Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ;

From: Doc Shipley <doc_at_mdrconsult.com>
Date: Tue Jun 22 17:29:22 2004

Fred Cisin wrote:

> On Tue, 22 Jun 2004, Teo Zenios wrote:
>
>>My short term memory sucks, therefore I have to learn how things work to
>>solve problems. Most tests given at schools are based on just memorizing
>>specific problems and puking them up on test day. If you have a picture
>>perfect memory you do extremely well in your classes, but are you really
>>learning anything? So if your designing complicated products you need to
>>know how things work, if your practicing medicine or law your probably
>>better have perfect memory.
>
>
> I don't like to test memory.
> My tests are all open book - they don't need to write anything on their
> shirtsleeves.
> open notes - they don't need to write anything in the margins of the book.
> Any books or notes, but only what they can carry (we had an incident a few
> years ago, when somebody tried to take a library cart down the stairs)
> Calculator permitted - but no cords, and no musical or talking
> calculators, and none that communicate
>
> I may start doing the test in the lab, and let them use the computers

   I administer the RedHat certifications, which are all
performanced-based. No multiple guess or true/false; here's a computer,
there's something wrong with it, we want you to make it do <this>. As
long as your fix survives a reboot and doesn't break anything else, we
don't much care whether you use the point&drool tools, vi, ed, or
voodoo. Then, here's a baremetal box, here's the install media. We
want a computer that does <that> and <the_other_thing>.

   Install media includes the RedHat Admin Guides, all man pages are
available, and the incidental howtos and changelogs installed by each
software package.

   I really like that. You don't have to just guess well as in a
written test. You also don't have to memorize everything. You have to
be able to think under pressure, you have to *read* the instructions and
follow them (and I have seen many candidates go home losers because they
couldn't do that), you have to effectively budget your time, and you
have to know where to go for information.

   Holy Crap. It's a real-world skills test! :)


        Doc
Received on Tue Jun 22 2004 - 17:29:22 BST