What was your experience with JSNSD?

donaldsebleung

So I recently took the JSNSD exam on 07/11/2020 and the questions seemed straightforward, nothing out of the ordinary. I performed the tasks as I was taught in the LFW212 course and did some basic testing for each question with the terminal as was demonstrated a few times in the LFW212 course. I felt absolutely confident in implementing each task and was ready to submit my exam under one and a half hours; there was no point using the remaining half hour or so (or at least it seemed to me) since I already double-checked my work when implementing each task. It felt like getting 100% (or at least 80-90%) would not be an issue at all, let alone failing the exam.

And yet, two days later, I was greeted with a 51% "No Pass" score, which shook me to the core and left me baffled since I had no idea what I had done wrong to lose 49% of those marks. Interestingly, such a huge misprediction of my own performance never occurred to me in the LFCS and LFCE exams; I knew I would barely pass LFCS (which I fortunately did at 73%) and that I would be lucky to get 30% in my LFCE one (which happened to be my exact score).

So what was your experience with the JSNSD exam (if you have taken it)? Did you feel well-prepared for it? Did it go well? Did your actual performance match your expectations?

clinton

My experience was the same. I felt well-prepared and—having last month completed the JSNAD—hit the two-hour mark with the sense that I would be close to passing, despite running out of time before finishing the last task¹.

I felt the tasks were straightforward—even basic. And, like you, I double-checked my answers as I went.

So I was surprised this morning when I received my score: 44%. Which isn't even within passing distance for the retake—no feedback is given; so I have no idea what I would need to do differently to pass the retake. There is something wrong with how this exam is graded.

I opened a support ticket this afternoon asking for an explanation. I'll post an update if I hear back.

[1]. I'm confident I could have finished with time to spare if I had used a framework. Instead, I used http and other modules directly. Having taken the JSNAD, I knew it would be tight. But I didn't expect to make it only 15% or so of the way through the last task.

luxfero

same with JSNAD...I think there is a problem with the automatic test validator

donaldsebleung

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one having this issue. I just did the retake 2 days ago and apparently only got 15% this time, so definitely requesting for a manual rescoring.

@clinton If you haven't done so already, you may wish to open a support ticket for manual re-scoring within 24 hours of receiving your score report. It will cost USD$75 but a full refund will be given if the rescoring changes a no-pass to a pass.

@luxfero I did also get a lower score than I expected for JSNAD but got a passing grade back then so I just assumed that I made some careless mistakes. Now I'm not so sure, but I passed that anyway so whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

canelacho

To be honest, I take the first test and I felt uncomfortable with the lag of the VM, the little screen on mi 13" mac in a MV was uncomfortable too. The firs time I did not finish all the exercises, I made a 50% of the evaluation and I knew it that I was out of range. Then I retaken 5 days later, an again the time was against me, maybe I am slower than others coding but I take my time checking, coding and testing. I left the last exercise in blank because the 2 hours for me wasn't enough. In conclusion for me the time was short to complete the exam. With 30 min more I estimate that it could have finished.

canelacho

When I was ready to start the exam from the linux main page, minutes before to start the exam, the loader animation was in a infinite loop and of course, it never loaded my info to start the exam.

The first time I panicked. I closed all the chrome, finished the chrome task and start again,I opened the chrome and there was the same behavior. Then I logged out of the linux foundation and I did login again and that fix the problem. Did this happen to someone else?

Take this advise if you are preparing to take the exam.

clinton

@donaldsebleung I didn't know about the $75 manual rescore. Good to know. However, I still have a retry available. So I'll do that first.

But $75 for a manual rescore (after the $300 exam fee) is almost insulting. If the possible discrepancy between automated and manual scoring is great enough to warrant an option to request a manual rescore, then it's worth questioning whether the scoring of these exams should be automated at all. And, if manually scoring each exam is too expensive, then perhaps the exam should be multiple choice.

@canelacho I hit the time limit on both exams. An additional 30 minutes seems about right to me. Two hours isn't enough—especially if you're not using a testing library (for the JSNAD) or an HTTP framework (for the JSNSD). I did pass the JSNAD. But I didn't finish it.

I didn't experience any bugs or lag. But I did lose my connection to the proctor and the VM toward the end of the JSNAD. And I wasn't granted more time for the disruption. I asked for a five minute extension, and I think I asked three times before the proctor responded. The whole experience was awkward. The exam begins with the proctor dumping canned instructions into the chat box. Then you've got some stranger—whom you can't see—silently watching and listening to you for two hours. Maybe most people are fine with this; I don't know. But I found it very odd.

clinton

I got a reply. My support ticket was closed immediately after:

• They don't have a way to give detailed feedback about an exam.
• They're confident about their scoring scripts.

And:

We are aware of the comments posted on the forum, and can confirm that the issues experienced on JSNAD between 11/03 and 11/11 did NOT impact the Grading process for JSNSD.

I completed the JSNAD last month. And there's no mention in this thread of someone taking the JSNAD then. So that date range doesn't mean anything to me. Perhaps it does to one of you do.

Anyway, I will use my retake and skip the manual rescore if I fail again.

Good luck.

donaldsebleung

@clinton I see, good luck on your retake. Anyway, for me, I paid the USD$75 rescoring fee and have been informed that manual rescoring is well underway, though the expected turnaround time is 6+ weeks so I'll have to wait for quite a while. Let's see what comes out of this. In the meantime, it's quite difficult for me to recommend OpenJS Foundation exams to others given the current state of things. The courses/exams directly under the Linux Foundation (LFS201/LFS211 and LFCS/LFCE) are solid though.

eginwong

Yeah, unfortunately, I've had the same experience. I used express as my main framework and finished with a few minutes to spare. Certainly didn't get everything right but also didn't expect to fail so spectacularly either. I purchased the training course for this exam in the hopes that I can learn what I did wrong, but it looks like the automated tests might just suck. I wrote the JSNAD and noticed a lower score than expected, but I wasn't concerned because a pass is still a pass.

@donaldsebleung, I would agree with you completely. I'm less inclined to recommend these certifications especially if they don't make any sense or provide real support for people to make good use of the retakes.

prashanth5150

Just got my result as well and I failed despite coming out of it pretty confident. I checked and rechecked as much of it as I could to verify every single point asked in the questions. Used express for all the questions. The solutions that pass all the tests in the labs for the course, were not all that different from what the exam checks for so it is genuinely confusing how I could have done that badly. Although judging by the issues brought up for the course and labs in the forums here would seem to suggest this whole thing was rushed out without adequate quality control.

eginwong

Some slight good news? Apparently exams between November and December had automation testing issues. They're rescoring exams within that time frame so we may not have done as terribly as previously thought.
Specifically for JSNSD, I'm not sure about JSNAD or any other tests.

Source: Support ticket

davidmarkclements

This is correct @eginwong we're doing a remarking of about 60 grading sessions that were found to have incorrect grades. There was a sporadic grading issues that was extremely challenging to reproduce. We have found and rectified the issue and will inform affected users of their corrected grades

donaldsebleung

I got an updated score of 85% and a full refund of the rescoring fee just today, meaning that the manual rescoring took around 2-3 weeks instead of the originally anticipated 6+ weeks. Glad with the results of the manual rescoring and that it did not take too long, though hopefully the automated grading scripts for JSNSD will be refined over time so that manual rescores will no longer be necessary.

prashanth5150

So I got an email today saying I passed my regrading. But I had scheduled the retake for today which I can't cancel since it is in a few hours. So just going to roll with it and try the whole thing again with Fastify instead of Express this time. Safe to say my whole JSNSD experience has been... messy.

chesterheng

Hello, how is the testing environment look like? You use a Linux VM? Do you allow to use VS code? Or use terminal only? Is tit possible to try the tesing environment before the actual test?

fcioanca

We do not have a sandbox that you can try out before the exam. Please check the candidate handbook for details. If your questions are not answered, please open a support ticket at trainingsupport.linuxfoundation.org.

canelacho

Today I recived an email saying I passed too! I'm so happy.

hpcergar

Hi everyone, I had the same experience as most of the people here are describing: Confident result by the end of the exam, then an unexpected No Pass. My exam took place on summer, so I am not really sure if the issues detected here (and fixed) are also applicable.

Indeed, I also request for feedback and the answer was vague. I would have preferred to have more feedback so I could target my weaknesses better

jan222

@hpcergar said:
Hi everyone, I had the same experience as most of the people here are describing: Confident result by the end of the exam, then an unexpected No Pass. My exam took place on summer, so I am not really sure if the issues detected here (and fixed) are also applicable.

Indeed, I also request for feedback and the answer was vague. I would have preferred to have more feedback so I could target my weaknesses better

Same thing, How do i know what's i did wrong ?

fcioanca

@jan222 Please direct any exam-related questions to the LF Customer Support Team at trainingsupport.linuxfoundation.org.