Exposing certification cheaters and protecting unwitting accomplices

Finally, the folks that administer IT certification exams are working together to fight the problem of certification cheating. Network World has a four-part special report on the topic including these stories:

• Cheaters: Inside the hidden world of IT certification fraud 
• Confessions of a cert cheat 
• Why we need a strong IT certification system
• How to prepare for certification legitimately

The story reports:

ITCC chairman Bill Horzempa, who is also director of Global Certification and Partner Education Development for HP, says, "Most of the members of this council have talked privately with one another about the cheating problem. We realized that this isn't just an HP problem, or a Cisco or Microsoft problem. Certification cheating affects the vendors, yes, but it also hurts individual IT professionals and the companies that employ or contract them. In effect, cheating creates a loss of confidence in the ability of the IT profession to solve business problems."

 The "Confessions of a cert cheat" story is particularly interesting and troubling as it shows that many people are using brain dumps inadvertently. They think they are ordering study materials and discover when they take the test that the actual questions in the materials are being presented on the test. Too late. They've already cheated.  Now what?

You may wonder -- can people even be so unaware of the brain dump industry that they don't realize they've bought illegal materials? Yes -- think of the young IT professional, not so far out of college, who hasn't had any cause to equate certifications with cheating yet. Yes -- think of the established IT Pro who hasn't taken a new cert in years and is only refreshing one that expired by ordering materials over the Web.

The certification industry has many options for making brain dumps less valuable including building a much larger catalog of questions (like 10,000 questions) and devaluing written tests in favor of hands-on lab exams. 

For great advice on Microsoft training, check out these blogs on Microsoft Subnet

Chip Wenz: Microsoft Training Insider
Randy Muller: All About Microsoft Certifications