RE: IBM Certification Testing

Preaching to the choir, Mike.  IBM's Certification process is the "biggest
hoax since 90 minute martinizing" - Kramer

Just another money maker for them.  Hopefully most of us feel confident
enough in our applied skills that we don't need a piece of paper from big
brother telling use we're ok.  

Bradley V. Stone
BVS/Tools
http://www.bvstools.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Shaw [mailto:mshaw@ncal.verio.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 1999 9:46 AM
To: MIDRANGE-L Listserv
Cc: dheller@us.ibm.com; alucas@us.ibm.com
Subject: IBM Certification Testing
Importance: High


Hi All,

Last week I attended the AS/400 Technical Conference in Las Vegas.  One of
the reasons I chose to attend the conference was to take the Professional
Systems Administrator certification exam.  The good news for me is that I
did take it and  passed the exam.  The bad news is that the exam is a hoax!

I do support the concept and process of certification to demonstrate a level
of competency.  It is a valuable tool to assess skills that you may need to
bring in or to measure yourself against your peers.

SoapBoxMode(*ON)

I was very disappointed in the process.  The exam did not test my ability to
manage an AS/400(s) in a large environment, it tested my ability to know
when I needed to call a marketing person to buy more hardware!!!!  Is that
what we are being certified to do???  I think not, knowing when you need
more is a very small part.  Knowing how to manage what you have and get the
most from it day-in and day-out is the bigger challenge and the exam does
not test you in the accepted practices to do that.

The other complaint that I have is that someone breathing good ol' pure air
does not think in the terms the certification exam is written in.  Not only
did the exam *fail* to test my skill level from 20 years experience in the
IBM midrange arena, they managed to find every a-- backward way there way
known to man to ask a simple question.  Make me sweat bullets over knowing
the AS/400, not in asking simple questions with trickery.

Preparation material to take the exam is non-existent for the Professional
System Administrator certification.  Outside of a web page with bullet
points of broad areas that you need to know, there is nothing!  There is not
even a pre-test that you can take to assess where you are and what you need
to persue to improve.  I was told by an IBM'er in the Certification Lab to
take the Associate System Administrator exam, it was representative....I
took the pre-test in 21 minutes and scored a passing grade...Tell me  that
is representative!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To get an idea of what the Professional System Administrator exam was like,
I took it at a $75.00 cost just to see what I was getting into and how to
improve.  I missed a passing grade by 2 percent, taking it cold turkey.  You
should not have to do that.  There should be a representative pre-test
available for you to take and assess where you are in the learning process.

I hope that someone in IBM sees this and chooses to do something about it.
Where we are now in the certification process for a Professional System
Administrator is poor at best.  I have a much higher expectation (and I hope
that all of you do too) for a product that has IBM's name on it.

SoapBoxMode(*OFF)

Regards,

Mike Shaw
Senior AS/400 Tech Support
IBM Certified Professional System Administrator (I know when to call a
marketing rep)
Santa Rosa, CA




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