Certification Exams, NDAs, and Responsible Behavior
Based on some recent events, I find it necessary to post this as a notification to all those who take certification exams. This applies to certifications across different vendors, not just Microsoft.
During the opening screens of the exam, before you reach the actual question portion, a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is presented. Like most exam candidates, myself included, the thought process is to get to the exam content so you can complete the exam, get your score, and get out the door and back to your busy work life. This is a normal and accepted behavior and I’m not advocating a change on that aspect.
What I am posting about is reading, understanding, and adherence to the NDA. If you are not sure what it is or what is contained in it, take the time on at least one exam to read it completely. Essentially, by clicking the Accept button on that screen, you are agreeing to a legally binding document. So, in a nutshell, what are you agreeing to?
In essence, you are agreeing that when you have completed taking the exam, you will NOT discuss with anyone, at anytime, in any forum, in any form whatsoever, what was covered on the exam. You are not permitted to discuss the content of the questions in any form. The only content you are permitted to discuss is what is publicly available in the form of exam preparation guides. The content on the exam is intellectual property and is owned by the exam provider such as Microsoft.
Exam developers like Cisco, CompTIA, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. spend considerable time, effort, and cost to create certification exams and the content that is required to adequately test candidates on the material necessary to achieve the certification. This effort helps to ensure that the certification you acquire when passing the exam(s) provides you with a valid measure of your skill and knowledge for that technology.
By talking openly on what the content of the exam is, you are in essence making it easier for those who come after you to pass the exam without really knowing the content. You also make it easier for the brain dump sites to get a head start on what the exam covers. By not discussing the content of the exam with anyone, you help to ensure the validity and value of the certification you just earned.
Certification providers include in the NDA the fact that if you are caught divulging this information, you can lose your credential and become banned from further certifications. They are within their rights to enforce this although I am not aware of Microsoft doing this in the time I have been here. If you value your certifications and want them to continue to hold value in the industry, you need to partner with your certification organization to help prevent piracy and ensure that those who achieve the certification, actually deserve it.
Comments and questions welcome.
Gerry
Comments
Anonymous
April 28, 2010
Well, yes and no. Yes, everyone is supposed to do the right thing. But when so many people (including many of my students) prepared the exam and passed mainly based on these brain dump sites, they don't care. I've seen students sharing these brain dump questions, even asking me questions from these brian dump sites, and I warned them to not use it. Two common responses: "Why? They're just exam prep questions." "Come on Bing, we just want to pass the exam and everyone is using it." I really don't know what to say to my students. I can't say these questions are so similar to the actual ones -- or I'm breaching the NDA and confirming they're real. I can't say you're supposed to use only Microsoft approved material, because for many PRO level exams (especially for development), there is no MOC, no e-leanring, no books. A "Skills Being Measured" list is the only thing officially available. But, have a look at what's in there, e.g. 70-564 "Choose appropriate controls based on business requirements. May include but is not limited to: user controls, server controls, built-in controls, custom controls, third-party controls, Web parts". Don't you think it's too broad (i.e. not specific enough)? Students asked me "what third-party controls we should learn and use"? Well, even though I know they misunderstand the requirement, I can't even say in what aspects Microsoft is testing on "3rd-party controls". In the end of the day, students spent long time playing with different controls from different vendors, then took the exam and complained to me "There is no qustion on any particular ......." (well, I don't want to breach the rule.) Because of the unclear requirement, they wasted time and effort. Yes, it's not bad to learn things not actually required for exam. But for exam prep, students only get bad impression on Microsoft. In short, I think MSL shouldn't rely on people doing the right thing. And I don't believe brain dump sites get real questions inlcuding "exhibits' are from exam takers. There must be some dodgy testing centre involved. And, please, make the requirements more specific. Just my 0.02Anonymous
April 28, 2010
The comment has been removedAnonymous
April 28, 2010
The comment has been removedAnonymous
April 28, 2010
The comment has been removedAnonymous
April 29, 2010
Hi Raghuraman, Thanks for the comments. As for the efforst to make the exam more categorized, I have to say no. We are actively looking at ways to move all of our exams to performance-based testing and away from a standard multiple choice style exam though. We are still a little way off from completing that task yet. In looking at your posts that you link to, I don't see much in the way of information on question content being divluged. Realistically, your posts are not much more than what can be gleaned from reading the prep guides. GerryAnonymous
April 29, 2010
Hi John, Based on what I read on your blog post, I don't see it as being a violation of the NDA. Discussing the type of questions may border on NDA violation but you're not actually telling anybody what a specific question covered. You merely indicate that the are of testing used cmdlets more that the GUI. It's actually good information for potential candidates and allows them to go back and study both ways. GerryAnonymous
April 29, 2010
Hi Gerry The NDA at the start of the exam is the most difficult thing to explain to people as they believe you can tell them almost everything about the exam and get upset when you do. I have taken to the method that if it has been mentioned in the wild by MSL then its ok to discuss. For example on 70-536 there was a live meeting on the whole thing and a web cast from TechEd that went through a lot of it. There was a post on the MSL blog that detailed what could and couldnt be disclosed but it doesnt seem to be working. I even included it in the forum guidelines for the Training and Cert Forum on Technet. Any chance it could be published again as part of this to give people a couple of examples so that they can set their "NDA compasses" in the right directionAnonymous
April 29, 2010
Hey Niall, Thanks for the post. I agree with you, as usual. Do you think you can find the post you are talking about? I would be more than happy to repost it. GerryAnonymous
April 29, 2010
The comment has been removedAnonymous
April 29, 2010
Thanks Niall, I'll see if I can dig it up from some archive somewhere. At the very least, Ken should still have it somewhere on his computer. GerryAnonymous
May 02, 2010
Hi Gerry In regards to question sharing and the like, and I don't know if it has already been done, but update the questions say once a month, that would make it impossible for people to memorize the questions. Or is that simply not feasible? too expensive etc.? And by the way thanks for an awesome blog, been following for quite some time not without posting:)Anonymous
May 02, 2010
HI Carsten, Having an item pool large enough to do this would be a great idea but unfortunately, it is cost prohibitive. Not only from the perspective of writing enough items to do this, but also from the process and cost involved to rotate questions in and out of the exams. It's not just our systems involved but those of the exam delivery provider as well. Thanks for the blog support too! GerryAnonymous
May 02, 2010
When will the exam results released for MCTS 2010 Beta?Anonymous
May 02, 2010
Felipe, The information on the beta exams indicated that the results will be available in appcoximately eight weeks or when the exam goes live. Please note that this is an estimate only and various factors may affect the actual notification times. GerryAnonymous
May 14, 2010
The comment has been removedAnonymous
June 22, 2010
Gerry, I take the test 12 weeks ago. Soon test will go live. When I will get the results?Anonymous
June 29, 2010
Beta results is at prometric site! =) Not yet at mcp site