My 10-year-old daughter came to me a few weeks ago with something weighing on her mind. She had helped a friend cheat on math homework. She wanted to help her friend do well, but she knew it wasn't right. We talked about how each new concept builds on the last and how she wasn't really helping her friend in the long run because the teacher would not know she needed more help before moving on. I was proud of her honesty.
How often do we as adults, cheat the system a little? We justify our actions because of money or job security or requirements. Sometimes we may not even be aware we're cheating because the culture of cheating may be so intrinsic.
Oracle has implemented a number of strategies to curb cheating and protect the value of certification. However, cheating is a big business and it is difficult to police all outlets. While we continue to explore new security measures, there are things that you can do, as a legitimate certification holder to help protect the value of your oracle certification from cheaters.
- Strongly discourage the sharing of content among candidates. Don't post test content in forums, upload items to dumps or help others using the real content.
- Don't point people to braindumps or even encourage them. Don't support illegal content thieves, distributors, and seekers. Let them fend for themselves. Avoid any actions that enable a short-cutter to circumvent the real process of actually getting certified.
- Become an evangelist - tell both your success and horror stories. Share with people how following the correct process has paid off in your career and in your life. Share examples of where you were seen or heard of people who have been burned by cutting corners and cheating.
- Report specific instances of cheating and fraud to Oracle. Using Oracle's fraud reporting email address, you can report instances of fraud and cheating to the Oracle Certification Program. Don't worry - your submission is anonymous. We investigate these reports vigorously and take action wherever legally possible.
Oracle Certification exams are hard. They cover vast amounts of information and require months of preparation and sometimes years of experience and often come with a high price tag, especially if training is required. Some candidates feel that using brain dumps is common and necessary. Others feel that they have no option other than cheating because the cost of the certification exam compared to their salary makes it virtually impossible to take the exam more than once. Failing is not an option.
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Cheating Hurts The Cheater. One of the biggest benefits of earning a certification is the skills, knowledge, and concepts gained during exam preparation.
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Cheating Hurts Present and Future Employers. Employers have certain expectations of candidates who hold certification. Current employers make an investment in the skills and knowledge gained through getting certified. Future employers spend a significant amount of time and money filling specific needs. If you have not properly prepared for your exams and do not have the skills and knowledge required to earn a certification without cheating, you've not only cheated yourself, you've cheated your employer when you're not able to perform the required job tasks. Ther could affect your company's credibility with their customers and certainly, costs your company money.
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Cheating Hurts Legitimate Certification Holders. When cheaters obtain certification without having the expected skill set required to pass the exam, it dilutes the value of certification for candidates who earned certification legitimately. If an employer has been 'burned' by a candidate who cheated to earn certification but did not have the required skills to perform the job, he will give less value to their certification held by other candidates.
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Cheating Hurts the Oracle Certification Program. As mentioned above, candidates who cheat instead of properly preparing for an exam dilute the certification value for everyone who holds the certification, thereby diluting the value of the certification program as a whole. You devalue your own credential when you cheat to obtain it.
The Lone Beneficiary of Cheating is Not You. Cheating artificially inflates your abilities, creating an image that you cannot live up to. It costs employers valuable time and money as well as credibility in the eyes of their customers. It devalues certification for you and everyone else who holds the certification. So, who really does benefit from cheating? The companies who sell the exam questions and braindumps are the only ones who benefit from cheating. They don't care if your certification holds no value. They don't care if you're able to perform in your job. They often don't even care if the materials they provide are correct.Braindumps are notoriously low quality and wrong.
My 10-year-old and her friend learned a valuable lesson about cheating. Cheaters never win. My daughter told her teacher what happened and came clean with her friend. She got the emotional rush of winning from doing the right thing. her friend got extra help to learn the math concepts he missed. And they're still friends. Everybody won.
So, now onwards you will be extra careful on the matter of protecting certification!!