[Dshield] SANS going to proctored exams?

[Clement Dupuis]

The dropping of the practical exam was a mistake and SANS readjusted by
bringing it back. I totally agree with you on this. Most student learn as
much doing the practical as they learn attending the class.  

Unsupervised exams even thou very practical and convenient have little to NO
value. You have no clue who is sitting behind the keyboard.  This is why the
practical was so important. It was a differentiator. 

I have graded hundreds of GCFW exams in the past and I was amazed at how
many people we would catch doing plagiarism on their practical. They would
not even be smart about it.  Still I liked the idea of the practical, At
least it had to be produce by a knowledgeable person. Yet, who wrote it was
not guaranteed.

The choice of provider for the exam seems the be the problem here, not the
choice of doing supervised exams. Vue and Prometrics have many venues in all
large cities and could have been an alternate choice in this case.  

Now there are companies that offers supervised exams through web cam, which
could be an option but is it scalable?

You are right, this is a requirement in order to become ISO certified to
have supervised exams. Other large training providers such as ISACA and ISC2
are ISO Certified. In order to remain competitive SANS has to seek ISO
certification as well.

Reality is that offer has to meet the demand. Many large government
department and companies are looking at the quality of the certification
process and this is what the ISO certification is about.

Whether we like it or not, I think you better get used to it. More and More
training providers are taking this route.

Do you know of any university or college that allow you to take an
unsupervised exam from home? I don't.

Why would this be adequate for an IT security certification. We cry that we
want to be recognized as professional, if we wish to be treated and
recognized professionals, the whole security certification has to mature.
Moving toward the ISO standard is a step in the right direction.

Just my two cents

Clement


> -----Original Message-----
> From: list-bounces at lists.dshield.org [mailto:list-
> bounces at lists.dshield.org] On Behalf Of Joel Esler
> Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 4:33 PM
> To: General DShield Discussion List
> Subject: [Dshield] SANS going to proctored exams?
> 
> I don't really agree with this one.  Much the same as I didn't with the
> axing of the practical.
> http://www.joelesler.net/2007/12/all-sans-exams-to-be-proctored.html
> 
> 
> --
> Joel Esler
> _________________________________________
> SANS Network Security 2007 in Las Vegas September 22-30. 39 courses,
> SANS top instructors.  http://www.sans.org/info/9346