2008-10-30 exams
by Vasil KolevI wanted to write this in the last few months, but it became really on-topic after the dCAP certification.
My idea is that there’s no point in studying for exams, because that makes the results from the exam meaningless.
As some historical data – all the exams and such that I’ve been to and that I would accept as a grade for myself were in a normal or sub-normal condition and with no preparations. For example I took LPI201 with a hangover, three hours of sleep, probably still a bit drunk and before that I had to fix some stuff with the video streaming of the seminar, LPI202 was on the second day of an Openfest where I had to present lectures and be in the organization, dCAP – with jet lag, underslept, with some cold and maybe with a bit of drinking.
(and I don’t even want to remember the stuff at the university)
(the final math exams in high school I took with no preparation for two of the four hours and had to run to fix a dead server…)
The result obtained this way is real. Everyone can just memorize the material, to take the exam or whatever and then to forget it – this is not a real grade, but that’s just a way around the system. It’s also a part of the reason for the real meaning of the university diplomas to be just that the person could live 4-5 years being made to deal with crap and managed to go through, but nothing more – you can’t say if he liked it or can apply it, or the abilities to think, etc..
(not to mention the Bulgarian ones, where the diplomas mean even less)
If someday I decide to do a real course in system administration, the exam will be one evening drinking and on the next day the students will be given two racks of equipment, parts of which don’t work, tons of cables, eternal connections, a bit of spare hardware and 30-40 pages of documentation that has the looks of having survived a tornado, after which they’ll have to make it work as before.
(I might even add a few tapes of backup with hard-to-find reader)
Maybe there can be an exception for the really hard exams, like CCIE (or somewhat dCAP) – where if you can make the practical part in the alloted time, then you can handle almost everything in the real world. Most exams are not like this and can be passed with just memorizing (for example, for me CCNA would have a meaning if they were given 10 minutes instead of 30-60).
Of course, there’s also the question on how can you learn enough to be able to take exams in this way. I have always preferred the practical way, learning on the backs of the users, but it’s a bit hard to find such a place :)