ExpertRating online certifications

[TomCeri]

While browsing the internet I came upon the site http://www.expertrating.com As said in another thread of mine, I am looking for items to boost my college app and I wonder if anyone here has any experience or knows whether this would be something I could use. I am interested in the C++ and C exams, of which I hope to have enough knowledge to pass. Does anyone have any experience or recommendations about this site? Thank you.

I've also now seen the site, http://www.brainbench.com which also offers various certifications.

Can anyone provide an opinion at all for how these will be looked at, especially by college admissions?

[TomCeri]

Not even one comment? If you think it's a bad idea say it, I'll save myself $10

[KevinHall]

Often the tests cover obscure things like "how do you swap the values of two integers without using a temporary?" or expects you to know names for common idioms: "What is the rule of 3?", "what is RAII", "what is PIMPL?"

Also, there may be good test takers who stink at developing and vice versa.

For these reasons, the tests are really poor indicators as to whether someone will be a good developer or not. If you already have a resume, I'd shy away from the tests.

Now, if you are thinking about using the tests as something to boost your resume for your first job, there may be value in it. I did that, and after I was hired, my manager explained to me the value: "You taking the test showed that you would take the extra initiative to accomplish a task". There was no value in it for measuring my development abilities, just that it gave me a slight boost for initiative for my first job.

I personally don't think tests would help me in trying to find the next job. People will look more critically at what work I have already done.

[dacapo]

ExpertRating are unserious fakers! I took several exams there to boost my RentACoder Profile! (I took the exams with (RentACoder) in brackets). After passing the exam they told me that it will take 2 days until my RentACoder account will be updated with the exam data! Now it´s a week over and nothing happend, also no response to my emails!

NEVER SPENT ANY MONEY TO EXPERTRATING!!!!

[ExpertRating Support]

Hi Everyone,

ExpertRating has been offering online skills testing and certification for over 5 years. We have been posting test scores on rentacoder.com for over 4 years. The delay in posting dacapo's test score may have been due to the non availablity of his RAC record with us, which rarely occurs. In such an eventuality is could take up to a week to post the result.

Harry Sanders
expertrating.com