The RedHat Certification my husband took (and passed) involved being given a "broken" system to "fix."

Truly a real-world test.


>>>Ever taken the MMPI? I've done it 7 times and flatlined (on purpose). Subsequently had to be reviewed by a Psy because my results were out of the norm (i.e.: "No living individuals have your score.") Not because I'm smart, but because I contradicted every one of the 566 to a tee in the time allotted.
>>>
>>This confirms my suspicions! I bet Mikey got a similar score too.
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>>>Still got the job.
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>>So you're the one who designed the Internet Explorer object model?
>>
>>>Tests are not a good evaluation of what someone can accomplish.
>>
>>So what is?
>
>Demonstrating ability.
>
>In a former life I taught for 18 years. Most written tests made by most teachers are not well designed and seldom measure what the tester wanted to measure. In fact, many written tests return the expectations of the tester, not the knowledge of the testee. For example, create a 10 question quiz, given every morning, over the material taught the previous day. After a couple of months you will see patterns that relate to hormonal cycles, family problems, attitudes, etc., but nothing that truely indicates what the testee knows. Start handing out $20 for every 'A' on an exam and watch what happens to the marginal performers! Now they have a purpose they can relate to. This is to say nothing about the practice of cramming, crib notes, surrogates and other cheating. Professionally made tests, no mattter how well intended or proctored, suffer the same problems. I've had students entering my college chemistry, calculus or physics classes that scored in the top %10 of
>standardized achievement tests who couldn't write a coherent sentence if their life depended on it. Great memorizers, great crammers, great on 'study guides' and 'demo exams', but they really knew very little.
>
>Hands on testing is different. The testee can either show you how to do what you've asked for or they cannot. No talk, no bluff, no bull, no generalizing, and the testers opinon or bias generally isn't getting in the way. " Here is a normally functioning PC. Install VFP6 and service pack 4." They either can or can't. " Create a mailing list project, add one form to enter, edit and delete normal address information, create one label printing report and one list of names report. Compile and generate an EXE. Run the setup wizard and create a set of install diskettes." The 'mail list' app could be done in under an hour by anyone who claims to be an experienced VFP developer. The testee's ability to do these tasks may still be influenced by their homonal patterns, family problems, etc., but that is more of a time problem than an ability problem. All of us program every day with these kinds of problems weighing on us but they don't shut us done or render us incompetent.