The IT Skeptic - Comments for "EXIN exam delays"

Some teething

Duncs — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:58:37 +0000

Seems to be a bit more than just teething. I'm still seeing the same delays that we've had since April time.

When the v3 Qualification scheme was announced as "spreading study over a longer period", I didn't realise this was how it was to be done.

To my knowledge the EXIN

pjotrg — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:40:07 +0000

To my knowledge the EXIN Service Manager Exams have never been "open book".

And indeed, Bloom taxonomy is a very usefull tool to shift out the different levels of knowing, understanding and applying, but we should not forget that we're talking about competences, being the combination of knowlegde, capability and attitude. The assumption that all this (e.g. at Blooms level 4 ot 5) can be assessed by only asking Multiple Choice Questions (even the more complex ones) is, in my opinion, absolutely wrong.
It will in my eyes totally devalue the Service Manager (or ITIL Experts) level. Of course it might (even if The Lords Of APMG will deny it) be just a financial issue (which I think is too bad)

But also ....a real assessement of a real high level of achieved competences in Service Management would require real experienced high level assessors. They might be difficult to find....

Open Book

JamesFinister — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:17:37 +0000

Someone might have the statistics to hand but I think the pass rate on the open book Exin managers exam used to be lower than for the closed book ISEB exam, which is probably what you would expect since an open book exam removes some of the advantage gained by delegates who have good memories but poor understanding. I still feel that for all the talk of Blooms Taxonomy there is little understanding of how it could be used to increase the benefit of the the training courses and exams.

Not EXIN but APMG

pjotrg — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:07:32 +0000

At the risk of ending up in a totaly different discussion.....

Aale, may I kindly remind you that it's not EXIN that has set up the current certification structure but it was the Lords Of APMG, who, at that moment were 'somewhat new" in the world of ITIL.

The way I know some people from EXIN I am convinced that they would have set up a completely different certification structure for ITIL V3 which would, no doubt, be quit close to what you suggest.

Testing understading or remembering

aroos — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:32:33 +0000

Jan.
Do they really test understanding or remembering. The closed book, multiple choice exam type tends to be more about remembering than understanding. It is ok when you need to teach a lot of new concepts and terms at the Foundation level but at higher levels it is quite difficult to test understanding without requiring students to remember exactly what the book says.

There should be a real ITSM Expert exam program, with open books or so that the students would get the relevant texts and they should show that they both understand the application of the model and the (possible) problems with the different models.

Aale

PS
The need for Separation of Responsibilities is very good point.

separation of duties

jvbon — Thu, 21 May 2009 23:59:21 +0000

We've all walked that road with our own IT projects. Nothing new there.
One comment: EXIN is not teaching ITIL stuff, they're just testing people for the understanding of it. That fundamentally doesn't mean that EXIN would need to support what's in ITIL! Otherwise they'd be in one hell of a conflict when delivering exams for two contradictory frameworks (like ASL and ITIL). I think EXIN does a good job by not delivering the training on the stuff they're testing. It's that basic rule of Separation of Responsibilities (or Duties). We might only wish that all players would follow such an elementary rule for good management.