Citrix....

[Imakeholesinu]

Failed my Citrix Advanced Administration Exam today by 4% which probably amounts to 2-3 questions. Those simulations were a bitch too, like someone said "Hey, let's find the most OBSCURE settings in the Management console that no one EVER uses and was NEVER covered in ANY of the material or the $3,999 dollar 5 day course required to take before the cert will count and put that question on the test just to FUCK with you."

I get the feeling the more certification tests I take, the more and more they are just testing my ability to take a test rather than know what the subject matter is about. I am a horrible test taker with test anxiety and the whole nine yards but c'mon, at least test me on the shit I need to know.

[Zeus]

I get the feeling the more certification tests I take, the more and more they are just testing my ability to take a test rather than know what the subject matter is about.

Flip and I can tell you stories about that from what we went through to become accountants.....

[Imakeholesinu]

I get the feeling the more certification tests I take, the more and more they are just testing my ability to take a test rather than know what the subject matter is about.

Flip and I can tell you stories about that from what we went through to become accountants.....

I can see that they want to make sure you are paying attention to the questions but seriously, some of the questions now are double edged (having two answers dependent on the way you are used to administering or configuring your environment) or no real good answer at all (shit I wouldn't do).

[SineSwiper]

I hated that aspect of the CCNA. Failed it once, just barely, and passed it the 2nd time. They deal with a lot of old technology (ISDN? Seriously?), and of course, everything involves a single answer for problems that could be solved with multiple solutions.

BTW, what is the CAA and Citrix? They made GotoMeeting, and seem to be involved in virtualization, but is that the focus?

[Zeus]

I get the feeling the more certification tests I take, the more and more they are just testing my ability to take a test rather than know what the subject matter is about.

Flip and I can tell you stories about that from what we went through to become accountants.....

I can see that they want to make sure you are paying attention to the questions but seriously, some of the questions now are double edged (having two answers dependent on the way you are used to administering or configuring your environment) or no real good answer at all (shit I wouldn't do).

Every test ever made is all about figuring out what they want / are looking for and giving it to them. It has never, ever been about reality or properly doing a job. Get that out of your head now when going through a testing process. They are two completely separate things.

The further you go along the more difficult / obscure they make it for one very simple reason: controlling the "professional" population. If it was as simple as actually knowing your stuff well enough to do the job, everyone and their mother would have the designation/certificate and it would mean nothing. But they have to make it so that it's viewed as something that's hard to get in order to give it appeal or a meaning. What's the best way to do that? Make it a forbidden fruit that only a select few get to eat and tell everyone just how awesome it is so they want it.

That's all my testing was to become a CA, a war of attrition almost. And you wouldn't believe how much of a regard others hold that designation in based on the legendary "difficulty" (to me it's more about desire, but that's another argument).

[Flip]

Standardized testing takes a huge beating and people (the ones who do poorly) like to dismiss the entire process, but i honestly believe the material on the exam, the preparation, and the test taking strategies is ALL apart of what they want you to learn.

I hate to kick someone when they are down, but if you are getting anxiety over taking a test and cant reason out questions that might look like traps, then who is to say you wont freak out on the job or be able to decipher what your boss is telling you to do for a given task? The CPA exam was fucking hard and i failed various sections a bunch of times until i got it right. I dont use 99% of the knowledge i had to learn for it, but going through that torture gauntlet, i think, hardened me up and shows i have the mettle to be set apart from people who cant pass. I have never met an incapable CPA so i think that says something.

The same goes for SAT's, GRE's, and whatever other tests there are out there. Sometimes, it is more than just the material and you need to be able to adapt, which may be the most important lesson you can take away from standard tests. Adapt or die.

You'll pass it your second time.

[Imakeholesinu]

I hated that aspect of the CCNA. Failed it once, just barely, and passed it the 2nd time. They deal with a lot of old technology (ISDN? Seriously?), and of course, everything involves a single answer for problems that could be solved with multiple solutions.

BTW, what is the CAA and Citrix? They made GotoMeeting, and seem to be involved in virtualization, but is that the focus?

Citrix is really a virtualization company that started out primarily virtualizing desktop environments and applications. Basically, say you have Microsoft Office but don't want to have the hassle of managing and maintaining a huge desktop environment with office. You install Citrix XenApp and publish the application out through a portal and it starts an instance of the application on the server for a user. Some companies would use it to offset having to upgrade a bunch of desktops hardware by just throwing 2 or 3 big servers at an application and having the clients run them off that. Then Citirx started doing XenDesktop which is virtual desktops on a host, like what MS did in the ultimate edition of Windows with their XP virtual machine. XenServer is the product that is used to compete in the VMWare market and can also house XenDesktop VMs as well as 2003 and 2008 machines that run XenApp.

The CCA and CCAA from Citrix are Citrix Certified Administrator and Citrix Certified Advanced Administrator certifications. Citrix went the way of VMWare where you can't just go and take the test to get certified for the CCAA. You actually have to go to a week long $3,999 class and then take the test for that class.

Citrix is a great product and more of the customers I deal with are using it. I've got the tech preview that runs on 2008 R2 (which is definitely leaps and bounds better than 2008) and they changed a lot of stuff and did away with some of the familiar features that were in Presentation Server 4.0 and 4.5 and XenApp 5.0.

[Imakeholesinu]

OMFG,

I did worse this time around than last. I did get different simulations this time (4 of them) and I know for a fact I got all of those correct and if I didn't then Citrix needs to explain and clarify what exactly they are asking for.

I'm seriously considering writing citrix to tell them that 30% of the stuff in the exam we covered in the class. Some are openeded questions that either require a lot more data than they put in there (Choose the best answer when there are two answers that do the same thing and it is pretty much an administrative personal preference not a best practice on either of them, I encounterd 4 of those questions and I'm sure I got them all wrong). Others are mind-numbingly easy but I'm sure there was a word that had some sort of implied emphasis on it which completely changed the dynamic of the question being asked that I failed to pick up on because I'm not a mind reader, but most of them, are scenarios any decent administrator WOULD AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE before designing and building out the environment.

I am happy that I did score 85% on the troubleshooting questions. I was very impressed I did so well on that and think that an Administrator will be called in to troubleshoot more often than any other task so I would think this test would be weighted MORE heavily on this section since that is what we do most of the time anyway is troubleshoot customer issues, but apparently I'm dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to scaling the environment to meet business needs. Really? I mean, scaling a decently architechted Citrix environment involves building a new server EXACTLY how you built the most recent one in the farm. If you are deploying a different application then you build the server exactly like the most recently deployed one without installing the other apps.

Don't get me started on the managing and maintaing a server either. That section is just as BS as scaling.

Next time I'm commenting on every question that I think is BS or wasn't covered in the class or course material (which I have read now 4 times cover to cover and even taken the time to do the labs in a test environment as best I could) or any question that I think really has no relevance.

I've paid $450 in test fees (3 tests at $150 a pop) and now have to pay another $150 yet again.