Opinion:Certification Matters — Exams Are Not Relevant to Real Life — Part 4
October 13, 2008 by Greg Ferro · 8 Comments
One of the most common complaints from mendicants is that the written exams are not relevant to daily use of the technology or their jobs, and how am I supposed to learn this stuff ? Eh ? Of course they aren’t relevant. Lets look at this fallacy.
“The Exams are not relevant to my daily work”
Lets get this clear, exams are not relevant to daily work. They are a test that proves that you have:
- learned how certain technologies work
- learned about interactions and connections between technologies
- memorised or retained a certain amount of fundamental facts that should be relevant your ongoing
It is not a test that you know how to do your job, that is the bosses problem. Think how would it be possible to test for the activities that would happen at your workplace, when every workplace is different. For many people who are doing the test they may not have any skills or experience of the technology and that is the purpose of performing the test. To learn and develop a new skill.
Consider the last point carefully: I always struggle with the amount of memory work in the exams. But it is also true that there are certain fact and core information that you need to have “in your head”.
For example, I was recently redistributing external routes from a VPN Concentrator into an OSPF Stubby area. It took me some time to remember that stubby areas do not accept Type 5 LSAs and thus this would not work. I also remembered that using NSSA would solve the problem. Without these facts memorised, would I ever have worked this out ? Possibly, but (my faulty memory aside) made it a lot quicker to fix the problem. More apocalyptic cases could also be used where ignorance will break an entire network.
Cisco leans towards fundamentals, less on the product
From a Cisco certification perspective, there is a single factor that shines through — focus on the technology and not the equipment. Oh sure, they ask some equipment related questions on how to configure it or perform certain tasks, but more than half of any certification is about the underlying technology. I suspect that this is less true of other vendors; I have experienced training and exams from certain companies where it was assumed that you know the fundamentals, (presuming that I have magically obtained this information from somewhere else) and thus are only interested in how to configure a given technology on their platform. This type of training is the worst to go through, and causes a poor perception of training.
I wonder if the Cisco training focus on fundamentals is part of their success ? It is an interesting idea. I have had discussions with people that only “Cisco has this or that feature” when it exists in many products. The person just didn’t know that other companies would adopt the same technology.
Didn’t you go to University ?
I don’t get this question (so much) from people who have been to University. Perhaps that means that those who have experienced more examinations are less likely to complain. If so, that makes sense, even after ten years of Certification Exams I still struggle with the format.
Exams are to test knowledge, Real life is real life
I don’t know how Cisco puts their exams together, but I reckon that it would be difficult to put questions together that are accurate in real life. How exactly could you ask questions that would be comfortable to everyone ? And asking questions that you can answer doesn’t really make you learn. The research suggests that learning and retention only happens under certain conditions and the exam is attempting that validate that your have learned something.
So quit moaning to me, and wasting your own time. The exams are what they are, and don’t have much relevance to real life but they are very practical.
Other Articles in this series
Certification Matters, Experiences Less So — Part 1
Certification Matters — Knowledge or Experience Which is more valuable ? Part 2
Certification Matters — Only you can do the Study Part 3
Certification Matters — Exams are not relevant to Real Life — Part 4
- Opinion: Certification matters — Experience less so — Part 1
- Opinion:Certification Matters –Part 2– Knowledge or Experience — Which is more valuable ?
- Opinion:Certification Matters– Only you can do the study — Part 3
- Opinion:Certification Matters — Exams are not relevant to Real Life — Part 4
- “Just In Case” versus “Just In Time” Learning. Or Why Am I Learning this useless crud !?
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Hey,
While I agree that getting certified shows a candidates willingness to learn it does not show their ability to learn. This is specially true with written exams, with products such as Pass4Sure and TestKings of the world this is becoming more and more of a joke. I recently interviewed someone who passed CCIE Written in both R&S and Sec. While this does not mean that they are CCIE in any way shape or form it would tell you that this candidate at least has the knowledge to gather the information and analyze certain things to pass the exam.…. wrong!. Simple questions that any CCIE candidate should answer he could not.
Unfortunately too many people are taking test with out the proper preparation and or study habits. But like anyone one as the interviewer (I’m only a Senior Eng) so i dont make the decision but my opinion somehow matters.. lol. Anyways as the interviewer of that certain individual(s) you have to be able to weed out the fake from the true, sometimes certified sometimes not. I have read your posts and agree with certain thing as well with some of the comments, but one’s ability to analyze (just like a networking problem or solution) the individual your interviewing is what really matters. Weed the good from the bad, ask the right questions and present the correct and proper labs or scenarios for them to solve. Well I wont go any longer but you have some great articles (specially love the “Network Architect Job Description) lol.. that was priceless.
I think we have each other on twitter… mine is “yandy_r”.
Thanks for the info
From my reading in the press, Cisco seems to be taking steps to stop the cheating which is a good thing. I think we will see a shakeout over the next couple of years as people will not recertify. But yes, interviewing quickly shows up who didn’t prepare properly for the exam or used some shortcut to get a result.
Cisco is not the only company developing methods for tracking cheaters. Microsoft and CompTIA have both teamed with Cisco to create methods for catching individuals who use illegal study guides such as Pass4Sure and Testking.
Hiya!
I was talking to a training company consultant a few days ago. I wasn’t (am) quite sure if I have the knowledge to pass the BSCI and she advised me to take a TestKing test. She said that if I passed that I could be reasonably certain I’d pass the BSCI as well.
Now, on this site I read a few comments where the commenters presume TestKing to be baddies. Could you elaborate on this? I see no reason to throw cash at a company that “sux0rz”.
I have in the past been instructed by CCIE’s and CCNPs to use these the likes of Test Kings and Pass4Sure’s so that they can obtain their specializations certification’s quicker. Fail an exam at 125 to 250 dollars or more a pop is not cost effective if the exam is using psychometric techniques to fail you based on missing a part of the question or what ever the methodology is based on for a passing score.
It really bothered me that a la passed numbered –CCIE with years of experience and hands-on the equipment would suggest this…but after seeing how some of the test questions are crafted it appeared he was right about how some in the industry are “milking the flock”. It appears as greed has creeped in to certifications to subtly FAIL some of the exams multiple times. Not in all cases, but if you look deep enough you will see the light.
Nevertheless I took a beta exam recently cold turkey and am a bit optimistic on the future results. I used nothing but my experience and vendor neutral studies while testing.
I believe that if you can learn it for the exam, you an learn it for the job. In other words, even if you can’t remember everything you are supposed to have learned for a Cisco certification test, the fact that you passed the test indicates that you learned it once, and you can probably learn it again.
I have to agree that the person who pursues a certification on his own, without the employer’s support probalby has above average initiative. I would rather have an employee with above average initiative.
My employer supported me getting the CCNA. I was on my own for my CCNP. I had to learn a lot. At this point, I feel very inadequate, because the more you learn, the more you realize how limited your knowledge is. But, I proved I could learn it well enough to get the certification.
You have the right attitude I think. Certification can look like a hurdle, or it can look like part of the journey.
And I know exactly what you mean by “because the more you learn, the more you realize how limited your knowledge is.” I emphatically agree.