where do the exam companies get their material and why are they not shut down???

Just an idle question

where do ********* ********* etc. get their 'practice' exams, and since the material is blatantly copied, how is it that Cisco/Pearson/etc. don't go after them like a ton of bricks????

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Essendon

They want more and more people to take their exams, IMO. If the questions are readily available, more people sit and pass - means more money for them.

It may also be that they have other pressing issues to worry about, though this is quite serious too. Thing also is if you close one website down, they'll probably just register another domain and keep going. Best option would be too buy them and clean up their act. That's what happened with Transcender, I've heard they were a **** site too but Kaplan bought them and now they offer legit material.

wintermute000

Well they're only devaluing their own certs by doing so (nevermind the fact that since this is IT, would it kill them to make their exams more sim oriented than stupid isolated questions). I'm also continually amazed at how big vendors can't come up with 3-4x more questions than the current pitiful amounts so even the dumpers would face memory overload hence eliminating dumping as a practical method of passing.

NetworkVeteran

wintermute000 wrote: »

Jwhere do ********* ********* etc. get their 'practice' exams,

The majority go to braindump sites or other **** sites and simply copy the questions others claim to remember. This is why you get a high degree of errors and questions from old versions of the exam. Good luck suing for not helping you ****.

More enterprising criminals will pay people to sit the exam and record as much as they can.

how is it that Cisco/Pearson/etc. don't go after them like a ton of bricks????

Once it's on the Internet, it's truly hopeless, because content is so easily mirrored in hard-to-prosecute countries.

UnixGuy

Two things, global economy and indifferent companies. First It's not easy for a US based vendor to go after a small office in India that sells cheap exam copies, and second I think Cisco/MS/Oracle...etc don't really care about their certifications. If they did, they would've made (ALL their exams) lab-based long time ago. Cheating/**** has been around for a long time I doubt that those vendors will do anything about it.

wintermute000

Labs are a large part of the answer but for example in China you can go to a 3 month full time CCIE boot camp where you memorise every possible variation of the legendary CCIE lab exam. I've setup lab scenarios which I consider CCNA level that dumping 'CCNP's absolutely flub. Its depressing when a CCIE asks you why their access list doesn't work because they put their edit below the last deny any any line.

I wasn't talking about people putting the material everywhere, I'm talking about the companies that advertise and sell for profit. (though maybe

is actually a small office in India lol).

Master Of Puppets

I used to ask this questions and get really pissed. Now, I don't give a ****. This is IT - you can't **** even if you want to. Yeah sure they will get their certs but as we all know every job has technical interviews and it takes 5 minutes at the very very most to weed these individuals out. I can't see how someone like that can take our place or be any noteworthy competition.

eansdad

I thought I read somewhere that Cisco changes the question around to match a different answer from time to time?

MrAgent

I think I read somewhere that employees of the businesses offering the exams are often the ones who are putting the questions out there on **** sites. Which would make sense, since they have the most access to everything. Everything is recorded on video, so they could just watch a live feed and copy it all.

Oddly enough one of the prometric testing centers near me was shutdown... Im wondering if it was because of fraud.

pert

You know, I think all the parties involved are in on it at this point. Its possible to create tests that aren't worth cheating on. You can make the IP addressees, subnet masks, and other values in each question be selected at random and have the answer based on that. This doesn't work for all questions, but would work for many to make them easier to learn that to ****.

Khaos1911

I personally don't care. This is a classic case of where minding your own business is key. I'm only worried about my knowledge and not the dude I have to compete against in an interview. As long as I know the info, earn the cert, and can back up my knowledge verbally/physically when it comes to an interview (or work in general), I'm good. I could not even begin to care who is brain dumping what and faking their way through whatever. A great man once said, "What you eat, doesn't make me sh**." Worry about your own skills and knowledge, folks.

pert

Khaos1911 wrote: »

I personally don't care. This is a classic case of where minding your own business is key. I'm only worried about my knowledge and not the dude I have to compete against in an interview. As long as I know the info, earn the cert, and can back up my knowledge verbally/physically when it comes to an interview (or work in general), I'm good. I could not even begin to care who is brain dumping what and faking their way through whatever. A great man once said, "What you eat, doesn't make me sh**." Worry about your own skills and knowledge, folks.

I don't exist in a vacuum, I exist in a competitive marketplace. The idea that what other people are doing is irrelevant to me and mine is ridiculous.

datacomboss

I think that most people want to legitimately own the knowledge and work hard to earn their certifications and the people who brain **** will eventually have to prove that they know their stuff.

MentholMoose

Master Of Puppets wrote: »

I used to ask this questions and get really pissed. Now, I don't give a ****. This is IT - you can't **** even if you want to. Yeah sure they will get their certs but as we all know every job has technical interviews and it takes 5 minutes at the very very most to weed these individuals out. I can't see how someone like that can take our place or be any noteworthy competition.

One problem with this is that the cheater might get the interview while a more qualified applicant didn't, hurting the employer and the more qualified applicant. But this scenario is not really what I'm worried about. If someone new to IT **** some exams and gets an interview, they will quickly be found out like you mention. But what about someone who is already somewhat knowledgeable and cheats to bolster their resume? They might actually be able to get through a technical interview and get hired. Later when they actually have to perform on the job, their lack of skills will show, but by then a lot of damage will have been done.

Master Of Puppets

MentholMoose wrote: »

One problem with this is that the cheater might get the interview while a more qualified applicant didn't, hurting the employer and the more qualified applicant. But this scenario is not really what I'm worried about. If someone new to IT **** some exams and gets an interview, they will quickly be found out like you mention. But what about someone who is already somewhat knowledgeable and cheats to bolster their resume? They might actually be able to get through a technical interview and get hired. Later when they actually have to perform on the job, their lack of skills will show, but by then a lot of damage will have been done.

Agreed, in the beginning when everything is on paper, this could screw things up. However, in my experience, even in the next situation a dumper gets exposed, more often than not. When he is certified in X and it is relevant to the job, he will most likely be asked questions about it. Now, here he could slide by if the questions do not cover much depth but the bigger, more serious companies I have encountered make sure to verify every skill you claim to have.

armandsss

Master Of Puppets wrote: »

I used to ask this questions and get really pissed. Now, I don't give a ****. This is IT - you can't **** even if you want to. Yeah sure they will get their certs but as we all know every job has technical interviews and it takes 5 minutes at the very very most to weed these individuals out. I can't see how someone like that can take our place or be any noteworthy competition.

Exactly my thoughts ! When a person will receive technical questions/test in the interview it will be pretty clear if he know his stuff or not. The experience is something what matters and not only those paper certs.

wintermute000

I dunno I've seen plenty of fakers gainfully employed in some very large organisations. In fact its the very large (or too small to know better) firms where they seem to be able to hide *cough government cough outsourced managed service providers cough*.
Its always seemed fairly obvious to me during interviews (re: spotting the faker) but I'm not usually the person hiring (and when I have been in position to provide input you can bet your behind I'm the one calling them out).