CTD Exam Experience

[ChrisLudwig]

I took the CTD two weeks ago through PSI.  The PSI experience is passable, but annoying.  The first available test times are a couple weeks out, and then those slots are all outside normal working hours.  Think exam slots starting at 0-dark-thirty, or after everyone else has gone to bed.  They really want you to have nothing in eyesight when you take the test.  No post-it notes, no paper, no extra keyboard, no photos of the wife, no food or water.  

The exam I took was I think quite reasonable.  The exam tested similar skills as the practice exam.  Time pressure was about equal to the practice exam, and that was not bad at all.  I've been actively using teststand in my day to day job for 2 years, and I think the CTD exam is quite good from a practical perspective.  It wasn't harder than what I'd expect a developer to be able to do in the time allowed.  It also didn't instill negative skills like the CLD did when I took it 2 years ago.  That exam soured me on the whole NI certification thing.  Maybe I'll try the CLA after all based on the CTD applicability.

Now if my CTD exam comes back with a failing grade, then I'd probably not retake it.

For anyone looking to prepare for the CTD, study the prep materials and then repeat the practice exam until you can complete that in under 2.5 hours, then schedule the exam. 

Expect no confirmation after completing the exam, and expect to wait a while for results.

-Chris.

[SSMiller]

Thank you for posting your experience. I found this informative.

[Ajay_MV]

No water..!?  Really?  Insane.

[Fisel]

Clear liquid in a clear container is allowed. The post is old, and PSI has made changes to ensure better alignment with NI exam guidelines. Specifically, now the proctor flags occurrences and the automated system compares with NI's list of requirements to determine whether that observed behavior is allowed. Previously the proctor had to make that call and, depending on their familiarity with NI exam guidelines, they may have been overzealous.

[Ajay_MV]

I have just given CTD test over PSI abotu 30min ago and I would say it's below average experience with a lot of technical difficulties.  I'm listing here for anybody looking for experience (only at the PSI level & not at the real question paper level 😀)

• I started 30 minutes before the exam time but PSI scanning of rooms, tables, hands and ears etc took easily 10-15min.  I had an external monitor connected where PSI stuck at a page and never proceeded, so I removed it and relaunched PSI, then it worked.
• Scanning of ID card was quite challenging, as the live video was showing legible text, but on capturing image, it turned blurry.  I had to do it twice/thrice to proctor.
• After going through all checks, the proctor let me in and I was landed in a surprising login page, I suppose it's Virtual Machine username password.  There was an option to login with Google,  I clicked, then I was landed in a infinite waiting page.  Proctor asked to rise up both hands for help, I waited about 10min raising hands, doing all stuffs no response.  After I said "Hellow aloud', I got response from proctor.  Yet, I had to close everything and then restart from fresh to get away from infinite waiting page, then all checks again (PSI launch always asks you to go through all scanning everytime you launch the test)  All this took about 30mins of my exam time 4hrs..
• Luckily the second time, there was no login credentials query and I directly logged in to VM and I started working away with the question paper.
• Then remote VM dropped all of suddent showing some network error occurred (I immediately checked the internet on my local machine and it was quite good).  It happened twice like this (below).
• I started over the PSI launch process from begining again until I did all video recording and checked in, again 10-15min.
• This time I'm sent stright to VM after checks without any questions from proctor, he stated that I was disconnected due network issue so logged me in directly.  All of this conversations happened over a chat window after PSI launched & scanning done
• After about half way through my question paper, it was again network error and drop, same thing repeated for another 10-15 min.
• By the end, I got confirmation from proctor that I can take enough time as time will be recorded only when I'm in VM.
• Luckily no network drop again for 2-3hrs.  I could do exam without any interruption.
• By end of the exam proctor is unclear about the exam submissions, and asked me to wait until I got the results (thinking it's immediate result exam), then I explained it's a submission and will be evaluated later.  He asked me to go through all the questions and ensure everything is done accordingly.

Overall, the proctor is quite slow in response (wait for response atleast 1 minute), yet he is helpful , however PSI system as such has quite few challenges to do exam. 

Fingers crossed for the CTD results 🙂

[JÞB]

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@Fisel wrote:

Clear liquid in a clear container is allowed. The post is old, and PSI has made changes to ensure better alignment with NI exam guidelines. Specifically, now the proctor flags occurrences and the automated system compares with NI's list of requirements to determine whether that observed behavior is allowed. Previously the proctor had to make that call and, depending on their familiarity with NI exam guidelines, they may have been overzealous.

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Yeah! Vodka!