From: John Wayne (john.wayne.ccie@gmail.com)
Date: Fri Jul 25 2008 - 09:34:17 ART
Listen if you want to stop the people from dumping on exams you have to
understand how it's happening and why it started in the first place.
1. The test centers need to be certified and audited - yes physcially
audited. When test questions are flying about and they are screenshots or
camera pics from a test center and are the exact questions. Houston there
is a problem.
2. Why on earth are there only 50 questions on a test bank. 60 questions?
70 questions? or even only 100 questions? Is the subject this week. A
quick trip to one of the sites mentioned will reveal that apparently many
test question banks only have just that many questions for the latest exams.
3. CCIE Real Labs advertise that there are between 3 and 6 real labs for any
track.
Cisco do you think there is a problem here? Really?
Right now with the new biometrics, and bring your first born child with you
to identify yourself many testing centers have simply closed.
There were a half dozen with 15 minutes of my house. Today I now have to
drive some 30+ minutes to take a Cisco exam.
People I live in a city with over 2,000,000 people.
Why is there only one testing center with only 1 seat in my city now? And
the lady there told me they would probably not be able to support the new
security features. They currently use cameras and actually have a
see-through glass mirror.
Cisco are you listening.
The problem with the tests and dumps was not the quality of the material.
It was the ability to find material to study with.
So people went and looked for it.
They started braindumping.
They started sharing. Even places like groupstudy which tried hard to
regulate NDA violations came about.
But let's face it the vendors hawk this board for more than just clients.
This is the that no doubt.
So if you want to stop it, stop it. But take the time to do it right.
1. Start with the test centers. Audit them. Pay a person to shop the
sites. Yes take an exam there anonymously. Is it what it appears to be?
Yes or No. Do it often.
2. Make learning materials accessible that are relevant to the exam in
question.
3. Hire a few guys to live on the braindump sites and infiltrate. Have
these guys do what they do and say what they say and nail them at the
source.
4. Shut down the sites that sell the exams. It comes down to only a couple.
Cisco verus 1 or 2 one person shops. That's it. Shut them down. Is that
impossible? Seems like it.
5. Setup a fake site and lure your the people who buy in. Make examples of
them. They like to share. Ban them from registering for exams. Period.
No mercy.
Once they can no longer take an exam or even register for one. This stuff
will slow down for sure.
Now there are two sides to this. Cisco will no longer have an army of
certified people. so much for the marketing.
It sounds great but it comes down to marketing. Cisco will not suffer lost
revenues to stop this problem. It does not pay to have less certified
people.
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