When we put beta exams in market, it is very important that we get a specified minimum number of people taking these exams to ensure adequate psychometric data for analysis which helps to identify troublesome questions and make a better final version of the exam.
Each day, I receive registration statistics that tell me how many people have registered for a specific exam, how many exams have been delivered, are waiting to be delivered or how many people were "no shows".
I'm writing this post to bring up some important points regarding certification beta exams.
1) If you receive an invitation, please only register for the exam if you honestly believe you are qualified to take the exam. We have been asked to open these to the general public and against my better judgement, we did so. Unqualified candidates only mess up the statistics and take seats away from qualified candidates.
2) If you register for an exam, please take it. Again, you are taking a seat away from someone else who could benefit from the exam and provide valid statistics for us.
3) If you take the beta exam, please ensure you leave quality feedback on the exam questions. To say that a question sucks and leave it at that is completely useless to both you and us. We cannot do anything with such a comment, other than to laugh at it. Seriously.
The exam beta process is designed to ensure a quality exam is released in the end, similar to ensuring quality in a software product by beta testing it. It is a very important part of the process and one that we take very seriously.
If the trend that is current on the SQL Server exams continues, I will be forced to revert back to not opening the exams to the public and instead restrict them to those who are very serious about certifications and the quality of the exam and experience.
Exam 70-451 has 346 total registrations to date with 29 no shows, 25 cancellations and 200 remaining registrations. This exam beta ends on the 30 of this month. That means 200 people have 5 days left to take this exam. I can understand scheduling for the end of a beta period to ensure adequate preparation time, but never the less, I highly doubt I will see 200 more deliveries before the end of the month.
Gerry