Braindumps

Review of the new Microsoft exams

Chip Wenz — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:00:17 -0500

If you haven’t had an opportunity to take any of the new Microsoft exams (this would include the Server 2008 exams and the Vista exams), you are in for a couple of surprises; some good and some a little scary depending on the way that you have prepared for the exam.

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Certification Integrity: Could it REALLY be this simple?

Robert Williams — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:45:08 -0400

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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Braindumps vs. Study Guides: Where do cracked Practice Exams fit into the mix?

Robert Williams — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:34:54 -0400

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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Certification Integrity: Should this CCIE have his certs stripped for cheating?

Robert Williams — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:28:05 -0400

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.

Braindumps vs. Study Guides: Visual CertExam Manager

Robert Williams — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:57:52 -0400

What is Visual CertExam?

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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Certification Vendors: Are they handling cheaters properly?

Robert Williams — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:38:11 -0400

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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Braindumps vs. Study Guides: Who keeps the checkers in check?

Robert Williams — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:45:18 -0400

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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Braindumps vs. Study Guides: How do you know which is which?

Robert Williams — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:17:15 -0400

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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Certification Integrity: Getting back on track

Robert Williams — Sun, 11 May 2008 11:35:06 -0400

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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Cisco (finally) moves to stop exam cheating

Cisco Subnet — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:30:48 -0400

Cisco certification cheaters come in three basic varieties, writes Robert Williams in his Certification Integrity blog. These are proxy-test takers (aka Hired Gunmen), item harvesters (aka test thieves), and cheaters (aka people that patronize harvesters). Now Williams reports that Cisco and Pearson VUE have announced a partnership to stop all three.

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New security initiatives being taken by Cisco and VUE

Robert Williams — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:50:32 -0400

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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Cisco speaks out against exam cheating

Cisco Subnet — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:33:30 -0400

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.

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Securing Test Centers. What can be done?

Robert Williams — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:39:29 -0400

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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Which vendors' certifications are the most popular for exam cheaters?

Cisco Subnet — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:38:25 -0400

My fellow Network World bloggers Certguard's Robert Williams and Taylor Ripley, authors of the Certification Integrity blog has posted up a list of the top 20 most braindumped certification vendors. Not surprisingly Microsoft and Cisco take up the Nos. 1 and 2 positions. "It is apparent there is a direct correlation between the popularity of an exam or certification track and the number of braindumps available for each certification vendor," write Robert and Taylor.

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What an awesome experience! ATP Innovations in Testing and Test Security Summit

Robert Williams — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:35:01 -0400

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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Braindumps, Gunmen, and Cheaters (revisted)

Robert Williams — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:19:40 -0500

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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Simon Says…B, A, D, B, E, C, C, A…

Robert Williams — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:03:35 -0500

How well do you know the people that are hired to work with you? What if you're the new guy that was just hired?

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What to do when you just CAN'T find legitimate study materials.

Robert Williams — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:35:29 -0500

So, you're looking for legitimate study materials?

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A solution to the braindump problem - Part I

Robert Williams — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:25:28 -0500

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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Bringing Something new to Network World

Robert Williams — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:35:41 -0500

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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