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Why Does Oracle Charge For Beta Exams?

By Paul Sorensen on July 27, 2009 11:37 AM

Why Does Oracle Charge For Beta Exams?Why does the Oracle Certification Program charge for beta exams?

Doesn’t this delay the beta to live process significantly?

I recently received these very good questions and thought that it would be good to address it with a post here on the Oracle Certification Blog.

There are several important reasons that we charge for betas, with one of them being much more important than the other.

1. Delivery Costs
When someone takes a beta exam, we are charged a delivery fee. By charging for the betas we are able to cover the costs of delivery.

However - although it is important for us to cover the costs, this is not the main reason that we charge for betas.

2. Reliability of Beta Exam Results
The reason that we run betas on our exams is to gather test-related data from qualified candidates. We use beta exam results data to analyze the reliability performance of the exam questions, assemble the exams and set the scores (among other things).

Unfortunately, free betas encourage undesirable behavior in some people with exam results that greatly reduces our ability to perform our analysis. If we offered free betas exams we would see a dramatic increase in:

  • "No shows" at the testing center. We (Oracle) would we still have to pay the delivery fee.
  • Early terminations (stopping the test early)
  • Exposure of exam content. People will re-take the exam it over and over to find out what is on the test.
  • Poor results data. Free exams attract test-takers who are either significantly unprepared or unqualified.
  • False results data (from people deliberately take the exam under false pretenses in order to throw off the results).

Some of these may seem strange, but having worked in certification for a number of years, I've seen multiple real-world examples of these. The unfortunate end-result is usually an increased length in the beta period (delaying scores even more), an increase in the effort/cost to analyze results, and a decrease in the quality of the ultimate production exam.

For this reason, we plan to continue to charge a minimal fee for our beta exams.

I am very interested in any ideas that you might have in how to encourage continued participation in Oracle’s beta exams, as the better the attendance – the shorter the beta period and hence – the faster exam scores are released.

Paul Sorensen

Paul Sorensen,
Director, Oracle Certification

 

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Comments (6)

Brian Tkatch:

I'm not sure i asked this yet.

Is there a way to get a comments feed RSS for all you posts? I have the post feed RSS.

Posted by Brian Tkatch | July 27, 2009 9:13 AM

Harold Green:

Oh that's weird. We did and I never noticed it's disappearance. Thanks Brian, sleuthing now.
Cheers,
—Harold

Posted by Harold Green | July 27, 2009 9:22 AM

Harold Green:

I no longer see the option for it in our control panel (maybe I dreamt it was there?) If I find it, I'll turn the option on.
Cheers,
—Harold

Posted by Harold Green | July 27, 2009 9:34 AM

MCSE Training:

Smart reasoning!! Well many candidates would hav ethis query in mind.

Posted by MCSE Training | July 28, 2009 1:22 AM

bigdelboy:

well I took a beta exam recently ... the price discount was an incentive and I thought it was priced right.


  • I think I'd agree about charging a nominal fee for the reasons given by Paul

  • I possibly see two other incentives that could be offered which might increase candidates without lowering candidate quality (too much)


        • A discount voucher (maybe 50%) against a re-take for those who marginally fail the exam. This might increase the number of takers for 1z1-144 where I expect a lot of people are looking and then plumping for 1z0-147 instead

        A discount voucher against any oracle exam for 12 months for those who have passed or marginally failed and have scheduled or taken an exam and then found the beta period to be extended. A simpler method might be to offer this to those who have taken the exam prior to 2 months prior to actual beta period end date as a thankyou

        • its difficult to know how to market this ... but it might help some people choose 1z1-144 ove the (imho awful) 1z0-147





  • I think there should be a commitment to release results to beta candidates prior to release of production exam.

  • People are encouraged to comment on beta questions, I did so on a few ... then found time slipping away. That combined with a loo break ... especially after hydrating myself on a hot day ... + 1minute readjusting a chair and 1 minute tilting a crt old screen. really not impressed ... especially as I was told keep by dog with me but off!


    • So when a team sees last N-1 questions marked at A or B or something at 10s intervals and the last question where then candidate has marked the last question (correctly), say back, said Phew! and then not got it it recorded by pressing the NEXT button before exam end such results can be interpreted meaningfully ... :-) (meaningful not necessarily for the candidate but for the exam result as a whole)



Posted by bigdelboy | July 31, 2009 11:35 PM

Harold Green:

Thank bigdelboy – I'm sharing this with the team now!
Cheers,
—Harold

Posted by Harold Green | August 3, 2009 11:02 AM

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