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Comment by 1vuio0pswjnm7 | Hacker News Reader

Where do the dumps come from. Are test takers contributing to dumps from memory after they finish the exam. People were doing that with the patent bar, which also reuses some questions. Now test takers have to agree to confidentiality requirements.

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Good question. These certification exams all include a non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement. In any case, I don't think this could be the result of test-takers recalling questions from memory. We're talking about seeing 100-150 questions, and spending only a minute or so with each one, and many questions involve reading a short paragraph. The "dumps" have the questions and answers verbatim. I think it must be the work of unscrupulous employees at the certification vendors or some of the testing centers.

Are test takers contributing to dumps from memory after they finish the exam?

I'm guessing no, because what could be the incentive to doing that unless there's money involved? Why would someone who passed the test and gained the cert want to dilute the value of the cert they just earned by making it easier for people further down the pyramid to pass the test?

there is absolutely money involved. The amount of people that has to get these certs is absolutely massive. There is a lot of money to be made in selling dumps

As far as I can tell these dumps come from the cert org itself- I needed a CompTIA cert and all of their official materials come with access to a bunch of practice tests.

There's a big difference between the legitimate practice tests that come with an exam guide and a "test dump." Practice tests are examples to give people a feel for the style and scope of the test, and which areas they might need to learn more about. A "test dump" lets people memorize pairs of actual (not example) questions and answers, so they can pass with no knowledge of the underlying concepts or how to apply them.

An important distinction for sure. For exams in general, IMO, practice tests/old exams from previous years allow one to simulate test conditions and improve one's ability to perform under those conditions.^1 This can be especially useful for short answer/essay type questions. It is not uncommon to see question re-use or at least similarity of questions from year to year, but a useful part of the exam preparation process, for me at least, is deriving the answers for onself.

1. Those might even include answers written by previous test-takers. Memorisation of such answers would be futile because the questions change from year to year.

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