Re: Free IBM Testing at COMMON

Certainly  remove  the casual  walk in  distortion factor to only the
cash.CdCD serious minded.


At 10:46 AM 1/11/2006, Larry Bolhuis wrote:

With the free tests they had a lot of folks just trying something,
anything, and often failing dramatically. This messes up the performance
statistics of the tests quite badly, so badly in fact that they had to
omit the data from COMMON when analyzing the tests. You may not think
this is a big deal but the tests are worthless if you can't prove that
those who should pass do and those that shouldn't don't. Without
statistics you simply can't do that. It's all done with mystical
mathematics by specially trained folks (read 'spreadsheets'!) but
believe me, it works. So the decision was that by charging at least
something, people won't take a test unless they believe strongly enough
in their ability to pass it to shell out the bucks. It washes out the
'hey I get one free, I might as well give it a go' crowd.

-Larry

William A. Hansen wrote:

> IBM still offers certification testing, but it is no longer free. They charged for it in Orlando this fall, but at a reduced rate.

>

> I teach a lab in which I let people take Manta courses to prepare for the Operations and System Administration exams. The attendance was down, because fewer people wanted to pay for the exams.

> William A. Hansen
> Manta Technologies Inc.
> Toll-free: (800) 406-2682
> Direct: (847) 382-7189
>

--
Larry Bolhuis IBM eServer Certified Systems Expert:
Vice President iSeries Technical Solutions V5R3
Arbor Solutions, Inc. iSeries LPAR Technical Solutions V5R3
1345 Monroe NW Suite 259 iSeries Linux Technical Solutions V5R3
Grand Rapids, MI 49505 iSeries Windows Integration Technical Solutions V5R3
IBM eServer Certified Systems Specialist
(616) 451-2500 iSeries System Administrator for OS/400 V5R3
(616) 451-2571 - Fax AS/400 RPG IV Developer
(616) 260-4746 - Cell iSeries System Command Operations V5R2

If you can read this, thank a teacher....and since it's in English,
thank a soldier.

--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.