This past week I sat for Microsoft's official Windows Server 2008 exam. I hadn't planned on taking it since there's a fee to do so and no real certification results. My teacher at the community college encouraged it however since he argued any future employer would be impressed and the fee is halved if we are truly "students." He buttered it up by promising if we could show him proof of our passing the exam before the final, we wouldn't have to sit for it.
I figured I'd already studied for it all semester long so what the heck. Besides Mr. Volpe had mentioned that all the guys in his last class that took it passed. And I consider myself a pretty smart guy (most of the time.)
Well, Tuesday morning came and I arrived at the testing center on time. I clicked through all the mumbo jumbo at the beginning of the exam and proceeded with question 1. Hmmm, seems pretty non-specific but I suppose there could be a "best" GPO deployment strategy? Question 2. Don't know the answer complicated by the fact that there are a number of Microsoft services I've never heard of. Are these acronyms right or are they just trying to trick me? I'm gonna select the features mentioned in the book. That's a fairly safe bet, eh?
Question 7. I discover that the question set I just finished, which I was warned I can't go back and change, were all based on a scenario available by clicking on some buttons on the side panel. Whoops! I proceed through the rest of this set not sure that knowledge of the scenario actually helps me much.
Question 29. I hit a wall. I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna pass at this point. My brain feels like it never fully turned on. I suspect its because there's so much on this exam I haven't seen before that it checked out long ago.
Question 45. And...I'm done. My score is 267. I'm not sure what that's out of it but a passing score is 700. "Wow," I said to myself, "I totally bombed it."
I left the testing center dejected and confused. Did I sit for the right test? How could it be that hard and yet classmates of mine seem to consistently pass? Have I ever so epically failed before?!
I show up for class that night, ashamed and distraught. I'm afraid Volpe's gonna publicly ask if anyone sat for the Microsoft exam. I overhear the teacher congratulate the girl that sits next to me on having passed it! She takes her seat and I can hardly control myself. "How did you do it?! I took it this morning and failed it miserably." "Oh," she looks surprised, "you didn't pass? I saw you this morning. I took in Ventura as well."
My mind jumps to the women that sat at the only other computer in the room. She was gone in about 30 minutes. I figured she had taken a different test or had gotten up for a potty break and never returned. My agony lasted almost the full 2 hours.
"Did you use a set of practice questions to study?" she asks me. "No," I explained, "I wasn't confident I knew the material well enough to devote time to practice questions. Besides, I couldn't find any on the Microsoft site." "Oh no," she replied, "you have to get them online." After I pressed her she showed me where she snagged them. And she confessed that the questions on the exam were pulled from the set.
I walked out of class and noticed a crowd surrounding her also interested in her secret weapon. I get home, still hot and bothered, and decide to do some research. As I suspected, according to Microsoft, these "braindumps" of questions are illegal. And they even provide an email to report them. With Leona's encouragement, I report the site and the incident (omitting names.)
Like it or not, I had my answer. How could an introductory course like the one I took have such a crazy difficult exam tied to it? Evidently, enough testers cheat and pass to convince Microsoft that their test is hard but fair.
Still no reply back from Microsoft regarding the leak I reported.
I figured I'd already studied for it all semester long so what the heck. Besides Mr. Volpe had mentioned that all the guys in his last class that took it passed. And I consider myself a pretty smart guy (most of the time.)
Well, Tuesday morning came and I arrived at the testing center on time. I clicked through all the mumbo jumbo at the beginning of the exam and proceeded with question 1. Hmmm, seems pretty non-specific but I suppose there could be a "best" GPO deployment strategy? Question 2. Don't know the answer complicated by the fact that there are a number of Microsoft services I've never heard of. Are these acronyms right or are they just trying to trick me? I'm gonna select the features mentioned in the book. That's a fairly safe bet, eh?
Question 7. I discover that the question set I just finished, which I was warned I can't go back and change, were all based on a scenario available by clicking on some buttons on the side panel. Whoops! I proceed through the rest of this set not sure that knowledge of the scenario actually helps me much.
Question 29. I hit a wall. I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna pass at this point. My brain feels like it never fully turned on. I suspect its because there's so much on this exam I haven't seen before that it checked out long ago.
Question 45. And...I'm done. My score is 267. I'm not sure what that's out of it but a passing score is 700. "Wow," I said to myself, "I totally bombed it."
I left the testing center dejected and confused. Did I sit for the right test? How could it be that hard and yet classmates of mine seem to consistently pass? Have I ever so epically failed before?!
I show up for class that night, ashamed and distraught. I'm afraid Volpe's gonna publicly ask if anyone sat for the Microsoft exam. I overhear the teacher congratulate the girl that sits next to me on having passed it! She takes her seat and I can hardly control myself. "How did you do it?! I took it this morning and failed it miserably." "Oh," she looks surprised, "you didn't pass? I saw you this morning. I took in Ventura as well."
My mind jumps to the women that sat at the only other computer in the room. She was gone in about 30 minutes. I figured she had taken a different test or had gotten up for a potty break and never returned. My agony lasted almost the full 2 hours.
"Did you use a set of practice questions to study?" she asks me. "No," I explained, "I wasn't confident I knew the material well enough to devote time to practice questions. Besides, I couldn't find any on the Microsoft site." "Oh no," she replied, "you have to get them online." After I pressed her she showed me where she snagged them. And she confessed that the questions on the exam were pulled from the set.
I walked out of class and noticed a crowd surrounding her also interested in her secret weapon. I get home, still hot and bothered, and decide to do some research. As I suspected, according to Microsoft, these "braindumps" of questions are illegal. And they even provide an email to report them. With Leona's encouragement, I report the site and the incident (omitting names.)
Like it or not, I had my answer. How could an introductory course like the one I took have such a crazy difficult exam tied to it? Evidently, enough testers cheat and pass to convince Microsoft that their test is hard but fair.
Still no reply back from Microsoft regarding the leak I reported.
An interesting conundrum. I think the only people that would be able to pressure MS to act would be employers deciding the test doesn't mean anything. Otherwise, MS profits from everyone who's taking the test and could even use it to claim market share, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe bigger question, of course, is whether learning the answers to all the practice questions is enough to create competence. If that's the case, MS should just create a bigger bank of questions and publish all of them. This is how the citizenship test works, because people end up learning something by having to study all those questions.
Upon reflection, do you feel like you got a bad education through the class you're taking? It will be interesting to see how the final compares in difficulty and content to the MS exam.
Finally, it seems the real thing being tested may have been resourcefulness. Setting aside the legality/ethical implications of getting the questions online, you have to wonder what real value does a closed-book exam serve these days, because how often does that situation occur in real life?
All good points Ryan.
ReplyDeleteWell, I aced my class final and passed my CompTIA A+ exams this morning so I'm not bitter. You hear that Microsoft?!