Cisco has never been one to speak publicly at length about the big cheating industry that revolves around its certifications (it is the second most braindumped certification vendor on 
certification integrity company Certguard's list), with officials suggesting in December that it was an "isolated problem", but the company is now openly sharing its thoughts on and initiatives to combat Cisco test cheating. Cisco certification officials recently told Network World Senior Writer Jon Brodkin that not a week goes by that it's not evaluating information that they receive about cheating at Cisco test centers. Cisco also says it has folks dedicated to seeking out braindump sites that obtain and post answers to tests.
Brodkin writes:
Legal notices are sent to braindump sites that violate Cisco’s intellectual property, and if repeated letters are ignored, Cisco says it launches formal court actions to shut them down. The process can be relatively quick in North America and Western European countries with strong laws against violation of intellectual property, [says Erik Ullanderson, who manages Cisco’s certification program]. But in some cases it can take years to shut down a braindump site, he acknowledges.
Robert Williams, Certguard CEO and Network World IT Careers blogger, thinks Cisco hadn’t done enough in the past to target these Web sites, but believes Cisco now seems to be taking a harder line against exam shenanigans.
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cisco+braindumps= more money for cisco
what about if i tell you cisco is happy of all the braindumps because many people take the exams now 1000 double or more than before means more money .
just see the paper certification very very poor material means cisco wanna cut costs more and more .
now you know why cisco gain more and more money .
what about if i'm telling you cisco just sell those exams for the braindumps companies r u shocked !!!!!!!!!!
it is business my friend and at the same time they just labaa labbaa about stop cheaters very funny cisco .
they just increase the ccie cost to gain more and more . cisco is not as before it is water down now . face it cisco all you care about is how to gain more and more money not IT knowledge.
by the way why cisco STOP the packet magazine for 2 years now .......
yes as you said now cut costs more and more money LOL .
What can be done about braindumps
Interesting that the conspiracy theorist would post anonymously.
Personally, I'm glad that Cisco it trying to do something about the rampant cheating going on in the certification industry. There's a lot more that could be done. But I think shutting down the brain dump companies is one of the best things that can be done, since brain dumps are probably the most common method of cheating on cert tests.
One problem with this, which was stated in the article, is that it is hard to shut down sites in certain countries. So either current sites will just move to these countries, or new sites in these countries will pop up and flourish. So unfortunately, I don't think that Cisco (or any company) will be able to effectively get rid of the brain dump problem.
So then what companies need to do is to diminish the effectiveness of the brain dump sites. There are some things that just can't be brain dumped.
Questions that have have a randomized aspect to them can't really be brain dumped. For instance, a format of question that I have seen sets up a network scenario, gives you info about how things are configured, and then asks questions about it. This alone is hard to brain dump. But then start throwing in randomizations on key parts of the configs such as link speeds, IP addressing, metrics, etc. The sheer number of permutations created make it nearly impossible to braindump. It then becomes easier to just learn the concepts.
Simulations are also a great style of question that is hard to brain dump. Throw in some minor randomization into key areas of the simlutaion requirements or setup, and it becomes pretty much impossible to braindump. Again, learning the concepts becomes the easier path to take.
Now, you really can't make a test fully brain-dump proof at the lower to middle level difficulties. Some things you just need to know by rote memorization. Those types of things are fine to test by straight multiple choice. Those are the types of things that brain dumps have an easy time with.
So what is Cisco to do? I think that they can tailor their tests to effectively minimize the ability of people to passed tests based on braindumps. Their questions can test 3 different things.
* Test memorization of facts
* Test knowledge of concepts
* Test ability to perform tasks
They can use methods so that only the memorization of facts can be braindumped and the other 2 categories cannot. Then tailor either the number of questions in each category or the weighting of the questions in each category so that it becomes pretty much impossible to pass tests based on what can be learned from a brain dump.
That's one guys opinion at least. I do wish to see value brought back to certifications in the industry. Although I do believe that certifications still hold great value on an individual basis. But I think that's a topic for a different post.
Cisco and braindumps
The reason that Cisco has certifications required in the first place becuase they don't want every knuckle head off the street trying to install their gear. The majority of Cisco employees are paid based off their customer's satisfaction levels. If an engineer doesn't know what they are doing and the hardware/software is installed or configured inproperly, the customer will be angry with Cisco because they can't differeniate between bad gear or employee doens't get paid their bonus- who wins in a bad install. Cisco loses a customer and the Cisco that scenario? No one.
Cisco isn't in the business to sell tests the last time I checked (I've never seen that business category on their financials...duh) So maybe instead of being angry at Cisco because you can't pass their tests, you should consider it might be becuase of your ignorance.
CCNP devalued
I recently failed my recert for my CCNP, so after 8 years I am no longer Cisco certified. Sadly I can't see me bothereing to gain CCNP again as the braindumps have devalued the qualification so much. Cisco do not appear to be doing enough to challenge it as too many questions were repeated on my second attempt at the exam making it easy for the cheaters. A large enough pool of questions would soon reduce the ability to cheat. Now I am the one who feels cheated.
Exactly! All they need to do
Exactly! All they need to do is increase the size of the pool tested, so questions can be randomized much better. If you have 400 questions to randomize from, there is really not too much randomization.
But is that effective?
There are much more effective ways of preventing people from cheating. Giving the braindump companies more content to destroy is not one of those ways. First, the holes need to be fixed and the leaks need to be stopped, then the content can be effectively increased to prevent rote memorization.
Best Regards,
Robert Williams
CertGuard, Inc.
www.CertGuard.com
http://www.networkworld.com/community/user/4864
Larger Pool not helpful
Are we thinking that the larger pool of questions would dilute the braindumps enough that nobody could memorize everything?
While an interesting idea, statistically that doesn't really happen. Your number of subjects are limited, and the number of questions that go with it are as well. Try to make something idiot-proof, and they'll just design a better idiot. ;)
The flip side, of course, is to make the certifications more robust, and technically more challenging. Then you get the folks who simply don't know enough to pass and get frustrated and become new customers of braindumps since they see that as the solution to their "problem".
It's a catch-22 unfortunately. I don't agree that the CCNP has become devalued. If all you have on your resume is "Hey, I'm a CCNP." regardless of how many there were that wouldn't have much value. If you can back it up with experience and accomplishments, then THAT's the part that makes a difference, and that is most definitely not devalued.
Many say similar things about the CCIE. Simply because there are 20,000'ish of them now. Does it make it less valuable because there are more? Nope, it just means that any individual has to be MORE than just their certification.
If the CCNP has no value to you any longer, don't go back and get it. If it does, find a way to make it work. But find a way that demonstrates how you individually are better than others along with it!
Just my opinion. ;)
Scott
Disappointed again!!
It saddens me everytime I see a true professional leave the industry because of the cheaters that have devalued certifications. Especially when Cisco IS working to increase the value of their certifications. Results of the magnitude we're talking about here will not be immediate, I surely hope nobody believes they should be.
Best Regards,
Robert Williams
CertGuard, Inc.
www.CertGuard.com
http://www.networkworld.com/community/user/4864
maybe you should have all read Chaffin's article below
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25547
It was his number one thing to fix with Cisco, if they did get rid of the cert takers as we call them it would be better. I know that Cisco would lose many partners including some Gold Partners and Catalog Companies who only have cert takers just to keep their Gold Cert.
Think about it, a Gold Partner that is suppose to be able to do everything, but they cannot even install a Cisco UC System at a customer site? I know of two of them. They have to call another partner and outsource the services, is that really a Gold Partner?
Cisco needs to go random test for all Gold Partners, also on the all audits for company certs. They need to have live installs, config and troubleshooting for all specializations that a gold partner say they have. The auditor picks a person at random on that day from the so called certs the company says they have. This would fix the cert takers.
But I agree with Larry, maybe John Chambers should call him, seems like he has a better feel for whats going on than Cisco. Cisco just will never admit the problems.
"Cert Takers" often misconstrued
Let me start out with the idea that I absolutely agree there should be random audits of Gold Partners (or even Silver for that matter) and it should occur MUCH more often than it really does.
I'd even say there should be audits of different certification holders. It should be a random thing, and across many levels of certification to really get a good feeling whether someone truly knows their stuff or not.
Whether CCIE or CCNP or whatever combination of different certs should all be subject to this.
Now, back to your moniker of "cert taker" which is typically something said of those who have a plethora of certifications, thinking they may have obtained them simply for the sake of having them.
I personally fall into the category of having a plethora of certifications, so I do always cringe when people use that term indiscriminantly. But with myself, I'm at least aware of my true capabilities and know the certifications are always for business strategies. From the outside looking in though, things may always seem different (especially when the color of the glass tends a little on the green-side!).
But four CCIE's and a JNCIE (among plenty of others) later, I can still DO things as well. But at the same time, I would fully expect that Cisco would have an interest in "auditing" my accomplishments and knowledge just so they could be sure. (In my case, I'd welcome the challenge!)
But don't limit it just to Gold Partners. They are simply the most obvious targets.
Scott