We often get the question: your tests happen on-line, how do you prevent cheating ?
Our answer is: it is hard enough to cheat on JavaBlackBelt, while it is certainly possible, as on any known exam system. For example, if I spend
2 days and $500 on it, I can get my grandmother a SCJP certificate.
Free usage of references
For all the exams, you are free to consult notes, books and web sites.You can use your Java IDE to test things.
This is closer to the real-world project situation where you can access your documentation. This also tests your ability to retrieve the information.
Most questions are designed to take much time if you don't know the answer, even if you have access to documents. Exams are time-limited for this purpose.
This system forgives memory blanks, not misunderstanding.
Because we allow their free usage, looking up references is not cheating.
Access to questions
Amount of hidden questions
For a test, there are more questions in the database than questions asked during a questionnaire, and the database grows every day.During a real exam (not beta test), the system selects released questions only (see moderation process page, for an explanation of the beta, released and frozen states).
The system will not show you released questions outside the context of a real exam (unless you are the author or a moderator). You can take the beta version of a test, which includes the new questions in beta states.
Next time you take the exam (released version), you should not get exactly the same questions since they are chosen at random. Note that when you take a beta test, the system tries to select beta questions that you didn't get in your previous attempts.
Delay
When you fail a test, the system enforces a waiting period of (typically) 15 days before you can retake the exam.Enough time to "forget" about most questions from the last exam, and to avoid compiling the whole question set quickly with several tries. When you were very close to succeeding (but you failed), the system might reduce the delay for you.
Contribution points
A way to circumvent the delay feature and cheat would be to create five fake user accounts and take the exam from each account, then display the result page with the good answers. You'd keep these pages to search question/answers while taking the exam from your real account.That's one of the reasons why we introduced contribution points, most exams requiring a small amount of points. To cheat, you'd have to accumulate contribution points for your five fake users, which is a lot of work...
Impersonating Users
Another way to cheat is to ask somebody else to take take the exam for you.Amount of tests
It may be feasible to convince a co-worker to take the exam with your profile.There are many tests on JavaBlackBelt. To get a black belt, you have to pass around 20 tests, which takes much time. We think it's reasonably difficult enough to convince somebody to spend days cheating for you.
Context & verification
As the tests happen on the Internet, there is no visual verification as in a test centre with Prometric and Vue systems.In the corporate edition of JavaBlackBelt, people may take an exam under the supervision of their employer. Upon employer's request, we'll bind that exam to the name of the employer (the trusteeship level of the exam would depend on the image of the employer).