Should You Use Exam Dumps?

Now this is going to get you thinking...

A lot of students ask if they should use third-party exam dumps in preparation for an upcoming certification exam. Of course as they are not "authorised material", the answer is usually "No". However, I would like to challenge this with a simple strategy.

First, let's define third-party exam dumps (TPEDs). If you search for an exam number/title followed by the words exam/dump/prep etc you will receive hundreds of results from different vendors offering exam questions. Yes, they claim that their product lists the actual questions from the actual exam. They even offer you a money-back guarantee if you don't pass on your first attempt....sounds great, right?

Some vendors offer practices questions along with answers. Microsoft has partnered with MeasureUp in offering an "authorised practice exam questions" product. What does this mean? Well, it just indicates that the answers to their questions have been verified by an allocated team at Microsoft to be correct. So you can use their products with the confidence that the answers are going to be correct.

Back to the TPEDs. These are not authorised, by any vendor. This means that the answers to the questions - ones they claim to be the real ones you will see in the exam - are not necessarily accurate. In fact, they are not. We have had numerous students purchase these products and post out incorrect answers. Oh, and yes the questions were in fact the ones they received during their exam.

How they gain access to the real questions is beyond my imagination but here's my strategy on exam preparation. If you purchase one of these TPEDs, study and answer the question, then look it up in the vendor's official student guide. Don't even bother looking at the answers they supply - it'll most likely be incorrect and it will derail your thinking. Research and answer it yourself.

This method will force you to actively engage with the course guide in a purposeful way, rather than passively reading the guide from cover to cover. You will understand the question and most likely remember it for a long time.

There you have it. If you want to purchase a TPED, do so and follow the strategy above for a really effective method of studying, learning and understanding the course materials.

What are your thoughts/experiences in using TPEDs?

Happy learning! :)