How much would you want to pay for test prep software?

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Doesn't make it legal. Paint whatever pretty picture you want; it's theft of intellectual property.

 

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Well I don't know your industry that well but I'm pretty sure measureup used to sell around the £30-35 mark, and they seem good quality.

Also many other products get sold in that price bracket that probably cost far more to produce, computer games, movies, albums, books.

Why should a test prep product on its own cost more than a 1000 page book teaching the material for the same exam with a cut down test prep aid thrown in ?

I'm sure the book production costs must be far higher, along with the retailers markup and the costs of printing.

A downloadable test engine must have an enourmous markup in comparison, which goes straight to the test prep vendor with no middle man, abeit probably with a much smaller market though.

I agree with other people points, test prep vendors would probably be better off selling larger volumes for slightly less. Of course for some exams this may be problematic because the volumes are so low. Maybe MS and cisco could supply discount vouchers so test prep companies could get a cut of the exam fee and therefore reduce exam prep costs.

 

Then please, listen to what I say. I think I know the industry, because I've been in it quite a while. I've been on both sides: I've seen what works, and I've seen what doesn't.

And MeasureUp lost so much money that Dice had to basically discard MeasureUp and write it off as a loss. From what I understand, the guy who was president of MeasureUp took it over for nothing.

Training products don't have nearly the exposure as movies or albums. Most computer games sell more. Those computer games produced by independent companies probably have similar costs. Books are currently taking a beating, because few people buy books anymore. I should know; I know how many copies my book has sold. Still, more books are sold than our practice exams. And I would think our costs are similar, though much of it goes towards physical printing costs... not much goes to the author, I can tell you that.

Dude, we can argue this all day long, but I'll tell you this: I can crank out 20 "book questions" in a night after working all day. I can't craft that many high-quality practice exam questions anywhere close to as quickly, I promise you. The difference in quality is night and day.

Book publishers (try to) make up for it in volume. Unfortunately, they're not doing very well right now. And we don't have anywhere near the volume or exposure they do.

Printing, yes. Personnel, I doubt it.

Yes, a much smaller market.

It's been tried before... again, and again, and again. It has yet to work. I know one practice exam company in particular that had some decent quality stuff. Their $49 product was perpetually on sale for $29... but the owner never made any money. The owner asked me to help him improve the company (without salary) and eventually take it over from him. I respectfully declined. He then asked me if I was interested in buying it, to which I declined again; I looked at the numbers, and the business model simply wasn't viable. That's why Josh and I started BrainBeacon, and later, joined up with the old Transcender team to create what we now have at Boson.

If you want high-quality exam questions, support the companies that create high-quality exam questions. If you don't care about quality, just buy whatever. It's as simple as that. Whether we survive, thrive, or fold up shop is entirely up to you, the customer. If we provide good value, you will let us know with your support. Otherwise, all you'll have left to study is what the lowest-paid guy is paid to create. Good luck with that.

 

I'll go with what's been said already- I'ld probably pay between £25-£30 if I wasn't that confident about the exam. I wouldn't pay £50 for a few practise tests when the exam costs me £75.

 

Not allot.

 

Personally I'd pay the asking price for software, but only from the reputable providers. As pointed out quality costs but then I'm prepared to pay for quality. Always have been, always will be.

 

I agree mate, and its true. Pay monkeys and get peanuts.
So quality has a price.

But... alas, at this time where everyone is "tightening their belts" and specially for those who got laid off, paying the real value of course material is a struggle.
Its not that most of them would not want, it is now wether you can afford or not!

And, this creates a problem which then not only affects the big fish (quality) as the rest, which is the free pirated stuff around.

It's tough, very tough and you have to keep your moral standards not to succumb and resort to those actions.

 

To be honest, when belts get tightened and people lose jobs, the education and learning sector tends to do reasonably well... as people are wanting to improve their situation or solidify their employment status.

Even so, now is not the time to abandon your favorite book publisher, practice exam provider, CBT provider, or classroom training provider.

 

I haven't voted but I used Transcender and preplogic for my A+ and had a chance to review Bosons A+ exams and it's true that you only get what you pay for.

I would say that the price of the Boson A+ exams are fairly priced and you are definetly getting quality for your money. The Preplogic exams bundle was okayish but imo the Transcender exams was slightly over priced especially when my 13 year old nephew who is in the middle sets for English can spell better than what I found on the Transcender CDs.

But I do agree that there could be some sort of concession for people who are unemployed and even for people who are infirm. There could also be student discounts provided the student can prove his/her status.

 

But who would approve those statuses? Dude, that takes manpower that none of us providers have. The opportunity for abuse is huge. Any increase in sales (if any) would be more than offset by a decrease in full-price purchases and an increase in employee costs. It'd be a losing proposition on our side.

It'd be "nice"... but it's not realistic.

 

There was no option for "I think test prep software is a load of bunk and I can't be bothered with it."

Which is how I feel. Either I know a product well enough from hands on use to get certed up on it, or I don't and I deserve to bomb the exam.

 

I totally agree with the sentiment but unfortunately the way most cert exams are written you pretty much have to do some studying to the exam to pass. Hence all the prep guides, training kits, exam cram, test simulators etc.

I'd far rather see people learn topics properly and for testing to be a side issue. Its the 'tail wagging the dog', the cert industry can have the same negative effects as SATs or 11 plus etc, it can skew peoples education in unhelpful ways.

It is certainly not what I think education or testing should be about.

Unfortunately I think all the braindumping also skews the statistics so vendors feel the need to try to make their exams harder and harder. The net effect is to punish the genuine test takers.

It is very possible for genuinely experienced people to fail the exams without preperation.

So what we seem to have done is create a rather disfunctional testing system, which can penalise experienced people, reward cheaters, which recruiters and employers largely misunderstand, which does not age well, which largely does not effectively test for real understanding, and that has commercial bias. That allows unregulated commercial companies to exploit unemployed or impressionable young people, surely any decent society should protect and help such people, and uphold educational vaules ?

If I knew what I knew now I'd have put the effort I put into certs into an MSc. The traditional education systems are not perfect, but I think in general they have more going for them.

 

I think there also needs to be an understanding that these products are a luxury and not a necessity. Software and hardware companies put an exceptional amount of excellent documentation online. I've passed a fair number of Microsoft exams based on nothing more than my experience with their product and my diligence at searching the MS site for white papers on the product I'll be testing on. In many cases -- after passing the exam -- I've been able to go back to pages on Microsoft's site that a question was obviously lifted from, word for word.

And it didn't cost me a dime.

Frankly, in our current economic mess, I'd think that someone who has the Net research skills necessary to pass a difficult exam without having to use high-priced test prep tools and books would be more of an asset to an employer to someone who does.

My 2 cents that I'm sure will rankle some.

 

Sure I've passed 4 hour betas after studying 500 page API specs, however its not much fun and now I'm a contractor, for most topics the effort is really not worth my time, I'd be better off buying a prep aid or just plain doing other stuff than sitting exams.

 

I agree that it would be open to abuse, pehaps with a student it could be purchased through the university or college by them and student leases or buys it from the university/college.

 

The obvious way to do this financially would be for the government (sorry, us taxpayers) to subsidise it. The authentication mechanisms are already in place.
Students- Why? They're learning already and most of them are subsidised to some extent, even if it is only cheaper course fees for not being designated a foreign student.

Unemployed- Sounds good, but I bet government funding for books/prep exams would result in a glut of textbooks and prep exam keys on ebay. It also wouldn't be too fair on people in my position: when all's said and done my typical wage (not including tips) is less than I'd make on benefits, i.e. I could sit on my butt all day and study at YOUR expense and still make more money. Getting my study materials for free as well would be a real bonus.

 

If industry wants it, then industry should pay, thats what an apprenticeships are for or an entry level job with training. Its also why graduate jobs used to pay more, to make up for the loss in income incurred through training.

The truth is IT is not a niche profession anymore, there are a glut of candidates for entry level positions, meaning low pay and poor access to training.

 

Doesn't rankle me any!