Microsoft Makes Some Certification Exams Open Book (theregister.com) 37
Microsoft has made some of its certification exams open book affairs, allowing access to its learning portal while candidates sit tests. From a report: "On August 22, we will begin updating our exams so that you will be able to access Microsoft Learn as you complete your exam," wrote Liberty Munson, director of psychometrics at Microsoft's Worldwide Learning organization. Microsoft Learn is a portal that links to product documentation, tutorials, code fragments, and other technical material.
Much of that content will be available during exams, although a technical Q&A service will remain hidden. The open book exams will be offered to candidates sitting exams for the role-based certifications Microsoft offers for job titles including Azure Administrator, Developer, Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer; Microsoft 365 Modern Desktop Administrator, and Enterprise Administrator. Exams at Associate, Expert, and Specialty levels of competency will all offer access to the Learn portal. The material will become available for all role-based and specialty exams, in all languages, by mid-September 2023. Looking up material on Learn won't stop the clock during an exam, and the experience of taking the test will remain unchanged -- other than allowing candidates to open a window in which to view the educational portal.
Much of that content will be available during exams, although a technical Q&A service will remain hidden. The open book exams will be offered to candidates sitting exams for the role-based certifications Microsoft offers for job titles including Azure Administrator, Developer, Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer; Microsoft 365 Modern Desktop Administrator, and Enterprise Administrator. Exams at Associate, Expert, and Specialty levels of competency will all offer access to the Learn portal. The material will become available for all role-based and specialty exams, in all languages, by mid-September 2023. Looking up material on Learn won't stop the clock during an exam, and the experience of taking the test will remain unchanged -- other than allowing candidates to open a window in which to view the educational portal.
they keep renameing the tests so open book is need (Score:2)
they keep renaming the tests so open book is needed to find what they now call X.
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Mark my words (Score:1)
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That's a signal to noise ratio problem.
There are plenty of Windows folks that would look at "Internal System Error" and then say... That doesn't look like a normal Windows error message. It might have come from an application though; can you send me a screenshot or tell me when it happened? Then they'd check the system event log for a BSOD stop code and pull the memory dump or look at the application log and pull the applicatio
Exam economy (Score:3, Insightful)
Is this because fewer people care about the M$ exams, so the bar gets lowered to stir interest?
Re:Exam economy (Score:5, Insightful)
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So just have one Google exam then.
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Searching the web for troubleshooting answers is a skill. Exams should test memory of core aspects that shouldn't require web searching. Exams shouldn't generally be testing memory of obscure details, and the industry should continually be verifying what obscure means.
Re:Exam economy (Score:4)
There's a difference between having a solid understanding of a subject but still having to look something up, and someone who lacks all knowledge.
A good test will separate the former from the latter.
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Exactly, the closed book exams ask questions to filter out those who cheated during assignments.
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IT has always worked like that.
Check out old usenet posts back in the 1990's.
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That is what I saw.
IRC, Usenet, and the like were well-used in my silicon valley gigs in the 1990's and early 00's.
I remember being told not to buy all the new O'Relly books in 2001-2002(?) for the tech library our IT/RD used because we could just look up the info on the internet.
This will make an already shaky reputation worse (Score:2)
Microsoft certification is seen by garbage by a great many people already, and I say that as a long time MCSE, (among other things.) I stopped listing that on my resume a long time ago, although I can and will provide a transcript if asked. The last time an employer actually wanted me to re-up my certification was so that they could hold onto their Microsoft Gold Partner status.
I suppose, possibly, that front-line recruiters, with very little knowledge about what's actually required for a given position, ar
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It was ruined by people abusing it (Score:2)
Microsoft certification is seen by garbage by a great many people already, and I say that as a long time MCSE, (among other things.) I stopped listing that on my resume a long time ago, although I can and will provide a transcript if asked. The last time an employer actually wanted me to re-up my certification was so that they could hold onto their Microsoft Gold Partner status.
I suppose, possibly, that front-line recruiters, with very little knowledge about what's actually required for a given position, are still impressed.
Making the exams open book will do absolutely nothing to help that reputation. The only thing I see coming out of this is a bunch of "certified" people who're even less qualified than those who're already certified, clogging up the hiring pipeline because the recruiters don't know any better.
Certification is awesome and sorely missing. For other trades, you need to have a minimum amount of training and pass an exam. It would be very handy to see a certification on a resume and know that the person at least knows how the technology works on a superficial level. It's obviously no substitute for an interview, but only an idiot would think a certification alone means expertise in the first place. I took 5 MS cert exams, 3 Sun ones, and 3 Oracle ones 20+ years ago. They tought me a lot about fe
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The problem with the certifications is the testing.
It's not a grammar test or a reading comprehension test, or even a memorization of acronyms, though learning the terminology and acronyms allows you the talk the talk while you walk the walk.
The test should assess whether you how the item/system/feature works, which feature to use, what decisions to make, or how to troubleshoot.
The multiple choice tests are there just to trip you up.
I learn by practicing, and having anxiety dropping $300 on testing, knowing
Makes sense - simulates real world (Score:5, Interesting)
I had no idea what I did to upset all those people (it happened like 6x in a row) and a recruiter explained it to me this way: A bunch of folks, primarily from Asia and Russia, figured out no one actually checks if you're really certified, so they'd put 20 certifications on their resume and be totally clueless on the interview. Then I got hired, had to interview folks to expand our team and saw what they meant. The more certifications on your resume, the worse you'd do on the interview. I had one woman from an Indian outsourcing firm claim to have 5 Java certifications, the most impressive ones along with a massive, very impressive, resume. Then she answered EVERY interview question wrong...not even close...not just the detailed tech ones, but basic general ones about writing a SELECT statement, or making a web form, or a basic explanation of what SSL is. It was clear she never touched Java or any technology on her resume. I even handed her my laptop and asked her to write Hello World on the projector and she started crying. It's pretty fucked up.
I find this regrettable because I learned a LOT from those certification exams and I would never lie on an interview in a way that's so easily proven/disproven because I don't want to get fired during the background check. However, I guess some people have no ethical concerns about committing such blatant resume fraud. Certification exams exposed me to features and technologies I never would have used in my job and helped me with my breadth of knowledge. Exposing me to things I'd never use also made me more confident that I was on the right track with the technologies we did choose.
I strongly believe in certifications, but a few jerks ruined it for everyone. That said, I wasted a lot of time in the late 90s memorizing shit that can be easily looked up in a reference page. When I give interviews, I always ensure the candidate has an IDE. Whiteboard interviews are pure garbage for actual programming. In the real world, you'll have google and a textbook handy, so you don't need to memorize every parameter of every command. I don't really want someone who spent months memorizing every API. I want someone who can do the job efficiently and frankly that time spent memorizing shit that can be easily looked up should have been spent learning new skills or best practices.
IMHO, technical exams are much more realistic when you have the same tools you'd have on the job and this includes the internet and a book.
are the MS tests still set in the world of free so (Score:2)
are the MS tests still set in the world of free software and hardware where you have 3-4 servers doing tasks that all can fit on to just one?
Knowing where to look stuff up (Score:2)
Re:Knowing where to look stuff up (Score:5, Interesting)
If your company requires an MS certification (Score:2)
You probably don't want that job.
And if you're interviewing a candidate who plasters MS certifications all over their resume, you probably don't want that candidate.
I was on the team... (Score:2)
Opinion (Score:2)
This is a win for me. I'm taking a couple of Azure exams per year, and I it's a great idea. Forcing people to memorize which types of VMs supported premium storage or nested virtualization was silly. It's more important to know you NEED nested virtualization for feature X or Y than which VM SKUs have it.
Ditto for minutiae like which ExpressRoute Gateway SKUs support availability zones, etc.
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I don't mean to make fun of you but this reads like a movie plot like Idiocracy. You really have tests on corporate jargon, where its treated like a science? Damn. Mike Judge needs to make a movie called Corporatocity.
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It does feel clunky sometimes. The damnable thing is that analogous concepts exist in all major cloud providers, all with marketing names just different enough to be annoying.
Premium Storage vs Standard storage = The IOPs/Throughput is higher for Premium, it has different redundancy options, and costs more than standard. It used to be Premium = SSD, Standard = HDD, but now that's gone a bit fiddly with a Standard SSD tier too. :)
Nested Virtualization = Does the VM CPU support Virtualization extension ins
College (Score:1)
Did anyone else get some open book tests in college? I remember a couple and they were also the hardest. That's usually the plan, let people use whatever but up the difficulty.
Even with that it won't help (Score:1)
One Test to Rule Them All? (Score:1)
That's one of the 10 most commonly-guessed passwords in the world. And proof a certification doesn't make you a well-rounded professional.