Leaving Lori's free in case he wants to pick it back up. Also to remind everybody that we are, in fact, separate people.
So, I've been studying for Cisco certification since the start of the year. I got straight A's for all four classes, finished my practical examinations first in the class with everything 100% correct every time. I took the actual CCNA test last Monday...and failed by what I calculated as a 1.5 question margin. Okay, no biggie, I just had to study more, right? I spent the whole last week cramming, going through all my textbooks memorizing as much as I could fit in my brain without going crazy, took the test again today.
And failed by a significantly larger margin. Haven't done the math, but probably closer to six questions (out of fifty) this time. The irritating thing is, the questions are so obscure, petty and arbitrary that there's essentially no way to prepare short of memorizing every damn detail precisely, including verbatim memorization of little snippets of information the curriculum presents with too little context to make them meaningful (e.g., almost everything it teaches about IPv6). And even if you do that, you can still fail by parsing an ambiguous question incorrectly.
I'm not inclined to take the test a third time; it costs three hundred bucks each time (they've got a good racket going), and while I've still got savings left, I can't meaningfully prepare in such a way that I can reasonably expect to do any better the next time. A passing grade means getting three-quarters or more of the questions right, and a couple of the questions are not multiple-choice, so basically my best efforts with the parts that were multiple-choice were less than two-thirds effective. Also, I only have until the end of September before the old CCNA test is phased out in favor of an entire new curriculum I haven't been taught. Which, assuming I learn it, will presumptively still require passing an equally unfair and arbitrary test. I know there are people who actually pass that thing, but I can't imagine how. Maybe lucky guesses, or they're just really, really good at memorization? I'd have thought I had a hella good memory for this kind of thing, before this happened.
I don't want to give up--I've invested so much in this--but I'm also aware that that's the logic used by gamblers who go bust, that they're too far in the hole to do anything but keep digging. Then again, what the hell else am I going to do? I'm a bloody English major. I can write. If I didn't need this ****ing certification to get my foot in the door, I could do networking stuff. That's it. I can't keep going as a substitute teacher forever, all the traditional good places to earn your bread writing (e.g., journalism) are closing down and dying off, and I've never had any luck finding even secretary jobs out here. I can't even get an opening to show employers I'm smart and capable.
TLDR: Elok feels trapped.
So, I've been studying for Cisco certification since the start of the year. I got straight A's for all four classes, finished my practical examinations first in the class with everything 100% correct every time. I took the actual CCNA test last Monday...and failed by what I calculated as a 1.5 question margin. Okay, no biggie, I just had to study more, right? I spent the whole last week cramming, going through all my textbooks memorizing as much as I could fit in my brain without going crazy, took the test again today.
And failed by a significantly larger margin. Haven't done the math, but probably closer to six questions (out of fifty) this time. The irritating thing is, the questions are so obscure, petty and arbitrary that there's essentially no way to prepare short of memorizing every damn detail precisely, including verbatim memorization of little snippets of information the curriculum presents with too little context to make them meaningful (e.g., almost everything it teaches about IPv6). And even if you do that, you can still fail by parsing an ambiguous question incorrectly.
I'm not inclined to take the test a third time; it costs three hundred bucks each time (they've got a good racket going), and while I've still got savings left, I can't meaningfully prepare in such a way that I can reasonably expect to do any better the next time. A passing grade means getting three-quarters or more of the questions right, and a couple of the questions are not multiple-choice, so basically my best efforts with the parts that were multiple-choice were less than two-thirds effective. Also, I only have until the end of September before the old CCNA test is phased out in favor of an entire new curriculum I haven't been taught. Which, assuming I learn it, will presumptively still require passing an equally unfair and arbitrary test. I know there are people who actually pass that thing, but I can't imagine how. Maybe lucky guesses, or they're just really, really good at memorization? I'd have thought I had a hella good memory for this kind of thing, before this happened.
I don't want to give up--I've invested so much in this--but I'm also aware that that's the logic used by gamblers who go bust, that they're too far in the hole to do anything but keep digging. Then again, what the hell else am I going to do? I'm a bloody English major. I can write. If I didn't need this ****ing certification to get my foot in the door, I could do networking stuff. That's it. I can't keep going as a substitute teacher forever, all the traditional good places to earn your bread writing (e.g., journalism) are closing down and dying off, and I've never had any luck finding even secretary jobs out here. I can't even get an opening to show employers I'm smart and capable.
TLDR: Elok feels trapped.
Comment