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CLD-R concerns

I am past due to take my recertification for CLD.  After taking one practice exam,  I believe it would be easier for me to take the 4 hour CLD exam then to take the one hour CLD-R exam.  The CLD-R is like a CLAD on steroids. After reviewing the questions I missed, it appears that I will need to really study LabVIEW Help documentation. 

 

Does anyone else feel the same that the CLD-R is made overly difficult? Are there any of you who passed the CLD with ease but failed the CLD-R or came close to failing?

 

 

Brian
Message 1 of 76
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I won't say that I passed the CLD "with ease" but I got a respectable score. My latest renewal, not so much, passed but it would have been a C or C-. There has been discussion about the exam's questions being ambiguous, and in some cases silly, particularly as the questions are sometimes of obscure aspects, which in truth, if you didn't know you could determine almost instantly while actually programming. Knowing whether a wire run through a FOR loop edge defaults to auto-indexing or not isn't particularly important to me (and therefore probably not stored at the top of the stack) since wiring through a FOR loop edge tells me instantly one way or the other.

I'm particularly "unfond" of the renewals as I; 1) bill by the hour, 2) have to travel at least a 100 miles on toll highways to the nearest exam center, so recerting is pretty expensive, above and beyond the cost of the exam. As it is a requirement that Alliance companies have at least one certified developer on staff, and I'm it, I have no choice. After 18 years of developing code in LabVIEW it does make me a bit cranky!

Putnam
Certified LabVIEW Developer

Senior Test Engineer North Shore Technology, Inc.
Currently using LV 2012-LabVIEW 2018, RT8.5


LabVIEW Champion



Message 2 of 76
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I don't think it was overly difficult, but I'll admit that it was much harder than I expected as I took it without seeing any CLD-R review practice exams.  I don't use much of the stuff I saw on my exam (TCP-IP, for example) but I lurk about here and on LAVA so I had seen discussions on most of the topics.

Jim
You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are. ~ Alice
For he does not know what will happen; So who can tell him when it will occur? Eccl. 8:7

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Message 3 of 76
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@LV_Pro wrote:

Knowing whether a wire run through a FOR loop edge defaults to auto-indexing or not isn't particularly important to me (and therefore probably not stored at the top of the stack) since wiring through a FOR loop edge tells me instantly one way or the other.


Exactly.  What a bad question.  That's why multiple choice is a bad choice for programming exams.  Unless it's code snippet and they ask you for the output in multiple choice format, it's just stuff you don't need to know off the top of your head.  This is what I've been saying about the CLAD since the day I took it.  And I'll probably say it about the CLDR at the end of the year.

 

--
Tim Elsey
Certified LabVIEW Architect
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Message 4 of 76
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As I mentioned, one of my biggest complaints is that the exam really doesn't demonstrate any ability to write a LabVIEW program, just remembering some frequently obscure "facts" which in most cases will be either obvious when done "for real" or can be determined from the "help".  Add to it that while my office is in one of my states "major" cities, with two colleges and a university, I have to drive a minimum of 100 miles to the nearest testing facility, on toll highways, as well as taking time off from "productive" (read "billable") time, costing me and my company hundreds of dollars, above the actual exam cost. The original CLD practical exam, it could be argued, shows a certain level of programming skill, but I really don't see what the CLD-R proves. If it proves that I am still CLD competent, then why the original practical exam, why not just stop at the CLAD exam? Not that I want to require a practical exam each time, but I know that most licensure setups have the tough exam up front, then a means to prove continuous activity/maintenance of competency.  And the two years until a recert fly by pretty quickly.

Putnam
Certified LabVIEW Developer

Senior Test Engineer North Shore Technology, Inc.
Currently using LV 2012-LabVIEW 2018, RT8.5


LabVIEW Champion



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Message 5 of 76
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HERE is a 4 page thread that I started on the CLD-R.  I personally think most of the questions are unfair and does not test a person's competency at programming in labview.  It tests a person's memory of trivial and obscure facts in which the answer can easily be obtained in a minute or less by using Labview itself.  Some questions are downright irrelevant, like the question about how Labview stores strings in memory.  I don't have to know what Labview does behind the scenes to be a very competent LV programmer.  I hit some very bad questions, and it took me 3 times to pass the CLD-R, with some help from some NI folks.  I find it much easier to take the 4 hour CLD exam.  At least it shows that I am a competent LV programmer.

- tbob

Inventor of the WORM Global
Message 6 of 76
(19,160 Views)

Hi Everyone,

 

Thank you for your comments. We do care very much about your input. If you have specific feedback, please email it to certification@ni.com, and we will address your questions. That said, the CLD-R is not supposed to be easy. If it were overly easy, you would have little value in being able to put "CLD" beside your name. Also, the tests are intended to be very straightforward. You can find everything you need to know to pass the test in the preparation guide. We have included a breakdown of the test so you know how many of each topic to expect.

 

LabVIEW is not a simple environment, and there are many areas in which a CLD needs to be proficient in order to have a certification. Though many questions could be solved by experimenting within LabVIEW or refering to Help, it is the role of the expert (CLD) to know by memory the behavior of many commonly used VIs, functions, and structures. The same should be expected that an electrical engineer with circuit design experience would have the colorband code for resistors memorized, or a mechanical engineer who is an expert in metallurgy would have the modulus of elasticity of a few common engineering materials memorized.

 

All in all, your success is extremely important to us, and we want you to succeed on the CLD-R (and higher!). Your success is good for everyone. If you do have particular questions, please do email certification@ni.com, and we will respond to you. We want to help, and we are constantly working to improve our products.

 

Best of luck to all!

Wes Pierce
Principal Engineer
Pierce Controls
Message 7 of 76
(19,142 Views)

I felt the same way after taking one practice exam.  I felt the 4 hour exam was relatively easy and almost wanted to wait for my CLD to fully expire before renewing but went for it anyways.  I reviewed the 2 practice exams they have available online and can't stress enough how helpful that is.  Interestingly enough I learned a few things along the way such as how LV keeps track of a strings size and how a feedback node can have a set delay and the direction reversed (neither of which I have a plan to use at this time but nonetheless I learned something new.) 

So, while the mission at hand may seem daunting, take it in stride and expect to learn a few new things and you'll be fine.  The practice exams are very helpful, I studied them till I knew them and then began to ask myself "what if" type questions regarding changing different inputs. 

Do this and you'll come out just fine and have an extra 3 hours to spend the couple hundred bucks you'd save.

-Dave

Message 8 of 76
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Has the question that keeps the false concept "Coercion dots = buffer copies" gone, yet?

 

Ben

Retired Senior Automation Systems Architect with Data Science Automation LabVIEW Champion Knight of NI and Prepper LinkedIn Profile YouTube Channel
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Message 9 of 76
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In a few weeks I will have to take the CLD-R again. This will be my second recertification, the two years between tests does go by very fast. I agree that the certification should last longer than 2 years.  When I took my first recertification test 2 years ago, I was amazed at how hard the test was. I passed, even got a good grade, but in all honesty I didn't feel as if I had passed. On to many questions I simply had to resort to educated guessing. And now, after taking one of the sample CLD-R exams, in preparation for the upcoming test, I feel the same way all over again. I understand the concept of making the CLD-R hard so that there is value in the Certied LabVIEW Developer designation. I guess the question though is are these tests hard and meaningful or hard and meaningless. I don't know the answer to that.

Jim Haas
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Message 10 of 76
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