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| bduncan |
 Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 2:01 pm Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
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Hey everyone. One of our members has suggested to me that we add a forum for WMQ/WMQI certifications. People could discuss questions about the certifications, as well as discuss questions/issues which might appear on these exams. I think this is a good idea, but would like to hear from a few people as to what they think... Thanks in advance for the input!
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Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
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| PeterPotkay |
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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Poobah
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 7716
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Yup, I like it. (Particulary since I just passed 097 in Dallas. Yee-Haw!!!)
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Peter Potkay
Keep Calm and MQ On |
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| kirani |
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 05 Sep 2001
Posts: 3779
Location: Torrance, CA, USA
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I think it is a great idea! I am looking forward to it!
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Kiran
IBM Cert. Solution Designer & System Administrator - WBIMB V5
IBM Cert. Solutions Expert - WMQI
IBM Cert. Specialist - WMQI, MQSeries
IBM Cert. Developer - MQSeries
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| vedbhat |
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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Disciple
Joined: 19 Mar 2002
Posts: 186
Location: Singapore
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Hi,
Thats is a good idea, but I would suggest why restrict to only WMQ/WMQI, Also add MQWF because it comes under MQ Family. I have already cleared in last June itself. I plan to take MQ and MQSI by mid of this year as well.
So looking forward for this category to learn and share ideas and doubts.
Best Regards
Ved
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IBM Certified Solutions Expert - MQSeries Workflow
[ This Message was edited by: vedbhat on 2002-04-15 19:43 ] |
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| RogerLacroix |
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 3253
Location: London, ON Canada
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Brian, since you have a forum for MQSI why not add one for Mercator? I'm sure lots of people have questions about how Mercator's transformation engine works with MQ.
later
Roger...
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| mqonnet |
| Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2002 4:22 am Post subject: |
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Grand Master
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 1114
Location: Boston, Ma, Usa.
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As such this forum is a breather. There are very few resources for MQ on the net. And i would really think that it would be excellent to have such a forum to help all the MQ audience with their doubts/problems in taking the certification. At the same time, i would guess i/we would also learn something out of it.  .
But there is just a small suggestion. Since this would be the only resource for such a thing on the internet, i would first check with IBM on this one. There are host of NDA's relating to revealing the questions and even discussing them. I know this probably could sound silly, but playing safe is always the better idea. Right.
May be someone from IBM, who is monitoring this forum could throw a piece of advise on this one.
All the best to you and all of us.
Cheers.
Kumar
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IBM Certified WebSphere MQ V5.3 Developer
IBM Certified WebSphere MQ V5.3 Solution Designer
IBM Certified WebSphere MQ V5.3 System Administrator |
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| bduncan |
| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2002 11:16 am Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
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Yes, I don't want to anger anyone at Big Blue, but last time I checked, I didn't have to sign an NDA when I took the certification exam. I'm not talking about having one of the guys who designed the test (and we have a few of them here) list questions that WILL appear on the test. Instead, if I just took 095 and failed because I didn't understand the question about logging on MVS, then I don't think IBM can come after me because I came here and posted a question along the lines of "I just failed 095 because I didn't understand logging on MVS. Spefically how these log files are stored on the file system. Can someone give me some info?" I also don't think that if I, as someone who has passed a certification, comes to this site and makes a post like "I just took 095 and there were several questions on clustering - specifically how a client sends messages to a cluster where there is more than one instance of the queue. Be sure to read up on this if you are taking 095" I'm going to get a subpoena from IBM.
Of course I've heard of Disney suing a guy because his legal birth name happened to be Mickey Mouse. Or that McDonalds sued a swedish insurance company because they were called McWellness. 
But it sounds like there is quite a bit of support for this idea.
I would like to see a sort of step-through for each of the questions on IBM's sample tests. You get the answers with the questions, but there is no explanation to go along with them. Detailed explanations of each question would be very helpful to people who are studying for the exams, since more than likely, the sample tests will figure prominently in the person's studies...
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Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
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| mqonnet |
| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2002 11:38 am Post subject: |
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Grand Master
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 1114
Location: Boston, Ma, Usa.
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Hi Brandon,
You got it just right about what i was trying to convey. And i am with you on this one. But it was just a food for thought. And to be on the safer side, i just posted my views.
I sure am of the opinion that we must have some resoure such as this one to help one and all in the field of MQ. I remember the days when i started out without any help of any sort. Things have changed drastically over a period of time. And forums such as this one is really proving to be a life-saver to many new comers, as it is for everyone else. I really appreciate your idea of getting together all this and putting it Live.
Cheers.
Kumar
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IBM Certified WebSphere MQ V5.3 Developer
IBM Certified WebSphere MQ V5.3 Solution Designer
IBM Certified WebSphere MQ V5.3 System Administrator |
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| zpat |
| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2002 10:58 pm Post subject: |
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Jedi Council
Joined: 19 May 2001
Posts: 5849
Location: UK
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I am cautious since I have passed five MQ certifications through understanding the subject properly. Such a forum may lead to the exam questions being exposed and their value as a test reduced. Therefore the value of the certification would also be reduced. It's not meant to be easy after all.
Sure the actual subject matter of the questions can be discussed in the existing forums, but a forum just for certification seems to be aimed at making it easier to pass without a proper subject understanding. That's not desirable. |
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| bduncan |
| Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2002 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
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But surely you're not going to say that the availability of Cisco courses at colleges, training companies, etc., whose sole purpose is to prepare students for the Cisco certifications - for a price - reduce the value of the Cisco certifications? Those network engineers are some of the most highly compensated tech workers out there. And from what I know (from friends who took Cisco tests) that the higher level tests are SO difficult, most people who pass MUST use a preparation service (whether that be a class or a book), basically something that is geared towards passing the exam and nothing else, in order to actually pass the certifications.
Just look at Microsoft. They actually sell books and teach courses geared towards passing their own tests. If they felt these services reduced the value of their certifications, why would they do it?
Personally, I am amazed that for as popular and widely-used as MQSeries is, you can't walk into a Barnes and Nobles or Borders and find an MQSeries book. You can't go to amazon and find a "Preparing for the 095 exam" book. Take ANY other major product out there - Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft, etc., etc., etc., and you'll find these resources.
And I am of the personal belief, I highly doubt that anyone could pass one of these MQSeries exams if they only discussed topics on this site and maybe read some of the MQSeries manuals. Nothing replaces actual experience, and unless someone has spend some time at a runmqsc console, or written a C program to send a message, I don't think we have to worry about them passing any of the exams, and in the process reducing the value of the certifications...
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Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
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| zpat |
| Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 6:48 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Council
Joined: 19 May 2001
Posts: 5849
Location: UK
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There are not that many possible questions, and if the actual questions are discussed it will make the exam of less value. They are very specialised exams and so we should avoid disclosing the actual questions used. I am sure that when we compete in the job market against other certified individuals then we want to be sure that they have achieved the same standards as we have.
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| muralidhar |
| Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 9:07 am Post subject: |
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Acolyte
Joined: 28 Feb 2002
Posts: 50
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| Certification is just an additional asset to the actual experience. By disclosing actual questions may not lessen our chances in the job market. Sometimes we may not closely observe a certain feature until we get that question from someone. I mean exam questions might help us to enhance our skills. |
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| bduncan |
| Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 11:07 am Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
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I personally would never post or discuss what I knew to be an actual exam question, for the very same reasons you mention zpat. However, I'm not going to censor people who do. I'll leave it up to the MQ community as whole to flame them, assuming that's what the group wants to do. Furthermore, since I know a few people who helped write the tests, I know that 095 for instance has only changed once, and that was when clustering came along. Furthermore, the 70 questions are drawn from a pool of 270 questions from what I know. So you actually have a pretty decent chance of seeing any given question twice if you take the test again. I also know that IBM keeps track of the percentage of people passing the exams versus the number taking them. If we start discussing exam questions which translates into more people passing, IBM may not know that more people are passing because of mqseries.net, but they will know a disproportionate number of people are beginning to pass, and I would assume they would take action. Personally I think the pool of questions SHOULD be expanded. Since the pool is so small, an unqualified person could just keep taking the test, and after 3 or 4 attempts, they'll have seen basically every question possible. And of course when I put MQSeries certified 095 on my resume, people don't know if it took me 1 attempt to pass the test or 5....
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Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
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| RogerLacroix |
| Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 3253
Location: London, ON Canada
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I thought I was told that you could only take the same exam twice in a 12 month period. Since they ask for your SSN (USA) or SIN (Canada), they track the "who, what, when" for the exams.
later
Roger...
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| bduncan |
| Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2002 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
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Hmm... I thought that you could take it as many times as you wanted as long as you waited 1 month between attempts... Does anyone know for sure?
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Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
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