http://www.CertGuard.com/articles.asp Articles on Certification and Exam Security en-us Sun, 2007-04-22T12:00:00+06:00 Mon, 2007-05-02T07:31:00+06:00 http://www.CertGuard.com/articles/ UltraEdit - 32 RSS.Feeds@CertGuard.com webmaster@CertGuard.com http://www.certguard.com/Time-Tips-for-Certification-Exams.asp It is a common misconception that information such as the number of questions on a given cert exam is protected by the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), and it has been repeated so many times by so many people that some people are surprised when I answer the question. That being said, this is not a History test, it is a test of your skills. If you are concerned by time, I suggest the following: Sat, 2007-05-26 http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/14695 What you'll be reading here in the fourth, and last, part of our series may just make your stomach turn when you read it. The people we'll be talking about in our last and final installment are the worst form of cheaters there are. Mon, 2007-04-30 http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/14403 Robert Williams talks about the four types of cheaters out there; how they're all helping, in their own special way, to devalue I.T. certifications; and what is being done to combat their ineptness. Mon, 2007-04-23 http://www.certguard.com/Why-Certify.asp One question you should ask yourself before traveling down the long and costly road of I.T. certification is, "Why do I want this certification?" What is the end result you desire? Many individuals new to the I.T. field hear about certifications and seek to acquire them, with little thought about why they are doing so. Without asking this basic question, you run the risk of wasting valuable time and resources on a certification that may not serve your needs. This pattern can prove detrimental to both yourself and the certification program. Fri, 2007-04-20 http://www.certguard.com/Seven-Steps-to-Certification-Success.asp Before writing this article, I posed a question to many certified individuals. The question I asked was, "What was the hardest part of your certification journey?" You would expect to hear that the hardest part would have been the exam(s) themselves. However, many individuals responded that they simply did not know how or where to start. They would describe how they heard of a certification, bought a book and started study. There was no research performed. There was no plan established. There was no evaluation afterword to debrief and learn from the experience, however disordered the process may have been. Wed, 2007-04-11 http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/13646 Braindumps are certainly not the worst thing that people can take advantage of when it comes to getting certified, but it is at the top of the list; we'll get into "hired gunmen" in the last installment of this series. Mon, 2007-04-09 http://www.certguard.com/Microsoft-v-Testking.asp August 8th, 2006, The Microsoft Corporation filed a Criminal lawsuit in the United States District Court, Western District of Washington, against "1-20 (at the time unnamed) John Does d/b/a (doing business as) Testking", notibly the largest distributor of braindumps and creator of braindump material on the Internet today. Wed, 2007-04-04 http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/13341 This is part one of a multiple part series exposing the inner workings of the cheating industry that is devaluing IT certifications. Mon, 2007-04-02 http://www.certguard.com/Certification-and-Experience.asp "Don't put the cart before the horse." We have all heard this saying at one time in our lives. You can put the cart before the horse, but it was not designed to work that way. The same can be said about certifications and experience. Certifications are designed to enhance your I.T. experience, and be earned by ideal candidates. Almost every vendor certification program has what are known as ideal candidates for their various certifications. Microsoft gives an example of an ideal candidate for their MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) certification. It reads: Tue, 2007-03-27 http://www.certguard.com/Certification-Bootcamps.asp This article was written with the individuals new to the world of certifications in mind. There seems to be an enormous amount of bootcamps for any and every certification that is offered. Individuals new to such a concept may be tempted to enroll in one of these bootcamps expecting to get certified in a little as 14 days in some cases. So I have decided to give you my 2 cent on the idea and the reason behind it as well. Sun, 2007-03-25 http://www.certguard.com/The-Value-of-IT-Certifications.asp Until now it was possible for candidates in the United States (and other countries) to have exams taken for them in countries other than their own. Gunmen, located half way around the world, were able to take tests for people that paid the outrageous prices they were asking. Now, that is all over... Sat, 2007-03-24 http://www.certguard.com/Gunmen-Domain-Hosts.asp For those of you that don't know, Gunmen are the people that you see blatantly advertise their services in most of the Public NNTP 'newsgroups'. They're also known as Hired Guns, or Proxy Exam Takers. Their services include taking exams for other people and stealing your money. Wed, 2007-03-14 http://www.certguard.com/File-Sharing-Braindumps.asp In our attempt to prevent the 'sharing and transfer' of braindumps on the internet, we've come across a large number of file Sharing websites that provide millions of people access to braindumps. Many of these file sharing sites are created to share illegal information, and they know it...everyone knows it. Be it music, videos, porn, software, or exam questions, if the material was stolen from a copyrighted source, then it is all illegal. These file sharing sites can deny it all they want, but the owners, administrators, and members are well aware that the sharing of these materials is illegal, yet they do nothing to stop it from happening. In fact, they promote it. Wed, 2007-03-07 http://www.certguard.com/CertsPlanet.asp CertGuard, the only company on the internet dedicated hunting down the people that devalue your certifications, has pulled through once more. Our efforts at preventing gunmen from taking exams have taken another step in the right direction. We have now thwarted the activities of three gunman-operated websites and five lone gunmen. I just received word this afternoon about our latest shutdown, CertsPlanet.com. Tue, 2007-03-06 http://www.certguard.com/Choose-Your-First-Exams-Wisely.asp I have gone on and on about the importance of that first cert exam, but I have read a lot of comments recently that made me realize how important exam selection can be to that successful first exam. if your decision to get certified is based on professional necessity - i.e.: your boss said you need to get certified in order to keep your job, the choice may have been made for you, i.e.: 'We have Windows Server 2003 running our networks, we want you to pass 070-290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment.' Simple and done, you know what your first exam is. Wed, 2006-11-15 http://www.certguard.com/This-MCTs-Path-to-Certification.asp I am not sure when I first started respecting the certifications that some people bragged of, but I do know that the first time I was ever serious about getting certified was in 2001. I was IT Manager for a security firm in Montreal, and I had built my first Active Directory domain around Windows 2000 Server. Thinking back on it I remember how many mistakes I made because I was just following instructions, and did not really have any real knowledge of servers and server environments. Sun, 2006-10-15 http://gocertify.com/article/braindumps.shtml For as long as there have been tests, there have been cheaters, and the world of IT certification isn't immune to this unfortunate rule. There are people out there who are sabotaging the value certification provides; people who routinely profit by selling products and services that help cheaters cheat; people who steal value from certification vendors and the IT professionals who extend the time, effort, and money to get legitimately certified. These are people who need to be stopped, but first you have to be able to recognize who they are, the wares they peddle, and who uses such illegal and unethical products, and that is not always as easy as it seems. Thu, 2006-09-21