Exam scoring

[BogdanB]

Hi all

has anyone has had an exam when they thought they did 100% and did not pass ? 

I've failed 425 exam first time, I've rescheduled this today (after centers beeing closed for more 2 months) and now I have retaken the exam.

Now I have done 425 exam, did everything as requested and I got no pass. Ok, I understand I may have missed something but I only got about ~55 of the total score. I had time and double checked everything, everything worked as requested by exam subjects. How it is possible to have 45% difference and not notice?

Does anyone know the procedure to get someone to look over the exam, not just to run the script?

I would like an actual person to check the solutions tell me that I've missed something and not a script because, at this point, I dont trust the script anymore. It is not possible to have such difference when everything works when you're leaving the room. 

[JS_Learning]

Hi,

Unfortunately it happens with many candidates. Sometimes it works but not matching exactly the requirements, and sometimes, there might be some technical discussions on how the grading is done since something worked "within the exam environment" (and was tested by the candidate). Yet it's graded as failed.

To avoid giving unfair advantage and risking the exam integrity, it looks understandable that the team can't reply with too much details. Having said that, it's important that candidates feedback if they think something is wrong.

I have been in the same position several times, it is very unpleasant and annoying. Unfortunaly, my only solution was to attempt the exam again, read very carefully the instructions and focus. Sometimes I had to try another method of answering the question, and it has worked. Having said that, I still experienced what strongly appears to be something abnormal with the grading, but I improved the score on other questions and ultimately passed...

I also experienced ambiguous questions, which resulted in failing an attempt. Again, due to the nature of the exam, it was not possible to get a human being clarifying that during the exam. I could only feedback and on the second exam attempt I interpreted the question differently and luckily it has worked. Doing a guessing game should not happen during an exam, the question should be clear for every candidate, and/or there should be the possibility to have clarifications. I think it's something that should be improved. Exams are difficult often, and that's acceptable and part of the challenge. Unfortunately sometimes there are some aspects which are unfair and/or technically incorrect or subject to discussion. I think that would change only if every candidate feedback instead of silently coping with the situation.

The procedure is indicated in your email showing the exam results:

Please contact us within 30 days if you have any questions, concerns or
suggestions about your exam or certification at

https://www.redhat.com/rhtapps/certification/comments/ 

This URL is the only authorized channel for communications concerning
exam content.  Communications through other channels or by other means
may constitute a breach of the exam confidentiality agreement.  Queries or
concerns that require investigation of your exam environment must be lodged
within 30 days of taking your exam.

What is important for you is that you keep positive about it, it would be very easy to experience negative feelings (unfortunately legitimate sometimes) which most likely impact your next attempt(s). Your objective is to focus on the technical aspect, try to think of the best practice and think if you are really matching what is requested.  With that you might not get 100% but you should probably pass.

[BogdanB]

@JS_Learning  I've taken the exam a 3rd time and still failed.

Thing is I did changed the way I solved one subject and improved my score. However, for other subjects nothing has changed. I'm talking about the subjects that were not 100% percent.

The thing is for one section of the exam which was not 100% I've solved it exactly how the manual says in all subjects and the score hasnt changed. And this is section the most easy to solve from the exam. 

Since this is my 3rd time on the exam I had time to double check everything and still didnt get the passing score. I've checked and everything was as expected, I dont know what else should I do.

I almost know the material by heart so it is very frustrating. I have 2 friends which also have RHLS but they dropped the exam from their list even tough the material is very good. Neither of them wants to take the chance of loosing an exam due to bad question design.

From what I seen with other people taking the same exam it seems the topics are not clear.

I thought of raising a request and specifying how I solved each topic in order to see that I know what I'm talking about but I'm afraid this will break the NDA. Can you confirm if this is indeed the case?

I'm thinking if someone see's that the topics were the right way they may at least check manually.   Because if it proves the checks dont work they might updated it or If it proves the checks are good then it is clear that the exam topics are ambigous but misleading. I know this is not intentional but still, it is what it is. 

LE I dont want any specific answers but someone actually checks my work and says that the score is correct. I've tried to raise a request last time I failed but I didnt get a decent answer. Altough I've used RH support several times I have to say that the support around RHLS is really, really bad.....

[JS_Learning]

Hi @BogdanB,

Sorry to hear about your failed exam attempt again. Having been there myself, I understand how frustrating it is, especially when they are some suspicions (and sometimes evidence) of unfairness.

I wish I could help by carefully discussing about EX425 exam (without disclosing any NDA as per the rules), unfortunately I haven't done that exam myself.

As an answer to your question, using this procedure you would not breach any NDA. The procedure is indicated in your email showing the exam results:

Please contact us within 30 days if you have any questions, concerns or
suggestions about your exam or certification at

https://www.redhat.com/rhtapps/certification/comments/ 

This URL is the only authorized channel for communications concerning
exam content.  Communications through other channels or by other means
may constitute a breach of the exam confidentiality agreement.  Queries or
concerns that require investigation of your exam environment must be lodged
within 30 days of taking your exam.

Please express your concerns again, I know we don't always get a decent answer, the various teams do listen. 

Other have faced exam questions ambiguous, in the past. It is a sensitive and very important topic for everyone. Especially that the proctor is not allowed to help or explain during the exam. Candidates are left alone facing that. Let's be honest there is sometimes room for improvement. All I can do is to forward your feedback again internally. You will not get a technical explanation (that would be helping you and against integrity), yet you might get any answer faster.

We can propose to the team making the exams, for example, sometimes to have the same question rephrased and present twice, to ensure it's more clear for every exam takers? That's just a quick idea, maybe there are other options. One thing for sure is that more people should voice their concerns to be heard and listened.

Finally, when I failed EX407 twice (second time was unfair, I wasted a lot of time discussing with the proctor following a technical issue all for nothing), all I could do is retrain and use various resources to train and do the exercices differently. By chance, I found a recommended method of doing something, which appears to have given me more point in the grading (my initial method worked and was tested during the exam, yet failed me some points).

Ok let me forward your feedback now,

[BogdanB]

THks again for taking the time. I'll raise a request tomorrow, It is pretty late here, It is in those 30 days.

[sharons]

I failed Ex407.

You mentioned: By chance, I found a recommended method of doing something, which appears to have given me more point in the grading (my initial method worked and was tested during the exam, yet failed me some points).

Could you please share what is that recommended method? thanks!

[MSoz]

Many of us are aware that it's not hard to fail a Red Hat exam, but actually I have already read on this forum that many experienced people had criticized EX425 score evaluation, including RHCAs.

If you are already an RHCA, after these 7 succesful exams (and maybe some other failed ;) ), I guess you know how things work, right?

This is the reason why I canceled my EX425 on v3.11 and decided to wait for EX425v4x, hoping that it is going to be thoroughly revised and (silently) "fixed".

@BogdanBraise an exam ticket (if you did not yet), maybe in a few months RH will come back to you. There's always hope. :)

[BogdanB]

I've raised a request and specified how I solved each topic. Support team confirmed they are looking into it.

I'm hoping that the exam will improve in future releases, I'm moving on to others because with autumn comming perhaps COVID will spread his wings and exam centers will close again.

[vedantkarmalkar]

I've got the same problem with my EX280. This was my second time giving the exam. I'm sure I did everything alright and checked a heck lot of times. But still I ended up getting the same score which I got in my first attempt. I've also raised the request using that link in the mail.

[Felipetux]

And did they answer you? I just took the exam and I had 0% in one of the items, which is impossible because I tried and tested the tasks. Score 206 points.

I also raised a ticket but they replied "Unfortunately, I have found that the results reported to you are accurate."

I answered them detailing what the task asked for, what I did and the result. So I am waiting for the answer. I even asked them for a human review of the environment ...

Hopefully someone from Training here could help with the matter!