[aklug] Re: IT certifications

On 9/7/16 11:06 AM, kris laubenstein wrote:
> There are some good points in here from Szechuan, among the apparent frustration
> with a straw man.

The term "straw man" has an actual meaning, and I would recommend that
you learn it. Once you do, you can point out for the class where,
exactly, that straw man was standing. You'll be looking for awhile.

> I'm pretty sure there was some NDA I agreed to, but I can say that a major
> vendor is in the process of changing how their certification process has
> historically been done. It is a MUCH better format than multiple choice and I
> believe it will bring more value to their certifications as time goes on. It
> will make brain dumps serve as training and less as free answer keys.

Most of them are, because they realize exactly how easy the exams are to
game.

Many of them are moving to statistical tests to detect braindump users
on the multiple-choice parts, too. Example: trick questions that are
designed to only be answerable "correctly" if you've been a-cheating, at
which point, they subject you to the Lens of Scrutiny.

Most of my objection to multiple-choice tests has to do with horrible
question phrasing that is not conducive to knowledge quantification.
"Parsing the question correctly to find the gotcha" isn't a valuable
test of knowledge, it's a linguistic parlor trick. That wouldn't be a
problem if the certs weren't openly advertised as being measures of
useful knowledge. I'd have no problem if they advertised them as what
they actually are: "rote exercises designed to facilitate HR
screening", as well as "a swell secondary income stream for vendors".

-- 
"must be the money"
-SD
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