simulations in certification exams
I'm new to this mailing list, and to mailing lists in general, so please let me know if I'm not following established rules. How do you handle certification exams that have simulation questions? The A+ and CCNA both had sim questions that I struggled through--especially the CCNA, because the combination of Pearson's testing environment and ZoomText made the screens hard to navigate. I've lost more vision recently and am not sure if I'll be able to complete these types of questions. Pearson VUE's accommodations team offered the use of a scribe/reader, but I don't see how that could work on anything but multiple choice questions.
Hi,
In a word you are pretty much screwed. Sorry but at the moment that is the best way I feel I cam sum up the process. I have done these simulation questions with a reader and it is all very much dependant on the technical expertees of the reader at the time. I spent a lot of money in 2011 getting certified with a load of MS qualifications, and I don't anticipate getting any further ones anytime soon because of the trouble it took. What is worse is we can now do these exams from home with a webcam, which means that a lot of test centres have shut down. However if you need special circumstances you can't do it from home at all.
On the other hand I am wondering whether employers are asking for these as much as they used to? Maybe the type of work I am doing doesn't warrant them so much (working with mainly cloud automation in Azure and AWS).
Welcome to the list by the way.
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins
Hi,
In a word you are pretty much screwed. Sorry but at the moment that is the best way I feel I cam sum up the process. I have done these simulation questions with a reader and it is all very much dependant on the technical expertees of the reader at the time. I spent a lot of money in 2011 getting certified with a load of MS qualifications, and I don't anticipate getting any further ones anytime soon because of the trouble it took. What is worse is we can now do these exams from home with a webcam, which means that a lot of test centres have shut down. However if you need special circumstances you can't do it from home at all.
On the other hand I am wondering whether employers are asking for these as much as they used to? Maybe the type of work I am doing doesn't warrant them so much (working with mainly cloud automation in Azure and AWS).
Welcome to the list by the way.
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins
Hi Andrew,
I faced the same challenges. I can tell you that the certs do matter, but I was lucky and found myself in a job where I am over the I.T. Dept and I've been able to prove that I know what I am doing. I would still love to obtain a certification though. I am likely going to go after one of the ITIL v3 ones. I can't agree more that we as blind I.T. individuals are essentially screwed either by the certification providers or other web based applications built for administration and management. I certainly feel that the blind consumer organizations haven't really tried hard enough to tackle this issue. I would love to devote some time to this issue, but I am not sure where to turn.
Just my .02 cents.
Billy
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins
Hi Andrew,
I faced the same challenges. I can tell you that the certs do matter, but I was lucky and found myself in a job where I am over the I.T. Dept and I've been able to prove that I know what I am doing. I would still love to obtain a certification though. I am likely going to go after one of the ITIL v3 ones. I can't agree more that we as blind I.T. individuals are essentially screwed either by the certification providers or other web based applications built for administration and management. I certainly feel that the blind consumer organizations haven't really tried hard enough to tackle this issue. I would love to devote some time to this issue, but I am not sure where to turn.
Just my .02 cents.
Billy
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins
Hello,
I took the CISSP exam and I was given a modified version of the exam. It
was not the completely online exam but it seemed to me that it was a big
word document with check boxes. There were no simulations but I worked hard
with ISC2 to get the exam. I did not like the exam format but I have zero
vision so I had to take what I could get.
Greg B.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins
[mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Billy
Irwin
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2018 5:35 PM
To: Blind sysadmins list
It's interesting you say that. I failed the 70-640 exam back in 2013 when the center I had scheduled accommodations with didn't have me on the list, hence the man at the front desk ended up having to read the exam; between his thick foreign accent as well has him having to do his own job of letting people in and registering them, I was sort of stuck in the middle. I agree that it does depend on the technical expertise of the reader. For all intents and purposes, you should be able to choose your reader with someone to evaluate them if that's what it takes. I wanted to become certified on Windows 10 and windows server 2016/2019 (for I think the only class I'd need might be something from like pluralsite or something like that), with my prior experience running personal projects, but now I'm not so sure. I don't want to put tons and tons of money towards something that I could fail through no fault of my own. At the same time, I've been in stasis at work for two solid years, and people are telling me to get trained in order to begin career advancement.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins
It's interesting you say that. I failed the 70-640 exam back in 2013 when the center I had scheduled accommodations with didn't have me on the list, hence the man at the front desk ended up having to read the exam; between his thick foreign accent as well has him having to do his own job of letting people in and registering them, I was sort of stuck in the middle. I agree that it does depend on the technical expertise of the reader. For all intents and purposes, you should be able to choose your reader with someone to evaluate them if that's what it takes. I wanted to become certified on Windows 10 and windows server 2016/2019 (for I think the only class I'd need might be something from like pluralsite or something like that), with my prior experience running personal projects, but now I'm not so sure. I don't want to put tons and tons of money towards something that I could fail through no fault of my own. At the same time, I've been in stasis at work for two solid years, and people are telling me to get trained in order to begin career advancement.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins
participants (5)
-
Andrew Hodgson -
Billy Irwin -
Greg B. -
Katherine M. Moss -
Samuel Barnes