Using brain dumps for oracle certifications is really dumb
Website design By BotEap.comThe job market for the past few years has been bad in the United States and around the world. One of the few job markets that has never really stopped hiring (although it certainly slowed down for some time) has been information technology. In the last year or two, I have seen the number of open positions start to grow rapidly once again. There is almost always a shortage of qualified IT professionals. It’s no surprise then that a large number of people are interested in entering the IT field, or see Oracle certifications as a means to do so. I totally agree. I have been in the position of looking to fill entry level slots for Oracle professionals and candidates with Oracle certifications are certainly something I look for.
Website design By BotEap.comHowever, what disturbs me is what I see on forums, blogs and certification sites. It seems that a growing number of people, mainly candidates with little experience, are looking for shortcuts to Oracle certification. Specifically, I’m seeing a marked increase in candidates openly seeking “brain dumps” to try to pass a given test. Brain dumps are sets of ‘supposedly’ real test questions and answers from Oracle certification tests. If you have used or considered using brain dumps, take a few minutes to reflect on the concept. Since paper is not allowed in or out of the testing centers, these questions and answers come from the memories of previous test takers. Whether the dumps are actually real questions and answers depends on the memory of the examinees. However, for this article, I will simply assume that the dumps contain real questions with correct answers. After all, any candidate using these dumps is making the same assumption.
Website design By BotEap.comSome of the candidates who use brain dumps argue that they are not cheating, but that brain dumps are simply another valid method of studying for the exam. This argument is completely and obviously wrong. ‘Studying’ for an exam by memorizing real questions and answers is not studying. is cheating. This activity does not give you the background information that the test is designed to determine if you have it. If you’re willing to cheat on a test, I seriously doubt you’ll change your mind based on this article. However, you must be honest enough with yourself to admit that this is exactly what you are doing.
Website design By BotEap.comOther than that, you as a certification candidate need to focus on this: Oracle certification tests are designed to determine if you have experience with any part of the Oracle product suite. This shouldn’t come as a surprise: an algebra test is designed to determine if you actually did your algebra homework, and a history test is designed to determine if you listened when your teacher talked about the French Revolution. The difference is that people who take Oracle certification tests do so because they intend to work with that product. In a typical workday, you’re unlikely to be asked to solve a quadratic equation or discuss the socioeconomic policies that led to the collapse of the French monarchy. However, you may very well be expected to recover from a database crash, resolve a database performance issue, or write a complex SQL statement. If you passed your 11G Administrator OCP exams using brain dumps and then got a job thanks to that certification, chances are you can’t do any of those tasks as well as you should.
Website design By BotEap.comIf you’re going to work in this field, many of the questions on Oracle certification tests are about things you really should know and will need to learn at some point. If you need to know the information, it’s *much* better to learn in the context of studying for an exam rather than in the middle of a real-life crisis when you’re being watched, timed, and evaluated by the people paying. your salary. If you get certifications without having the knowledge behind them, it will become apparent sooner or later. There will be some hiring managers who may not be able to spot candidates with a thin layer of Oracle knowledge during an interview. However, most companies hiring for entry-level positions will have one or more senior Oracle staff members at the interview. I have been to these interviews and discovered unqualified candidates. Even if you get hired, sooner or later if you don’t learn Oracle, it’s obvious you won’t be able to do the job and you’ll be fired. If your plan is to learn the skills you need after you’re hired, why not learn them for certification? Using dumps means you risk losing your certification for cheating. If you’re hired on the basis of certification, you risk being found out as a fraud if you can’t get the job done.
Website design By BotEap.comI keep the title of the article. If you still think using dumps is a good idea, more power to you. However, you will never get to any company where I have a say in the matter.