This post goes out to all the people who are incessant about cheating because they feel deep down in their hearts that they will never be caught. If you are one of those people, you may want to grab a smoke and a coke, then come back, kick your shoes off and relax for a while while you read this. If you know one of these people (we run into them in nearly every certification forum on the internet) then pass this link on to them. And, well, if you're not one of them, you may want to learn a bit, so enjoy!
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Regardless of the certification, your best bet is to visit the certification vendor first. They will almost always have the resources you need to at least get started on your certification. In this case, the first resource I suggest is the Windows Vista – Learning Portal.
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I was forwarded an email this morning which shows how an ounce of research will turn into a pound of prevention. For those of you that haven't taken the time to verify for your self that TESTKING IS ILLEGAL. Take a brief moment, email any of the certification vendors out there (here is a list of Vendors), and wait for the response. You'll get a similar response from most, if not all of the vendors.
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We're all well aware there are cracked versions of just about any software you can think of somewhere on the internet. Most of the torrent or filesharing sites rank among some of the most visited sites I've seen. Being in the line of work that I am, I review site ranks and compare website popularity almost on a daily basis and I don't think I've ever seen a torrent site with a rank greater than ~3,000 (Alexa.com) and a monthly visitor count of less than ~50,000 (Compete.com). So the popularity of "free" has definitely increased over the past few years.
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Network World and the authors have decided to remove this blog post and the discussion that followed. While the original post was intended to highlight how the issue of braindumps is a pervasive one, we regret having singled out anyone in particular and apologize for any accusations of cheating.
The Visual Cert Exam Suite consists of two programs; a Manager and a Designer. According to VisualCertExam.com, the designer was developed "for authors involved in practice exam development" and the manager was "designed for taking exams created with Visual CertExam Designer". Unfortunately, one of the popular features of the designer is the ability to import and convert TXT, RTF, and PDF formats to the VCE format which is read by the program and displays the questions and answers in a format that is more like the actual exam.
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I was recently approached by a couple of individuals that were genuinely concerned about being decertified because they had purchased a braindump and used it to study with. As I'm sure they're not the only two people that have bought into the braindump scam, I'm sure many candidates will come across this situation at least once in their career and as professionals in the industry many of us will run across someone that needs help in a similar situation.
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I've seen numerous conversations that address the cheating problem and what certification programs are doing to combat the issues. What I'd like to bring to this venue is the idea behind what they are trying to accomplish, how they are accomplishing it, and what could be done in conjunction to further increase the value of any certification program.
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For years, CertGuard has been "checking" the certification industry, but who's checking CertGuard? This, along with questions such as "How does CertGuard determine which websites are providing braindumps and which are actually helping your earn your certifications?" and "What checks and balances are in place if CertGuard is blacklisting websites?", have been seen in various forums and newsgroups and should probably be answered by us in public.
What checks and balances are in place when checking certification websites?
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For those of you looking to increase your worth by way of certification, it may be a difficult road to travel if you don't know someone that has already been down it (or at least done some research on the subject). I've spent, and continue to spend, 1000's of hours researching certification websites; collecting and comparing data related to those sites.
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My apologies for the intermittent posting frequency. Not to make excuses, but developing technologies that can do exactly what we need to do is a full time job in itself; and my time management skills haven't been up to par lately.
To get back on track I've got some interesting blogs slated for the near and distant future. Amongst other issues in the certification industry, I'm going to start with a short series that outlines the differences between Braindumps and Study Guides, I'll finish up my series on "Securing Test Centers", and I've solicited the help of someone much more qualified to discuss what is going on in the certification industry.
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In an article recently published by Rick Gregory, Cisco and Pearson VUE announced a strengthening of their partnership that will be taking the certification industry by the ears. After identifying and profiling the three categories of miscreants that continue to devalue your hard earned certifications, Cisco and VUE listed the measures used to deter cheating, detailed the ramifications of cheating, and provided information on what Cisco certified professionals can expect to happen in the near future.
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In the past 12-18 months, certification vendors have begun to implement security measures in their testing environments. These measures are in place to prevent proxy test takers and other individuals from taking advantage of the end-user certification exam process. Many test centers in the United States are required to follow the requirements of the highest level of security possible. As an example, Cisco has taken a step in the right direction by implementing photo identification of all exam candidates before they are allowed to take an exam.
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In the certification industry there are exam candidates that know they're cheating and exam candidates that DON'T know they're cheating. Both types of cheaters are equally damaging to the industry, but one type of cheater, the "inadvertent cheater", would opt to avoid braindumps if they only knew what those braindumps consisted of and the consequences of using them. We're hoping that you will help us spread the word so that the unsuspecting exam candidates out there will understand the ins and outs of the study materials they use.
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In Microsoft's April 2007 Stipulated Permanent Injunction against Certification Trendz, the owners of Testking agreed to certain conditions proposed by Microsoft. In June 2007, a Stipulated Motion to Dismiss was agreed upon by both parties and filed with a U.S. Judicial Court.
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Would it surprise you to know that a majority of the braindump sites primarily distribute Microsoft and Cisco braindumps? Nah, that's too obvious. Would it be a shock to know that Oracle, Citrix, and Sun are in spots 3, 4, & 5, respectively? Well maybe, but hopefully the information provided below will shed a little light on the seriousness that is plaguing the I.T. industry.
The numbers in the right column represent the number of braindump sites we have found to be distributing, or promoting the distribution of, the intellectual property for each certification vendor.
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As I mentioned a few weeks back, I was on a mission to make it to the two ATP events of the year, Innovations in Testing and the ATP Test Security Summit. I made it and it was a great experience that I intend on repeating in the years to come. In the three days I was there, I got to meet some wonderful and genuine professionals that are interested in increasing the value of your certifications.
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As the title suggests, we're looking for a little information from CCIEs in the community. Since we spend much of our day researching certification related websites, it was only a matter of time before we got to the CCIE community. CCIE is a much respected certification and we'd like to help keep it that way. Up until only a couple years ago, braindumps for the many CCIE disciplines were unheard of. Now, however, it seems they're just as available as any of the other popular certifications, but much more expensive.
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Obviously by the title you can tell that we've decided to revisit an old article. This was an article that was written by Robert back in September 2006 and needed some serious modifications. In addition, we felt that some of the data provided is now out of date and in need of renovation. Although the information in this version is more current the goals are still the same, to give you a general idea of the miscreants that are devaluing your IT Certifications, to help you recognize them and their illegal products/services, and to provide you with a means of helping us increase the value of your certifications.
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A bit cheesy, I know, but we decided to relax for the evening and let the braindumpers sleep one more night. We thought we would have a little fun and remembered seeing a place that allows you to create your own personalized wordsearch and figured this would be a great opportunity to just have a little fun. We hope you have fun with it, we did!
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So, you're looking for legitimate study materials?
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There are two great events coming up that we want you to know about. The first is the 9th annual Innovations in Testing conference. Hosted by the Association of Test Publishers, this conference is scheduled to take place March 3-5, 2008 at the Gaylord Texan in Dallas, TX.
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To continue on the path we were headed to in part one, there are some other suggestions that we feel should be addressed before we introduce our Solution to the Braindump Problem. If you're arriving late, you may want to take a couple minutes to catch up on Part one of A Solution to the Braindump Problem.
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Brain dumps aren't what they used to be. Over the past decade, the distribution of braindumps has grown into a multi-million dollar illicit business that has single-handedly ruined I.T. certifications. The groups responsible are apparently unstoppable and they know it. We all watched Microsoft file suit against Certification Trendz and we also saw them fumble the ball when they only brought a handful of the websites owned by Certification Trendz to the court room.
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Certification Integrity with Robert and Taylor.
Taylor and I are honored to be blogging here on Network World. We have not only enjoyed reading most of the blogs on Network World, we have also had the pleasure of contributing many comments and articles to blogs here. Being prior contributors, we can't stress enough how much your input counts. As first time bloggers to Network World, we would like to provide a little background on us and what our blogging intentions are for the weeks, months, and years to come.
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Robert Williams is co-founder and CEO of CertGuard. Robert founded CertGuard after an 8-year stint in the U.S Navy, three years of college and five years in IT. While on a quest for more knowledge, Robert decided to work on earning a certification when he noticed the abundance of braindumps and illegal services that plagued the industry. Putting his certifications and further education on hold, Robert decided that it was time for someone to dedicate their time to preventing the spread of these illegal products and services. And CertGuard was born.
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