Genuine exam software or a braindump? How to determine the difference

Discussion in 'Training & Development' started by simongrahamuk, Oct 1, 2006.

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  1. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    possibly, or he could be a paper MCSE, which means he studied the theory but didn't have any experience or get enough hands on.
     
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  2. Mr.Cheeks

    Mr.Cheeks 1st ever Gold Member! Gold Member

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    hmmm thats interesting. so you cant really tell between a BDer and a paper whatever, unless they tell you?
     
  3. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    A braindumper could out perform a person that had genuinely studied. If they were talented, had lots practical, hands on experience etc.

    As I have said before you *need* the combination of the two, study knowledge preferably certified and experience - they both count a lot!
     
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  4. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    services are covered in the 70-270 MCP.

    Survey says....






    Brain dumper! :x
     
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  5. JonnyMX

    JonnyMX Petabyte Poster

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    What we have to remember is that there are people studying for exams who type '270 practice questions' into Google.
    Unfortunately, the chances are that the top hits will be braindumps.
    How can you tell? You can't - but thanks to SGUK for his excellent post - it certainly answers a few questions.

    The point is, that there may be braindumpers out there who don't realise what they are doing. Is that their fault? I don't know.

    I think that we have to take every case on its merits. I've shot braindumpers down in the past only to realise that they never realised that they were a braindumper. Is that fair?
     
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  6. JonnyMX

    JonnyMX Petabyte Poster

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    Oh, and the other thing that occurs is - do MS give a toss?
    They have severe warnings in place about non-disclosure - but look how long it has taken them to go after TK. And will anything come of it?

    At the end of the day (and I may be sticking my neck out here) MS are happy for loads of people to be MCSEs - paper or not. Another MS logo, another person advocating MS products. Another person who has chosen the MS route over all else.

    Think about the corporate implications of it all.

    Imagine I worked for Ford motor company (which I have, by the way). Imagine I sold cars. What if I could also give out a driver's license? That's what an MS cert is after all.

    So, I say, if you buy one of my cars, I'll give you a driver's license. Do I care if they can drive? No, I've sold a car.

    That's business for you. Sorry...
     
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  7. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Interesting point, the fact that Microsoft has taken years to do anything about it speaks for itself :x

    Also TK will be here for years as well; by the time this is dragged through the courts hopefully we will be talking about Vista exams that only have sims and TK will be irrelevant! :biggrin
     
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  8. mrobinson52

    mrobinson52 Security Maven Gold Member

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    Very simple. TK is copying Transcender. I actuatlly visited Transcender when Michael still worked there. I got to see the offices, the library full of official MSPress, CiscoPress, and other books that the vendors themselves publish. I know they paid a lot for their people to research all the exam objectives, and to provide through answers to both the correct and incorrect answers.

    TK pays workers at test centers to provide screenshots of the actual test questions, and their answers are not researched at all, but copied from other test vendors.

    I also found that the Transcender tests were harder and better written than the real test questions. I have yet to pass a Transcender, but when I am close to passing Transcender, I am able to pass the real thing, because the feedback in Transcender pointed me back to where to study more on the topics I was weak on.

    As has been pointed out, Transcender is based in the US, although they have been bought out and gutted by Kaplan, they are still US based. Good luck finding TK. I think they are in Pakistan. :rolleyes:
     
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  9. BosonMichael
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    Simon, I thought I'd drop by the thread we created. Good stuff, man! :thumbleft

    Oh, and hi, everyone. :)
     
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  10. simongrahamuk
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    simongrahamuk Hmmmmmmm?

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    You created the content, I just made the post!

    Good stuff to you! :thumbleft
     
  11. BosonMichael
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    Unfortunately, simulations don't prevent braindumping. In fact, it makes it sorta easy to do so. It would be incredibly easy for a braindump company to say, "If you want to pass the exam, know step-by-step how to add a user, set up dynamic DHCP, and change NTFS rights on a file, and that's it - forget everything else".

    Believe it or not, there ARE dumps out there for the CCIE lab exam. Those who choose to follow them will have to memorize a bunch of commands for which they don't even know the function or purpose... but they'd be able to pass as long as the exam hasn't been updated since the dump was created. Granted, no hiring manager in his/her right mind would hire a paper CCIE - their weakness would be discovered quickly.

    The only thing that will prevent braindump companies like TK is for law enforcement to crack down, which won't happen in third-world countries. The best thing we can do as IT professionals is inform everyone in the industry - new techs, old techs, and hiring managers - about the problem of braindumping. But keep in mind that a severe lack of sales won't even make the dump companies go away... because those companies steal their content (sometimes from each other), their overhead is near zero. If they get ANY sales, they're profitable.

    Support your favorite practice exam vendors - those who develop original, quality products. Otherwise, all that will be left are those dump companies... and that's what your coworkers will start using to pass their exams. We certainly don't want that - we've ALL worked with someone who obviously didn't know what they were doing.
     
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  12. BosonMichael
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    If what I was told years ago is correct, there are two reasons why Transcender isn't a Microsoft Certified Practice Test Provider:
    1) Many years ago, back in the NT days, Microsoft was upset at Transcender for being too close to the original exam items. Although I never personally saw the NT items, I do know that the Transcender Windows 2000 exam questions were definitely different from the original exam items - they tested on relevant content.
    2) Microsoft supposedly wanted final editorial control of their official provider's content. Transcender ultimately didn't want Microsoft to have the final say whether an item was "too close" or not. After all, as someone in this thread has already mentioned, there are only so many ways to ask a question about IP addressing, for example.

    Obviously, if Transcender's content WAS or IS indeed too close to Microsoft's content, certainly Microsoft would be able to prosecute them, considering they are both based in the US. The reason it hasn't happened in the past, and won't happen in the future, is because Microsoft doesn't have a case - the content isn't too close to the original.

    As far as the guidelines for spotting a braindump company are concerned, they are merely guidelines - they're not hard-and-fast rules to spot them. And all must be taken relatively, meaning, relative to what other sites offer. Let's see if I can address your points:
    - PDFs: Some braindump companies are starting to get savvy, and offering their stolen content within legitimate-looking exam engines. But the overwhelming number of braindump companies offer PDFs and ONLY PDFs. It's pretty easy to spot them once you know how.
    - Large number of offerings: Certainly you would agree that product lines from 11 vendors is markedly less than product lines from *71* vendors, right? Count them on TK's site.
    - Large number of questions: Certainly you would agree that 150 questions is markedly less than 750+ questions, right? Check out TK's 70-292. Their CCNA product has almost 1000 items! :blink
    - Price: Certainly you would agree that $129 is markedly less than some of these companies offering products for $19, right? Granted, TK charges $60. Again, the guidelines are simply guidelines to help you make an informed decision. I can see how someone would think that TK might be legitimate based on the $59 price tag, or think that Redmond Exams looks questionable at $29, even though Redmond Exams is absolutely legitimate.
    - Access to all content at one price: Again, it's just a guideline to check. That being said, I can foresee a time that BrainBeacon might offer a year-long subscription to our entire catalog. But I can guarantee you that it'll be more expensive than the braindump companies charging $99 for their entire catalog.
    - Poor English: Everyone makes mistakes. But again, it's a guideline and not a rule. Regardless of UK or US English, certainly you must agree that the following sentences are grammatically and/or idiomatically incorrect:
    "[braindump] is also known as the King of Certification on net."
    "...and prepare you for the Microsoft's simulation based exam questions."
    "You will get free upgrade for all the future releases for up to one year. "
    "One of the most important reason is..."
    "You can download these products for free by going to relevant test page."
    Again, everyone makes mistakes, but compared to other sites, legitimate practice exam vendor sites typically have far fewer grammatical and idiomatic errors than braindump sites.

    One thing I must address is the statement, "I don't think that newbies to IT certification are aware of the business relations between practice test providers and the test question writers. That's what you learn in a business law course." What business relations? Certainly we write exams when vendors release them... but we are not provided access to vendor's exams content, nor are we provided a portion of their certification revenue (and neither are they provided a portion of ours).

    Regarding the posting of a list of legitimate and dump sites... As far as TK is concerned, I don't have a problem stating their name out loud, in the open, simply because they've already got a great deal of exposure out on the Internet. But because braindump companies and sites cost very little to implement, there could literally be thousands of dump sites out there... and EVERY time the name of one of those relatively small dump sites is listed on one of these lists, those sites get free advertising simply by Web spiders indexing their names along with the legitimate names. They win by you listing their name in any shape, form, or fashion. Why do you think that braindump companies post thinly disguised advertisements on these forums, purporting to be individuals interested in whether a supposed company provides good practice exam materials? Because they're using the forum to advertise and push their name higher on search engine searches.

    So... my opinion is to publically blast the large braindump companies by shouting their name from the mountains, exposing them for what they are... but squashing silent the hundreds or thousands of small, drive-by braindumpers hoping to make a quick buck.

    Good stuff, y'all! :)
     
    Certifications: CISSP, MCSE+I, MCSE: Security, MCSE: Messaging, MCDST, MCDBA, MCTS, OCP, CCNP, CCDP, CCNA Security, CCNA Voice, CNE, SCSA, Security+, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+
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  13. BosonMichael
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    That's why we're building our reputation BEFORE the products come out... many here already know how much experience we have producing high-quality practice exams. Plus, our Sybex Vista study guide should help provide us some legitimacy.
     
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  14. BosonMichael
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    Now that I'm here to defend myself... find me a single instance where they are the same. They're not - because TKs content is exactly the same as the vendors' content (Microsoft, Cisco, etc.), and Transcender's content is NOT the same as the vendors' content. I should know. I wrote for Transcender for more than 4 years, and I can state with certainty that every item I wrote was created from scratch.
     
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  15. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Thank you again BBM for taking the time to post here and for putting the record straight 8)
     
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  16. Baba O'Riley

    Baba O'Riley Gigabyte Poster

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    Wow, a quadruple post! Good points all though Michael. Thanks.:)
     
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  17. BosonMichael
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    My pleasure. Thanks for the love! :)
     
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  18. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Yikes and it's only our first date :eek:


    :usa :hhhmmm
     
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  19. BosonMichael
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    I move fast, huh? :twisted:

    The blue hair must have gotten me all excited or something.
     
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  20. Mr.Cheeks

    Mr.Cheeks 1st ever Gold Member! Gold Member

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    <feeling cold shivers down my spine!>
     

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