Testing Humble Pie
OUCH! My head hurts! A little while ago I finished taking a Brainbench test on SQL Server 2000 Programming and my brain still aches. I haven't been in test-taking mode for many years and it was quite an experience. Taking the test itself was a pretty humbling experience. There's just nothing quite like taking a timed test that covers so many areas that some of them you haven't actually used in a while and you know that the results of the test will impact landing the next bit of work... to really get you to question how just how good you think you are. Especially these multiple-choice tests where more than one answer looks right and it's the minor detail that makes the difference. You know, that kind of minor detail that in development and testing your code if you got it wrong you would quickly correct it and move on, no big deal, but on the test, that isn't an option. Wrong is wrong. Ugh! Good thing it's Friday. I can let my brain relax for a couple of days.
When I finished the test, I felt good about most of it, but there were enough questions that were still nagging at me that I wasn't too confident. But, the good news is, I did better than I thought, scoring in the 95th percentile. Yay! Let the weekend begin!
Legacy Comments
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Steve Riley
2005-10-09 |
re: Testing Humble Pie Well, you posted this almost a year ago, I was about to take my first test, a SQL test from Brainbench. I was nervous, as only three minutes to answer each question. I get to the first question, and am reading thru the statements, the question is which statements are correct for table T1? I look at the statements, and they are all talking about table T12! I keep looking back and forth between the question and the statements trying to figure this little problem out. Almost half of my time is over!! I finally figure out this is a typo, and the question is flawed, and I'm wasting my time trying to figure it out. I just closed the browser. If as you say, the answers are close and the minor details make the difference, what's the point in going further when they can't even get the questions right? I wish I'd have done a screen dump on the flawed question, but that little timer was driving me crazy! |