reasonably guess correctly what the answer is (as opposed to not studying at all and guess.)

Contrary to popular belief, we don't know everything about everything (it's true guys...it's true.) My experience with taking these exams (Microsoft 70-640 is a good example of this) is that while I have dealt with AD at all levels (even dealing with ADAM for LDAP modifications) Microsoft likes to get cute and funny. I could not have passed any of those exams without labbing how they wanted me to lab, and I've been dealing with AD since inception (1999). A lot of time, cert prep will help pass that exam. Sometimes it's not enough (like 70-643) in which case, you still just read, lab and barrel through.

swild

ptilsen wrote: »

I'm going to say no. Unless you are regularly involved in deployment projects and some of the other material covered, there's just no way you could pass it without studying. Vista I might believe, but Win7 is not an easy exam.

This right here. I was shocked at the difficulty of this exam. It should really be named Windows 7 Desktop Deployment. You could know everything about configuration, but if you don't seriously know all the ins and outs of deployment, you will fail by a lot.

I passed Storage+ with a couple of hours looking over the test outline, just because I do weekly tape backups (and occasional file restores) of our servers. These days, I think I could pass A+, Net+ and Sec+ without cracking a book. Most of the MTA exams are shockingly easy. If you deal with the technology on a daily basis, you should have no problem passing those. I would be willing to say the same about the CCNA. It really is fairly basic if you have experience due to the fact of it's simulations. I couldn't pass it, but I'm not in a networking position.

the_hutch

N2IT wrote: »

Hutch, I'll pay for you to take the PowerPoint 2010 exam, but you have to pass and list it on your resume and certifications section on here.

meh...not worth it, lol

N2IT

Hutch if memory serves me correct you said if I paid for it you would take it!