Re: IBM Certification Testing -- MIDRANGE-L

Larry,

No, I am not judging a single scene and relating it to the whole of
certification.  I am sure there are some good exams in other areas and
information to test where you are in the process.  Furthermore I stated up
front that the concept of certification is a good thing.

What I am advocating is the one exam in this one area is a poor product at
best for testing ones skill level as a Professional System Admin.  Look at
it this way, would you purchase a disk drive that you could write to many
times but never read???  That's about where I feel this Professional System
Administrator certification product/process is based on my experience in
prepping and taking the exam last week.....Its a poor offering at best...

<BTW>I did copy on Don Heller and Ann Lucas on the original post.  I have
not had a reply from them as of yet?  Could you suggest someone else that
should have been copied to help get this some attention?

Regards,

Mike Shaw


-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Bolhuis <lbolhui@ibm.net>
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Date: Wednesday, June 30, 1999 1:24 PM
Subject: Re: IBM Certification Testing


>Eh Hem!
>
>Gentlemen.  I think you a judging an entire program by a single
>scene.  I will grant you that test is a) a bit old and b) not written
>to current standards c) there is little study material (being generous
>there) and d) some of the questions lean more toward 'tricky' than
>testing knowledge.
>
>There are many tests (I think this is one of them) that are due for
>refreshing due in large part simply because of change in the material
>(OS/400 versions etc) They cannot all be re-written at once nor even
>every year. If you have not written at least one of these tests then
>you can not appreciate all that goes into each of them.
>
>As each test is being re-written there are newer standards that they
>are held to, not the least of which are 1) A complete diagnostic test
>that has the same number of questions over the same material as the
>real test and 2) Greatly expanded information on where to study for
>each area should you not pass or wish to learn on weaker area's.  In
>addition, let me assure you from personal experience that 'trick'
>questions, or questions that are based on 'picky' details are no
>longer tolerated in the exams, nor are intentianally humorous or
>blatantly wrong answers. (What is security level R2D2 for example!?)
>
>As for what is covered in each test, the information covered is
>gathered from surveys sent to people such as those on this list.  It
>is not created by a handfull of people in a room in a cold northern
>state.  If the outline suggests that a system administrator needs to
>know security but the surveys say that nobody ever does security then
>little or no security information will be included!  The tests attempt
>to cover as close to real world situations as possible.
>
>Unfortunately some of the older tests were written by a previous
>generation of test writers.  I don't know what rules they had to
>follow, or who they had write them.  I have taken several of these
>older tests myself and while I must agree with some of the comments
>made, please don't junk the entire program because of one tired test.
>
>I have said this before, and it is still true:
>
> If you have any CONSTRUCTIVE comments about any test or testing in
>general I will be certain to forward them to responsible and
>Responsive persons within IBM Certification.  And please do NOT ask
>what questions you got wrong or what the correct answers are! (That
>didn't even work for Me!)
>
> - Larry Bolhuis
>
>IBM Certified Specialist:
> AS/400 Client Access
> AS/400 Solution Sales V4R2
> AS/400 Professional Network Admin - Network/MultiSystems Environment
> AS/400 Business Intelligence Technical SOlutions V4R2
>IBM Certitied Expert:
> AS/400 Tehnical Solutions V4R4
> AS/400 e-business V4R2
>  .
>  .
>  .
>
>
>
>Art Baker wrote:
>>
>> Mike,
>>         Great note! I looked at going to Las Vegas a couple of times to
take
>> that same test. I missed it because of the work load here. Now I'm glad I
>> did miss it.
>> Art
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Mike Shaw [mailto:mshaw@ncal.verio.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 1999 8:46 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 Professiona
l
>> 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
>>
>
>--
>Larry Bolhuis         | What do you want to reload today?
>Arbor Solutions, Inc  |
>(616) 451-2500        | Two rules to success in life:
>lbolhui@ibm.net       | 1. Never tell people everything you know.
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