Thought the Microsoft exams were bad at times, but this OS X Server one was terrible - failed with 63% when the passing score was 65%. Got 5 identical questions, just worded differently, on OpenDirectory passwords and fine, I answered it wrong the first time, but with it being an adaptive test it fired 5 questions all the same. At least 10 questions were hazy where there were technically 2 right answers - at least with the Microsoft exams there’s the ‘real world’ answer and the ‘Microsoft’ answer, so you go with the Microsoft answer that’s outlined in their training courses and books, which is one of the problems with the Microsoft certs - you simply learn the answer required for an exam, even though it’s not what you’d actually do in the workplace. Here, there was no distinction as I’d gone through the Apple training course and didn’t point one way or the other, so it was 50/50 on some questions which defies the point of the exam if you’re just guessing.
Ended up with 4/9 on OpenDirectory meaning apart from those 5 identical questions, I was spot on, and 4/11 on account management, as pretty much every account management one was hazy. Asking whether you’d see a logon greeting from an AFP server when ‘logging onto the server’ or ‘connecting to the server’ (other two answers completely wrong) was an example - by definition you’d need to logon in order to connect and could argue either was correct. A lot came down to wording like that, not testing your actual knowledge of OS X Server - I don’t mind the questions that give a load of irrelevant information to make you read right through it to understand it, as that’s to make sure you’ll always pay full attention when solving problems and not jump to conclusions, but this wasn’t one of those occasions.
Network services, gateway services, authentication + authorisation, print services + deploment solutions all 100% correct. Apart from the OpenDirectory and Account Management topics, I only had 7 wrong questions in total on all 7 other topics so would have passed comfortably.
Pretty disappointed would be a polite way of expressing things, as I basically got one wrong question on OpenDirectory which I now know the correct answer to, and could go back over the chapter on account management to try and figure out if Apple lean towards a particular answer, but other than that I’m going to have to fork out an additional £80 for an exam I’ve scored 81% on all but 2 topics on. Might sound nice giving 25% off the exam in the first, but the cynical side point at the need for a retest and ending up making an extra £60.
Honestly, I’m probably not going to pay the £80 for a resit and jump through Apple’s hoops. I’ve never looked at certifications as the be-all and end-all, just as a way to backup claims of my knowledge and experience to any potential PR-bods that don’t actually understand anything but qualifications. I know perfectly well my knowledge of OS X Server is more than adequate to manage them on a daily basis, and am more annoyed that dirty/stupid tricks long the bane of Microsoft exams have presented themselves from Apple, a company I used to quite admire.