Is there a paid for review service offered by anyone?

[Colin Yates]

All,

Do any of you ranch hands offer a "pay us XXX currency and we will review your work before submission" kind of service?

Obviously there could be no guarantee of passing even after review, but if the fee was small enough (10s of dollars) I think it would be a very good way to give confidence to us lesser mortals, and make some money for the excellent work people like yourself do on the forums.

Just a thought.

Col

[Paul Bourdeaux]

Hi Colin,

I am not sure if that would be ethical or allowed. After all, the bartenders here put a decent amount of effort into not allowing SCJD canidates to share their code with others. The following is from the SCJD FAQ:

For questions / discussions on the assignment, in general we will allow discussion where members are trying to:
* understand the assignment
* get a suggestion on how to work on a particular problem,
* are asking for feedback on small sections of code
* get suggestions about which tools to use.
But we will not allow posting major parts of a solution. For example, you may not post your entire code for locking and unlocking records - this is a major section (currently worth 20% of the assignment) and sections of such code will be removed from any post. Posting just one method (e.g. the lock() method is usually considered reasonable).
There are multiple reasons for this policy:
* Sun do not allow you to share your assignment or a solution to the assignment with others.
* You have spent time and effort getting your solution right. It would not be right for someone else to just copy your solution without working it out for themselves.
* If someone did get awarded the SCJD certification after copying your code, and were then given employment because they had that certification, the employer would probably find that the employee cannot actually do the work. Which makes the perceived value of this certificate decrease.
* If people post too much code, then Sun may, in the future, request that we do not allow any SCJD code to be posted.

[Colin Yates]

Why would it not be ethical? How would it be different from taking an instructor lead exam prep-course?

Col

[Darya Akbari]

Hi Colin,

why do you want to betray yourself

Regards,
Darya

[Paul Bourdeaux]

How would it be different from taking an instructor lead exam prep-course?

Do they review your work before submission in an instructor lead course? I have never taken one, so I am just asking. Either way, while I am a proponent of helping others as much as I can, I think that actually reviewing their entire project and providing feedback that could potentially affect their score crosses the line. Just my opinion...

Besides, when you hit a stumbling block, you can always search this forum or post a question. The odds are that someone at the ranch can help you out.
[ February 25, 2005: Message edited by: Paul Bourdeaux ]

[Max Habibi]

Well, for one thing, a SCJD instructor (such as myself) won't actually review your project: they'll either lead you through a similar project, or they'll address general educational considerations. Otherwise, they're helping you with your actual homework, which is a very bad thing. To be honest, I've thought about offering a service like the one you suggested, but couldn't see past the ethical issue.

All best,
M

[Andy Zhu]

IMO, even this idea is disgusting. This is an ethical issue. I don't know if Sun clearly states it or not. Just like taking exam in school, the super doesn't always state cheating is illegal before the test. But look this biggest scjd forum policy: you can't even post a lengthy code segment here for the question you ask. How could you expose your whole code source to get a full review, no matter whether it is free or charged.
Please, don't undermine yourself, don't undermine this forum, don't undermine this community, and don't undermine the reputation of scjd.

[Colin Yates]

Fair enough

I wouldn't actually expect the service to modify the code, but I don't see anything wrong with reviewing a set of design notes + code and providing pointers, i.e. have you thought about the design pattern XYZ.

The difference between the sun certified developer exam and a school exam is that the school exam is closed, the developer exam isn't. We are perfectly allowed to use forums such as this one, google, wiki's etc to research.

I suppose what I was suggesting would come under the "guided research" allowing the instructor to give appropriate feedback.

I am not sure I see the difference then reading/following some of the (very excellent) books out there, for example I am following Max's "The Sun Certified Developer Exam".

Both the "here is an solution to an abstract(ish) problem" and "here are abstract guidelines for your specific situation" work for me

My motivation was to actually reward the forum gurus for their excellent hard work

[peter wooster]

This sort of service would be very expensive, probably over $100US if they did a good job. The only company that could ethically offer such a service is Sun, and they actually do. It's Resubmission, it costs $125US to resubmit, so when you think you're ready, submit your assignment, if it fails concentrate on the failed sections and then resubmit.

[Frans Janssen]

Originally posted by peter wooster:
This sort of service would be very expensive, probably over $100US if they did a good job. The only company that could ethically offer such a service is Sun, and they actually do. It's Resubmission, it costs $125US to resubmit, so when you think you're ready, submit your assignment, if it fails concentrate on the failed sections and then resubmit.

This would be a valuable service, if only they would provide more feedback on your assignment than a bunch of numbers.

But I agree it would be costly to do it. If you would pay my company to make me do the review, they would charge something like $75 per hour and I think that for a thorough review of a complete assignment, I would at least need 4 to 8 hours. And then I don't even have a consulting job, because then it would cost obscenely more

Frans.

P.S. I must confess that I recently performed a small review of another JavaRanch member's Data class and choices.txt. It started more out as discussion on different approaches to the assignment. And since I don't feel any more qualified than the other person, I don't feel it was unethical. Maybe if I were an expert like Max it would be a different story.

[Colin Yates]

Maybe I can rephrase the question then:

Would someone please answer "https://coderanch.com/t/186831/java-developer-SCJD/certification/Controllers-ActionEvent-MVC" for 10 huggy points

[David Abramowicz]

There is a great review service offered by Sun, and the best thing is that you are only charged if your code/documentation is not up to scratch