What are dumps? In the world of IT examinations, dumps refer to bootleg or copies of real actual exam questions. Dumps degrade a certification’s value. In today’s world, dumps are so prevalent that there is a handful if not hundreds of sites dedicated solely to provide users access to the vast world of IT certifications glory/titles. Unfortunately this is not a single vendor problem rather dumps for Cisco exams, Microsoft exams, ITILv3 exams and even Huawei exams or Juniper exams are not spared from this onslaught.
Since you, the reader, are reading the CCIE Flyer, the probable question might pop up in your head is “What about the CCIE? It has to be one of the world’s toughest and longest exam and there is no way to dump around it right?” Wrong! If we refer back to the question, notice the words ‘toughest’ and ‘longest’? These two words basically ‘motivates’ some people to actually make a big business by providing dump questions for the CCIE.
As all CCIE candidates know, the CCIE is divided into two parts, the written and the lab. If you look around long enough, you will notice that there are practically dumps requests in most IT forums for the written exam. There are a few forums even having users opening threads to say that they pass the written using dumps. Most of the vendors that come to mind when utilizing dumps will be TestKing, Pass4Sure, ActualTests, etc.
Now, please do not fault the forums for allowing such a thread but look at it from a different perspective. Some forums moderators actually spend time to explain a concept and the technology when someone asks a question from a dump. In this way, it sorts of work as a double edge sword. If the user is sincerely learning about the technology and just happens to use the dump as a reference then in my humblest opinion, it’s ok. However, if the user himself/herself is just only interested in getting the right answer and not understanding the technology/concept behind it, then it’s not ok.
So what’s the value in CCIE if people can actually dump the exam? Let’s not forget about the lab shall we? I recently came across a CCIE training provider that does not care about your CCIE written score (it went to the extent of saying “CCIE written scores are not necessary thanks to TestKing”) due to dumping of the exam. Now the lab is a totally different league. Yes, there are dumps for the lab exam (referring to the lab dumps as golden labs by some) and vendors like CCIECERT comes to mind. Yes there are other vendors but mostly will be owned by either the same person or the same group. What these vendors will sell you are actual CCIE lab questions.
What? How? Yes folks, the CCIE lab is ‘dumpable’ (this word should exist in Oxford/Cambridge/Harvard/MIT/whatever) meaning that it can be copied out for the convenience of others. I recently talked with a few people who tried to sell me CCIE lab dumps since they somehow knew I was a CCIE candidate. They were telling me that I only needed a month to study the 8 labs that they were selling and I could be a CCIE! I thought to myself, “1 month! Isn’t that faster than someone named Tassos who had years of experience completing the CCIE in 3 months? Unbelievable!” The price of the dumps ranges from USD $1,000.00 to USD $1,200.00. Not a bad offer since it can sort of ‘guarantee’ me passing the lab exam which will costs me USD$1400 or USD$1750 (if it’s a mobile lab) on my first attempt. I went on to ask how they got hold of the exam questions. They refused to tell me but gauging from how they answered my questions, I had the impression on either they had a few people taking the exam a few times to ‘memorize’ the questions and then collectively put them on the table for a complete set OR they had someone that deals with the exams be it the shipper, packager, etc. to obtain the materials. But that’s just a hunch. There is no whatsoever confirmation on what my thoughts are on that theory.
Just for the record, I declined politely the offer of buying the dumps but instead chose to have them as friends. It would be interesting to see how they progress in the Cisco world merely by dumping.
Feeling disappointed that the CCIE is not shielded from the dumping onslaught? You shouldn’t. The CCIE itself is a certification that pushes you to understand the technology that it has in its blueprint be it the Routing and Switching (R&S) track, Security track, Service Provider track, Voice track, Storage Networking track, Design track or Wireless track. Now assume I have my CCIE numbers #99999 in R&S and I passed it by obtaining dumps of both the written and lab. Instead of understanding the technology, concepts, etc. in the dumps, I just memorized off them (yes … it’s possible to memorize 8 labs of 8-hours lab exam). I applied for a job at a company. The interviewer asked me a simple CCNA-level question e.g. what is one difference between a distance vector protocol and a link state protocol? I answered “Erm … well … er … one is like RIP and the other is like OSPF I guess”.
Ok you probably won’t get a question like that but do you see the outcome of dumping? You DO NOT understand a technology in and out and you do not have the skills and knowledge to support that technology. In the long run, you are just going to live a life of a dumped CCIE. The CCIE (especially the lab) is designed to test your skills, your time management, your sanity and yes, your will power to solve the problem. If you ask those who have spent countless hours of studying on the written and the lab, if you ask those who have spent huge amounts of money on the CCIE, if you ask me, a CCIE candidate who has invested his entire savings on the CCIE, would it make it any better if I passed the exam by dumping?
The answer is and will always be NO. I want to earn my CCIE in the right way. I don’t want just to earn a CCIE but still being a lousy engineer. I want to be a CCIE and be a kick-ass engineer with elite Cisco skills. I want to be a CCIE engineer that knows the ins and outs of EIGRP, OSPF, Redistribution, Multicasting and layer-3 switching. That is what I want to be and that is what I think and hope that other genuine CCIE candidates want as well.
I hope that I give to you, the reader, a glimpse of the world of dumps and what dumping can do to your IT life. These are merely my thoughts and opinions. They are no way reflects the opinions of others. I hope to see you again in the CCIE Flyer and with that should you have any questions, comments or free beers to donate, please email me at nickelby at hotmail dot com.
Thanks for reading so far and have a good day :-).