I agree with Walter about the concept of having testing available from my own computer, especially for those in remote areas. To be up front about this, I did pass the 156 and failed the 155. I was not surprised because 99% of my work is in desktop apps.

I also passed the EIT and am a PE [Professional Engineer]. For the engineering exams, you can take in any reference material, notes, calculator, etc., you want. The exams last all day and are multi-part with each part timed. However, if you depend too much on the reference material, you will certainly fail the exams because of time constraints. The primary need for the reference materials is for charts and tables that can not possibly be learned, memorized or otherwise programmed into a calculator [at least back in the early 80s you could not].

I can not think of many questions on either exam where reference material would have helped that much. IMO, the time required to fire up VFP, VSS, etc., to find answers to some of the questions would have been too costly with respect to having time to answer other questions.

I have not perused the BrainBench site, but there has been enough comment in this thread where I discard its value as a barometer of VFP skills. However, I do believe an on-line exam could be designed to test a persn's basic level of competence. Granted this would have to be done with time contraints, number and difficulty of questions and possibly at least 1 witness.

IMO, the biggest point of contention in on-line certification exams is examinee integrity. How can I be assured someone did not take the exam for you? Is any witness reliable? In the Engineering exams, this was obviously not a problem. You had to show up and provide positive identification of yourself.

Maybe such exams would only be useful by an employer needing to test a potential new employee's level of competence. At least you know the employer has a vested interest in making sure the potential employee follows the testing rules.

As for FREE exams, the provider [in true capitalistic ideals] retains the right to determine cost of such exams.