From: Lennart Sorensen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Exactly.  A good admin knows where to find the required
> knowledge quickly.  To do that requires either a hands
> on test, or something like brainbench which permits you
> a certain amount of time to answer each question but
> lets you use any websites and reference books and other
> things as you wish.

Ummm, I thought the Brainbench agreement requires you to
claim you won't use such?

> The hands on test is probably harder to cheat on than
> brainbench, but much harder to administer.

How do you "cheat" on a "hands on test"?  You're more than
allowed to use HOWTOs, docs, etc... on the system, which is
not on the Internet in the exam.  Of course, if you're looking
through those, you're not going to finish in the alloted time.

I've now sat the RHCE twice.  I took the entire period both
times for the second part.  Some people finish in half-time.
Don't know how, but they do.  But 80% of them do not, including
very experienced people.  E.g., the last time I sat, last fall
for the RHEL 5 exam, every single person had been administering
RHEL systems for at least 3 years and knew what they were doing.

I've also have sat two (2) RHCA exams.  I took the entire
period on both of those as well.  The EX442 was one session
of four (4) hours, not exactly "happy, happy fun time."  ;)

> I think both when not cheated on are a better indicator
> of knowledge than paper tests like LPIC.

Huh?  Brainbench?  Sorry, don't see it.

Furthermore, you can't cover as many concepts in a 4-6 hour,
hands-on exam like you can in a 2 hour exam like LPI.  As
someone who has sat those, I can say, they have their own
pluses and minuses.

In fact, that's why companies like Red Hat now have over a
half-dozen level 400 exams, which go into various specialties
beyond the RHCE.  But even those exams still have tasks that
take time, and can't cover various scenarios.

It all depends on the focus as it can be crammed it, with
their various pluses and minuses.

> The problem is preventing cheating, or the amount of
> effort required to setup the test environment I suppose.

If we're really, really worried about cheating, then maybe
the system is flawed.  Candidates should really think what
cheating means.

In any case, it's hard to balance everything without creating
a week-long exam that cost $10,000.  ;)


-- 
Bryan J Smith        Professional, Technical Annoyance
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith
------------------------------------------------------
I'm a PC, but Linux -- Windows: Life Without Firewalls

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