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A very bad exam experience.

aimcorp
aimcorp Posts: 17
edited May 2021 in LFS201 Class Forum - Discontinued

Today I re-took the LFCS exam. My first try was on the 31st of March and I failed it due to mostly lack of knowledge and a little bit of being too tired due to the baby keeping us awake the night before.

Since then, I learned and practiced and learned and practiced, until I started dreaming the stuff.

I felt very confident today, and even though I haven't received my grade yet, I feel I will not pass.

The issue was related to the exam environment.

The PSI exam started good. The examinator checked my ID, checked my room, my surroundings and everything else and allowed me to start the exam.

Soon after the exam started,I had constant interruptions, or the session would hang in such a way that the Browser(Chrome) would notify me if I want to Kill or Wait. I waited, obviously.

The examinator would constantly tell me to reset the console, which would also seemingly reset the progress, taking me back to the 1st question of the exam.

When I asked if my progress was being kept, as I had lost, in one case, the flag I had set on Question #2, my question was answered with "reset the console again".

What?!

Because this was my second take at the exam AND I ran the exam from my 12 core, 16GB ram, OS installed on SSD connected to a 600MB network, while being alone at home, it was absolutely impossible for the exam environment to suffer in this way due to "my end", which is what the examiner suggested.

Due to the constant battle with the examiner and the way the environment behaved, I lost precious time, which made me hurry through some of the more complex questions, or had to flag others. While I was able towards the end of the exam to calm down and go back to answer some of flagged questions, I still felt like I could have benefited a lot more from a more stable platform and a more stable examiner.

I wish to ask the members of the Linux Foundation what they intend to do with this type of behaviour.

Comments

  • fcioanca
    fcioanca Posts: 1,902

    Hi @aimcorp . We apologize for the issues encountered during the exam. This forum is strictly for course related issues and questions (LFS201). Please reach out to the LF Customer Support Team, and they will assist you: trainingsupport.linuxfoundation.org.

  • aimcorp
    aimcorp Posts: 17

    Buna ziua,

    Thank you for responding so soon.

    This is precisely what I am doing right now.

  • alakananda
    alakananda Posts: 3
    edited May 2023

    I gave the LFCS exam today.. It was such a bad experience for me. I could not even complete the exam. The PSI secure browser was loading even after the exam started. I only able to open the terminal after 20 mints from the exam timer started.. There were a lot of reloading issues in between and the proctor was continuously asking me to do the checkins. I did 2-3 times checkins already but they were asking me to do that in the middle of the exam. And finally got disconnected from the exam🥺.. I almost spent 4 hours for all of these procedures and still could not finish the exam. Even after raising the ticket with the LFCS support team, I did not receive any proper mail communication. I never expected such a bad experience from such an expensive exam.. They are not even providing the candidate with a minimum clutter free environment for the exam... This issue need to be addressed and LF has to come up with some solutions

  • mstepien
    mstepien Posts: 421

    Hi @alakananda,

    We apologize that you encountered issues during your exam. If you already opened a ticket at trainingsupport.linuxfoundation.org, the Linux Foundation Customer Support team will be able to assist you. Please note that it can take several business days (no holidays or weekends) for the Support team to respond. Thank you for your patience.

    Regards,
    Magda
    The Linux Foundation Training Team

  • alakananda
    alakananda Posts: 3
    edited May 2023

    Hi @mstepien,

    The Syllabus for LFCS exam will change on 11th of this month. I actually preparing for the exam for the last 4-5 months. The last chance I can write this exam is on 8th May, and I don't think I will get any favourable response before that. For a 2 hr exam, I hardly got 1 hr exam time, but I had to spent more than 4 hours for all these procedure. It is very difficult for a person to suffer such stress and pressure during an exam. I could only attempt hardly 15 questions and I got 59% marks (66% is pass ). I read lot of similar experience from different people regarding the PSI exam platform, I still dont understand why LF keeps PSI as their exam partner.

    Finally I have a retake exam coming this Monday and this is my last chance to get certified before the exam syllabus changes. Please make sure to provide a clutter free exam environment.

    You should respect the efforts and time each candidate spent for a certification, and try to provide them the best service you can.

    I know that this post is too emotional.But, yes.. I still couldn't overcome the trauma I had yesterday.

  • alakananda
    alakananda Posts: 3
    edited May 2023


  • madsou
    madsou Posts: 1

    I completely agree with @mstepien. I passed the exam on 6 saturday of this month and I can not be focus because during the exam the interface was slow and blocked. When I typed something on the keyboard it took several seconds before appearing or the letter was written several times as if the key remained pressed or strange characters were displayed. It was really disturbing. I know I failed but I still wait for my resulted to pass my retake. However the results are supposed to arrive in 24hours. At this price it's a shame.

  • zeszer
    zeszer Posts: 1

    Yes I try to take CKA exam today it also have many problem in PSI system and it expire and I can not take exam. I think the system is not so good many issue why it not improve the exam system. It not free I pay for take exam why I can not take exam

  • mstepien
    mstepien Posts: 421

    Hi @zeszer,

    We are sorry to hear about your experience. If you have not done so already, please open a ticket with the Linux Foundation Customer Support team at trainingsupport.linuxfoundation.org and they will assist you.

    It can take several business days (no holidays or weekends) for the Support team to respond, depending on the volume.

    Best regards,
    Magda
    The Linux Foundation Training Team

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