Le 2013-03-17 00:03, Jim Henderson a écrit :

> Introductory exams are almost /never/ practical exams (RedHat is the only
> exception to this that I'm aware of - and the guy who's in charge of
> their exam and certification programs has no interest in doing anything
> other than performance-based testing.  I've met him and he and I talked
> at length about it).  The LPIC-1 is an introductory exam.  The purpose of
> an exam at this level is to define a minimally-qualified entry level
> candidate - a first level admin, or similar.  Those certifications tend
> to be marketing fodder for the exam sponsors (Cisco, SUSE, RedHat, etc).
>

Unless I'm mistaken, the CCNA (Introductory Cisco Cert) has some amount 
of simulated hands-on, now.  When I took it, it was just multiple choice 
answers, inlcuding sections where you had a list of 100 commands, and 
you needed to pick the one that applied to each of the 20 questions in 
that section, but that was before the days of Flash and Java, so 
simulators were not that common.

> They have to measure a valid candidate in order to have some validity,
> but the purpose is to build a large following of candidates who have
> familiarity with the product(s) the exams are about.

Agreed. their as much a sales pitch as a technical certification.  A kid 
just out of school who got her MiCkey mouSE certification will probably 
not recommend Solaris as her new employer's server platform.

>
> The benefit shifts when you get to more advanced exams.  Those exams are
> targeted at a smaller audience - and if (IMHO) the sponsor is doing their
> breakdown properly, the advanced exams are /not/ revenue-generating.

They may not be revenue-generating, but they are also expense-cutting. 
For example, if a company has a certain number of CCIEs on staff (I 
think it's 4), they get a huge deal on maintenance contracts, because 
Cisco assumes they won't be calling TAC twice a week for silly stuff.


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