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

the_hutch

N2IT wrote: »

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

I take it back. Can I pay you to not have to take it? Applications like Excel or Access make sense to me. But I consider Powerpoint on par with MS Publisher. ...Actually worse...because at least with Publisher, I can get some kick ass origami templates. That's just good use of company resources right there. PAPER CRANES FOR EVERYONE!!! Morale is now boosted. Mission accomplished.

N2IT

Literally laughed out loud. Nicely played!

Roguetadhg

the_hutch wrote: »

I take it back. Can I pay you to not have to take it? Applications like Excel or Access make sense to me. But I consider Powerpoint on par with MS Publisher. ...Actually worse...because at least with Publisher, I can get some kick ass origami templates. That's just good use of company resources right there. PAPER CRANES FOR EVERYONE!!! Morale is now boosted. Mission accomplished.

+1 For meaningful paper use!

the_hutch

N2IT wrote: »

Literally laughed out loud. Nicely played!

Willing to pay for a publisher certification? **Boss walks up while building a paper airplane** "Don't mind me sir...I'm working on my next IT certification!!!"

cxzar20

At this point in my career I am sure I could (or come close to) passing CCNP/CCIP tests without extensive study. I took the ROUTE when it came out to to re-certify my Cisco certifications and passed without studying.

ChooseLife

erpadmin wrote: »

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.)

I responded to the question whether there are exams not containing specific "gotchas" or obscure topics that are only revealed when one starts preparing for the exam. In that context, I do believe RHCSA/RHCE exams qualify as such, although this opinion is based solely on my reading of the exams curriculum and others' reviews. This was to contrast them with other exams, such MS MCSE and VMware VCP, for instance, which (as I know for a fact) I would not be able to pass based on experience, as they included a certain amount of book knowledge.

At the same time, I fully agree with you. As far as Linux (and RedHat Linux) goes, I know and use 1% of its potential. Would I learn more about it from reading books? Absolutely. Am I doing it, even though I have no plans to take a Linux exam? Every day, you can rest assured.

So to summarize, I am not advocating not-studying for the RedHat exams (did you know that people who RTFM go straight to Heaven?), only saying that as I perceive them, they contain few-if-any book-type gotchas and could be passed based on practical experience alone, as they are 100% hands-on.

ChooseLife

the_hutch wrote: »

**Boss walks up while building a paper airplane** "Don't mind me sir...I'm working on my next IT certification! ...

"paper tiger" gets a whole new meaning

Origami exam - Certified Paper Tiger Professional

Daniel333

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.

True. But I have done dozens of Win7 deployments and completed the entire Win7 series of classes

know_nothing

If you think you can pass the MOS 2007 - 2010 exams without intense preparation, think again. The MOS PowerPoint 2007 exam kicked my ass in a big way, not once, but twice in 2009.

Besides, on the MOS PowerPoint exam they actually give you objectives and watch you perform them under time constraints. My recollection is that there were 45 tasks to perform in 50 minutes. And the tasks are not the everyday things you typically do in PowerPoint.

Good Luck and keep us posted, N2IT!


"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

--George Santayana[h=1][/h]

N2IT

I have the MOS 2007 Master certification. The only one I "studied" for was PowerPoint, because at the time my experience was limited. Literally 1-3 presentations per year. Now it's a lot more.

As of now I do not plan on taking the 2010 exams. I am focused on my MBA and other achievements.

Good luck on the PowerPoint exam.

jmritenour

I'm confident I could pass pretty much any CompTIA test with little or no prep. Maybe not Linux+, but even that, I'd probably still be within striking distance.

I would have thought, before I actually sat for it, that I could take 70-680 without much prep, based on previous MS client exams, but that test was a *****. It got really heavy on the deployment stuff, and kind of cheated in testing about technologies that were really more a 2008 R2 thing, but only worked with Windows 7 clients.

stlsmoore

To be honest I think 0 besides CCNA, I'm purely focused on VoIP and even the current CCNA: Voice and A+ is a lot different from when I took it last.

powerfool

I rarely ever put myself in this situation. However, I passed the single exam version of the CCNA without study about five years ago. Also, last summer, I took both exams for the MCITP Enterprise Messaging Administrator 2010 without any study and I passed 70-663 and narrowly missed 70-662. Two years ago, when I was updating my MCSE 2000 to 2003, I took the four core exams required to update with very minimal study... maybe just about half an hour to an hour per exam... I probably could have passed without any study... I had seven years of working with the product and had already spent a lot of time on the 2000 material so many years before.

N2IT

@ PF

I am going to attempt this with MS Project. I've been using it at work, more less labbing and reading some material on line but nothing major. I may fail, it wouldn't surprise me but a lot of the jobs I am looking at really look favorably on Project knowledge. I have a decount voucher that is still good from one of the server books Ill never study.

Last time I attempted this was with MS SQL and I ended up with a ~500+ on the exam. Never went back.

Besides I have all but given up on testing for Win 7. I don't have the motivation and that beast seems like it takes along time to study for.

Claymoore

I passed the 270 and the 294 by only studying a couple of hours the night before each exam. I passed the 686 without studying for it at all*. I believe I could easily pass the 646 or the 685 without studying, I'm just not interested in taking an exam for a lower level cert than what I already have despite MS trying to pimp the SA by making it a pre-req for other specializations. The 659 would be more challenging, but I think I could pass it as well.


*I took the 686 the same day I took the 681 beta exam. I did study for the 681, and there is a lot of topic overlap, but I never even looked at the Topics Covered section of the exam.

N2IT

@ Clay

Man if you can pass all those that is impressive. Nice work!

I'm attempting MS Managing Projects with 3 weeks study (which I consider microwaving the studies). Excel 07, Outlook 07, and Word 07 I passed with no study. But nothing as technical as you have or can.

sidsanders

n+

had already done a number of msft and novell exams that covered much of the requirements.