SCWCD -pre exam survey!

[Rich Smyth]

Hi,
At the testing centre before the SCWCD exam I had to answer a survey in order to begin my test. This was a surprise to me since no such survey was presented prior to the SCJP exam. For those of you that wrote the SCWCD exam: did you also have to complete a survey?
I post this message to inform others, who are planning to take the test, about this survey. The survey asks the candidate the rate his skill level (between 'Inexperienced' to 'Expert') on in the various subject areas covered by the exam. Well, I started to wonder if my answers to the survey would affect the difficulty level of the questions that I would be given. I found this to be unecessary stress: if I claim to be an expert will the questions be tougher? If I claim to be a novice, what am I doing trying to get certified?
If the survey does not drive the test, what is its purpose? Why didn't Sun present the survey *after* the test? Or, why didn't they send the survey well ahead of the test as they did with legal/disclosure statement?
Any thoughts?
For those of you who might get stressed before an exam, don't be surprised if you get this survey.
good luck,
Rich

[Kevin Thompson]

Sun discloses the survey when an exam voucher is purchsed(at least that is when Sun discloses it to me). They always tell me something like this => "There will be survey questions prior to the exam. If you do not agree to answering the survey questions at that time, you will not be allowed to take the exam, and you will not be refunded the exam fee".
The survey also exists for the Part I Architect Exam.
I doubt the survey questions produce any useful information, because I always thought their survey questions were poorly worded.
Did you pass the exam???
[ May 30, 2002: Message edited by: Kevin Thompson ]

[Rich Smyth]

What are the odds?
With all the studying I did on the web I don't remember coming across a single mention of the survey! If Sun did indeed states in advance that there will be a survey, I missed that too. Again, I wonder wht the survey could not be after the test - Sun could still make responding a mandatory step before the exam is graded.
Since I was stressed before the test (I of course wanted to pass and get a great score) I probably overreacted. I was convinced that the survey was going to drive the test so I tried to outwit the survey (In hindsight this was of course a dumb thing to do).
Despite the survey 'incident' I still managed to pass with 84% - not great but I'm satisfied given that most of my experience has been with Swing I learned a lot from my studying. I'm glad I took the test!
Rich

[Peter Crowther]

I too tried to outwit this survey and then thought I’d made a big mistake as I was faced with what I thought to be rather hard questions. Still managed to pass though. However, the best bit was before the exam when the chap at the exam centre warned me about agreeing to Sun’s terms and conditions. He said the previous candidate had clicked the wrong button (‘Do not accept’ button) and his fail result was printed out immediately! To make things worse it took the test centre three hours to convince Sun of the mistake and set up the test again, only for the bloke to fail by 2%!

[Marcus Green]

Does the questionnaire come up as a mini exam or is it obviously and entirely a different thing?

[Rich Smyth]

I don't remember if the word 'survey' is actually used. As I recall, the survey did have a 'test' feel to it since the intro describes the number of questions to be answered and states that there is a time limit (what happens if you run out of time?). The intro could have simply said "Please complete the following survey before proceeding with the test" (or something to that effect).