Extreme now has proctored exams

[Mike28]

Wow, for years I have been taking Extreme Certifications for every product line. When people ask what Certs I have, I tell them, and answer the follow up question "Who is Extreme Networks!" Never have they been monitored, until now...Thanks Extreme you have finally reached CISCO level. I don't know what else to say, very disappointed.

Here is from the Technical Training Data Sheet:

"Extreme Networks technical training exams are considered high- stakes exams and are independently proctored by ProctorU, with one attempt of the related exam included within the standard course fee (this is regardless of whether the student has completed instructor-led training or self-paced eLearning).Further exam attempts can be purchased if required at an additional cost of $395. All exams can be registered for and administered within the Extreme Networks Learning Portal using an individual’s existing portal log-in. Students have

1 hour to complete the exam. An exam will be considered Passed with a score of 75% or above."

PS your not a high-stakes Cert!!! The last few acquisitions you have become less and less Extreme, I see all the quality Engineers leaving, and your customer loyalty waning. I guess it is all about the money. This is how you stay in 3rd place!

Signed,
Less likely to lead Purple!

[LeoP1]

Hi Rohan,

Good to hear that we have some initiatives to make things better, specially for Partners.

I'm looking forward to see the improvements and fixes to our training and certification programs and hoe it doesn't take too long for results.

Best regards,

-Leo

[Holger_Gmerek]

Also nice is the new retake policy if you fail an exam: none, you have to buy a complete new exam,.... for around $400

And who thinks that a flash plug-in is acceptable in 2018 ?? And where is the next testcentre ??
Texas ?? Florida ?? I'm from Germany,,.....

[LeoP1]

Hi Guys,

I totally agree with Michael (specially in the "you aren't HIGH STAKES" part), Ronald, Brian and EtherMAN...

Excuse me, but I think could be useful put things in perspective (my personal view):

As we already discussed in some meetings (LATAM PAC included): WE AREN'T COCA-COLA (or COKE, whatever)... We maybe some kind of COCA-COLA-WANNABE, but WE ARE NOT COCA-COLA!

If we are an Ginger-Ale-like, we need to act like Ginger-Ale, and work hard to be a COCA-COLA, but one step at a time... We are at the "Gartner's Leaders Magic-Quadrant", but remember: Despite all the efforts, we are light-years behind the COCA-COLA champion (not talking about tech, but market).

The online exams are absolutely overrated and overpriced... Can't really assess the engineer knowledge, too expensive and now with more useless "requisites"...

As I said in other opportunities, we have MUCH to improve in our training program (personally I've achieved the former Enterasys ECA cert, and passed all the trainings and exams, so I could feel what it really is) and it's not enough to allow someone to "sit at the pilot's seat"... Field experience and LOTS of research, reading, hands-on are requided to someone could be really callled "Network Engineer" or something like this.

Best regards,

-Leo

[EtherMAN]

I like your point Brian. One of my on going things i pound into out new hires on the technical side... One skill set i developed and continue to improve is the ability to locate current and pertinent information about the many things we all run into doing our support and engineering side. None of us can remember that one command or option when there are choices the be made on a new item we have never done before or an excisting we don't do day to day.

True test of a network engineer is not how much book knowledge they have based on a few days of studying a huge amount of details and testing this with a right or wrong score on specific date,, True test is their ability to use the skills they were taught to figure out issues and problems and the familiarity of the tools set they have in front of them to guide them to successfully being able to make a service or function work.

Needless to say I like hands on and lab tests with open books 

[Brian_Anderson1]

One instructor I had explained it was great to have open book tests. Sure we need to have good knowledge of the subject, but when rubber hits the road are we just going to implement a solution without researching it again and refreshing our memories if it isn't something we do every day. It isn't like we show up and wing it with our memory of what was in class.

I'm sure it is great to have a test that requires memory and knowledge of subject to the nth degree, but that isn't real life for an engineer, we have access to books and guides and implement via best practices.

ebook solution wasn't a great idea either.