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...Home ... Editorial ... Columns ..Column Story Saturday: April 5, 2014


 Dulaney on Certs  
Emmett Dulaney
Emmett Dulaney


 Google Apps Cert Goes Live
Plus, help needed for CompTIA workshops, and Exam Tip #5.
by Emmett Dulaney  
3/30/2011 -- The Google Apps certification is now live with the Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist being the first exam to be offered. It is intended to authenticate the skills of candidates who can "demonstrate the fundamental skills and knowledge required to deploy, configure, and migrate to Google Apps for Business." Candidates should have a minimum of three to six years of professional IT experience, and complete at least three Google Apps for Business deployments.

The following table shows the eight domains, in order of weighting, and the percentage of questions for each:

Domain Weighting
Google Apps Technical Fundamentals 28%
Gmail Setup, Configuration, and Migration 21%
Configure and Migrate Calendar and Contacts 14%
Configure and Migrate Docs, Groups, Sites and other Google Apps Applications 12%
Google Apps Mobile Deployment and Access 10%
Postini Setup, Configuration, and Migration 7%
Plan, Manage, and Troubleshot a Google Apps Deployment 6%
Google Apps API Basics 2%

More information on the topics addressed in each domain can be found here, while more information on Google certification overall can be found here.

Help Needed for Two Upcoming CompTIA Workshops
CompTIA is currently in the process of adding two new certifications and is in need of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to help with each. The first workshop is May 2-6 and for the CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA certification; help for this one is needed for item writing. The second workshop is scheduled for June 6-10 to help determine the cut score (pass/fail) for the CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner exam.

More information on the exam development process and a link to the application SMEs can complete can be found here.

As a side note, in May the updated Security+ exam (SY0-301) will become available. For a while, the current exam (SY0-201) will also be offered to allow those who have studied it to pass before it officially retires on Dec. 31.

Certification Exam Tip #5
Toss out absolute options. When you are looking at possible answer options, those that include such words as "always" and "never" imply that there is never an instance when you wouldn't follow this course of action. Rarely is it the case that you would always do something as you must take situational factors into account. For example, suppose a question presents a verbose scenario and then asks what you would do if an employee terminated employment and one of the options is to always delete their user account. In theory, it may sound good, but in actuality, there are cases where the employee becomes a contractor and still holds the same position, and many others that make the "always" condition disappear. If you can think of one legitimate scenario in which you would not perform a particular action (which usually is not that difficult to do), then the absolute is void. Since it is so common that at least one scenario exists to void an absolute, options that include them can often be skipped over quickly, allowing you more time to ponder the remaining options in search of the right one. Words in addition to "always" and "never" that imply absolutes include "all," "every" and "only."

Move through All and None. Closely related to absolutes are the options "all of the above" and "none of the above."  Most vendors have strict rules against using these in their question pools, but you can still find them in some of the certification exams available today. The reason they don't like using them is easy to comprehend: Suppose a question has five possible options, the last of which is "all of the above." If you can discern that options A and B are both correct, then you know that E is the right answer without ever needing to read options C or D. It isn't quite as easy to perceive when "none of the above" is correct but its mere presence alerts you to that possibility and should encourage you to look at the choices more carefully than you otherwise may have. If at least one of the options seems plausible, then "none of the above" should be immediately removed from the plausibility set.

Well-written exams use a single correct option and then distracters that are plausible but incorrect. The goal of the distractor(s) is to separate those who know the material from those who don't, and including such choices as those with absolutes and "all/none" do a very poor job of isolating the two groups.


Emmett Dulaney is the author of several books on Linux, Unix and certification. He can be reached at .

 


More articles by Emmett Dulaney:

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