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Muralidharan wrote:
If I write the CLAD exam, when the result will be announced?

You'll get a letter (and certificate hopefully) in the mail.  It takes a couple weeks at least.

 

Here is a link to one of the better CLAD bashing threads:  http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&thread.id=472843&view=by_date_ascending&page=2

 

Roy (NI) chimes in on page two with some good points concerning NIs reasoning for their testing decisions.

LabVIEW Pro Dev & Measurement Studio Pro (VS Pro) 2019 - Unfortunately now moving back to C#, .NET, Python due to forced change to subscription model by NI. 8^{
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Muralidharan wrote:
If I write the CLAD exam, when the result will be announced?

Reposted here.

 

Please stop creating multiple threads on CLAD questions.

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NIquist wrote:

 

Here is a link to one of the better CLAD bashing threads:  http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&thread.id=472843&view=by_date_ascending&page=2

 

Roy (NI) chimes in on page two with some good points concerning NIs reasoning for their testing decisions.


Regardless of the good points Roy made, some of the questions simply do not belong.  What has lowest detecteble change in DAQ have to do with Labview.  NOTHING!  The feedback node question mentioned in the above thread; it only applies to FPGA !!!!!  Why is it in a Labview test.  How many people taking the exam use FPGA? 

 

Some questions were based on terminology defined by NI, and are not generally known terms.  An example of this is a question whereby a block diagram was given, and the questions was "This vi is an example of what kind of testing?" with the choices being Performance Testing, Error Testing, Endurance Testing, Functional Testing.  Come on... what has this got to do with Labivew certification.  NOTHING!  Who uses these terms?  Why is knowledge of this terminology vital to Labview certification?

 

You throw enough of these irrelevent and ambiguous questions in a test and it rapidly becomes unfair.  NI needs to revisit their questions again.  Throw out the DAQ and FPGA questions entirely.  Forget about NI terminology.  Ask questions on Labview programming only.

 

The reason I'm sounding off is that I consider myself a Labview expert.  I've been using it for 10 years.  I use a lot of advanced features.  But I failed the CLD re-cert exam.  Too many questions like I mentioned that I had no knowledge of.  At the time, I was using LV 8.2.  There were more than 10% of the questions that were related to the newest version of LV.  They all added up to cause me to fail by 1 or 2 questions.  Not knowing the latest version, or FPGA, or DAQ hardware quantum levels, or NI terminology does not make me less of a Labview expert.  I passed the CLD, a real test of Labview knowledge.  I can take the CLD again and pass it with ease.  So why did I fail the CLD re-cert.  It was becaue of unfair questions.  Until NI fixes this, and spreads the time for re-cert from 2 years to at least 5 years, I'm done with any NI certification.

 

OK my rant is over.

 

 

Message Edited by tbob on 05-13-2010 11:57 AM
- tbob

Inventor of the WORM Global
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Message 13 of 31
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Muralidharan wrote:
If I write the CLAD exam, when the result will be announced?

 

Actually, if you take it on a computer like i did, it told my my score right after I hit submit. You will know if you passed before you leave. That may not be true everywhere though.
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tbob, I agree with you.  I don't know that I consider myself an "expert", but I'm a pretty good LabVIEW programmer  (started with 4.0) and there are a lot of obscure questions on the CLDR that aren't very relevant to everyday LabVIEW use.  The feedback node questions...some fairly esoteric event structure questions...etc.

 

I think the first CLD exam is a good test.  The test-taker must prove that they know how to program in LabVIEW using "best practices".  The exam grading team also provides feedback on the test-taker's solution and programming style.  The CLDR could use some improvement as far as the relevancy of the questions.  Also, the test taker is not allowed to see his/her own CLDR exam results, a policy with which I disagree -- no performance feedback at all is provided by NI, which I think hinders the ability to learn.  You get "pass" or "fail", and that's it.  So if you fail, you have no way of knowing which questions you missed, and therefore no way of knowing the areas in which you apparently need to improve.

 

I actually had a good discussion with NI about this...they were willing to listen to what I had to say and explained their own point of view.  We agreed to disagree.

 

d

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Diane, it is good to know that I'm not alone.  I guess there is no arguing with NI.  They think they know best, but from the many negative responses we see here, and from the negative responses I get from my peers, NI is just plain WRONG! 

 

I wish they would truly listen and act on what we are saying.  They say they listen, but they don't hear a thing. 

 

After many complaints about irrelevent questions, namely the one about DAQ minimum detectable signal and range, that question is still there.  This question can be answered correctly by someone with A to D knowledge, yet he may have no knowedge of Labview at all.  No Labview knowledge is required to answer this question.  Why is this question still there?  NI does not hear anything we are saying. 

 

If people would stop taking their exams, maybe the lack of money rolling in would cause their ears and minds to open up.

 

- tbob

Inventor of the WORM Global
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tbob,

 

I am with you on this one.  I have not taken any of the exams, although I feel that I can claim considerable expertise with LV. Why? Because so many of the questions are NOT core LabVIEW.  Since 99+% of my LV experience is on the Macintosh, any questions about DAQmx or timed loops or shared variables or any other Windows-specific "features" are things about which I know only from reading about them on the Forum.  Plus, taking a computer based exam on a computer running Windows would put me at a substantial disadvantage.

 

I am a pretty good test-taker so I might be able to bluff my way through a written test with many of the questions which have been noted as irrelevant or poorly worded, but I would be at a severe handicap with an unfamiliar OS and a version of LV with many platform dependent features I have never seen before.

 

############ 

 

Please, NI, make the test realistic and appropriate for all LV users.

 

############ 

 

Lynn

 

Using LV on the Mac since version 1.2 

Message 17 of 31
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"OK Brain-drain time"

 

From what I understand of the Certification exams, they were NI response to customers request to make it easier for them to determine which candidates for a LV developer job are qualified.

 

Now I speculate:

 

Rather than re-invent the wheel when writting the test adn asking "what can we ask that will determine if this person knows LV?" it appears they decided to fall back on what had already been done by NI Training when the various LV course where developed.

 

So some technical writter went through the LV course material and started cutting and pasting phrases to turn them into test questions.

 

So these bad test Q are probably due to someone that does not write LV trying to write the Qs.

 

Now I digress...

 

Speaking as a someone with a certified learning disability the whole idea of the "Cut-n-paste" then edit to inset typos or errors is a very good test of DYSLEXIA but not LV!

 

Back to the point!

 

So I think the test we see are the results of the process used to develop them.

 

SO the question to YOU is:

 

What process can we suggest to NI as an alternative ?

 

Supporting Q:

 

What is that makes YOU a LabVIEW expert ?

 

How could a HR type distinguish between a G-Wiz and a G-Kid ?

 

If we come u-p with a practical solution, I commit to carrying the water and get it to the people that make the decision.

 

If you don't have a solution to my Q's above don't le that stop you from responding. Fell free to compound the situation if you want. That is all part of the "Brain-drain" process.

 

Ben

 

Yes I know brain-drain is a term applied to the more educated people departing a region. Smiley Wink

Retired Senior Automation Systems Architect with Data Science Automation LabVIEW Champion Knight of NI and Prepper LinkedIn Profile YouTube Channel
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Ben,

 

Excellent suggestions!

 

Both as to the possible origin of the exams and more importantly, to a potential solution.

 

I do not have any good ideas at the moment about better ways of evaluating someone's LV skill, but I will give it some thought.

 

Lynn 

 

 

Message 19 of 31
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I was hoping that my rant wasn't falling on deaf ears, and it seems as if it has not.  Thanx to you guys for your shared concerns.  I love Labview and I'm proud of my CLD certification.  i was devastated to fail the re-cert, especially to a bad test.  NI should have a consortium of LV users (both NI employees and non-NI people) to create a test.

 

But the problems are not limited to irrelevent questions:

 

- No feedback on missed multiple choice exams.  This is just plain unacceptable. 

- Re-cert every two years, NI is just looking for more money.  I have an FCC license, and its good for life.  I would accept a re-cert every 5 years at a minimum. 

- 10% of the questions on the very latest LV version's new features.  That is 4 out of 40 questions, a very significant amount.  Most people cannot afford to buy the latest version every year.  There should not be any questions from the latest version.  Questions should be concerning LV versions that are at least 2 years old.  Yes we should try to keep up with the latest, but the cost makes it impractical.  I think two years is very practical.

- Trick questions.  A deliberate attempt to confuse people.  This is never a good idea.  Yeah it makes you think.  But during an exam with limited time to think, this is not a good idea.  The idea is to test people on their Labview skills, not to test people on how well they perform under pressure.

 

NI, please listen.  We are the experts.

 

Mr Lynn:  (remember when I thought you were Ms Lynn? Smiley Very Happy ).  I have an iMac at home.  It has LV 7.1 on it.  Wish I could afford to upgrade.  I agree with you about Windows based exams.  NI needs to be more conscious of its customer base.  I'm forced to use Windows at work, but I hate it as much as any other Mac lover.  Mac rules, but their marketing sux.

 

 

- tbob

Inventor of the WORM Global
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