From: Darby Weaver (darbyweaver@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Feb 15 2008 - 11:43:35 ARST
Funny thing happened to me this week. I won some
things on ebay. I had the good fortune that the
seller lived close to my zip code and so we met.
Well, as it turns out the seller was a Cisco employee,
but not a "normal" Cisco employee, but a Cisco Press
Writer/Technical Reviewer and yes one of those poor
souls who develops exam questions and answers. He
even decelops new exam tracks it seems.
So...
It seems that he was familiar with some of my posts
from around the web and offered that I might consider
writing a book on one of my favorite pastimes.
You know the subject of the illicit materials came up.
I did ask if he and his team knew about the illicit
materials and if so what was Cisco's stance, well as
it happens he mentioned that they not only know about
these materials but he and some of his team actually
buy these materials to see what and if they are close
to the actual exams.
Well his findings were mixed it seems in some cases
the materials were dead on and in others the materials
were so far off to be fraudulent - according to him.
They were nothing like the real exam in those
instances.
Anyway long story made short - the team who writes the
books and the question banks are working a little
harder to corner the market of "real test" providers
and by knowing what they are selling are more apt to
finding those who would cheat the process.
Now what I really wanted to know is if they are going
to check the labs of candidates who have passed or
failed and the usage of certain commands (say route
map names or distribute list names etc) and rebuke
anyone's CCIE for violating the NDA and / or cheating.
Imagine a lot of people using the same set of names
for something that might have only been seen on these
dumps...
It would be the equivalent of a person cheating on a
Final Exam in High School or College and writing the
name of the person they were cheating on - as their
own name before handing in the test (and yes, I did
see this happen once in one of my classes in High
School).
But it's too late to warn or lecture those who already
went and "signed" their labs.
But if people start seeing the numbers take a negative
plunge... due to "violations"...
You heard it here first.
And remember even if you did not pass and you used
anyone's flagrant notes to the letter... you may
still face a lifetime ban from the CCIE Lab.
Ouch from 20,000... to 19999... and counting...
Sad to see anyone lose their digits, but the value of
the CCIE must be preserved.
Also recall digital materials are also "signed" -
those who have sold or given away materials to the
companies that cheat... I think your number may be up
as well.
If the Cisco CCIE Team is buying materials (and the
guy said they were) and if they are from certain
formats, then they may be traceable or miraculously
have the violator's name on them. This can be very
bad for those violators.
Now some may call this circumstantial evidence, but
anyone remember "Banned by Cisco". I think he was
banned for life.
Remember the Cisco Program is not a life or death
sentence it is merely a company sponsored program so
they do not live and die on "reasonable doubt".
I'm sure they would be responsible in their actions
however, those affected would not be feeling so great
about it or fairly treated.
Well... I got better things to do than warn of gloom
and doom.
If you earned it, you earned it. If you cheated, then
you did not lose much anyway.
If you find yourself banned, then there are other
certification programs, maybe you'll do better.
But it looks like the Cisco Certification Teams are
waking up and they might be hungry to make some
examples pretty soon, so... hope they are not so
public about it.
Not sure if an employer would fire someone for being
accused or even de-certified for cheating but...
ouch!!!
Now anyone who has ever bought a vendor workbook or
lab might note that they have their own signatures and
these in no way look, feel, or taste like the lab - in
fact some vendors do not even use a backbone, some use
only 3 switches, others use way more serial ports and
yet others even add more routers, etc. In addition,
they are very careful in their naming conventions so
as not to violate the NDA...
Well the vednors being hunted down apparently is do
the opposite.
Oh well, you get what you pay for. One way or the
other.
It's something that nowadays - people who pass the
first time or pass with perfect scores are more
scrutinized over it and with all the testing aids, no
one even wonders why any more.
For lower end exams it might be harder to prove but on
the CCIE Lab, it might be easier to prove.
Once upon a time, there was a team of pirates who
learned to PGP, and they were really "elite" by doing
so... However, the FBI figured it out and that team
that was so "elite" found that by "signing a
signature" to their materials or emails they were
really irreputably marking themselves.
So it may be with the lab.
Anyway I found it a very interesting conversation.
Good luck to those that need it.
--- Cielieska Nathan <ncielieska@gmail.com> wrote:
> Something to keep in mind regarding study materials.
>
> The Brians, Narbik, Scott and others are doing us a
> service that is
> difficult to achieve. Think about it.. they need to
> teach you
> "technologies" the best way they know how and as
> thorough they can.
> The thing that you don't realize is that there is an
> NDA involved
> that cannot be breached. There is a constant
> tightrope these guys
> walk to make sure they don't cross the line on what
> is on the test.
> It is really not that hard to put 2 and 2 together.
>
> Let's take Scott Morris for example. I'm sure he
> could release a
> relatively concise product to which you had very
> similar layout and
> content to the CCIE exam. But it would soon be
> flamed on this forum
> and Scott would quickly have legal action taken
> against him (or
> whoever owns IPExpert) from Cisco regarding the new
> cheatsheet.
>
> The CCIE that everyone worked so hard to obtain
> would become the next
> laughing stock certification. It is very important
> with anyone with a
> number to protect the ideals.
>
> With that said to bash a study product not
> containing erroneous
> information or trying to cheat is idiocy, because
> the nature of the
> study guides/workbooks aren't there to make you pass
> the test.. they
> are there to "beat you up" or "make you eat some
> humble pie" and
> motivate you to understand the technologies
> involved.
>
> Regards,
> Nate
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