The Dangers of Exam Dumps

If you're studying up for that certification exam, you've probably already heard something about exam dumps, or braindumps. Exam dumps are when someone takes an exam, and immediately afterward spews as many topics and questions as they can remember online. It might seem enticing to get a sneak peek at the exam, but exam dumps are the absolute worst for your learning.

Here are some of the top reasons that exam dumps are very detrimental to your learning experience.

It goes against all the rules.

Well, first and most importantly, exam dumps violate standard non-disclosure (NDA) agreements. NDA agreements typically state that reproducing, sharing, or publishing exam content, verbatim questions, or identifying correct and incorrect answers is expressly forbidden.

If they catch you exam dumping, they'll revoke your certification credentials. And here's the other thing – they'll even revoke the credentials of anyone using exam dumps to pass a cert. In some cases, they'll even ban you for life. For instance, it's the policy of Microsoft to ban you for life for cheating.

And trust us, it's really easy for certifiers to figure out whether or not you've used a braindump. For instance, vendors are now using data forensics to catch braindump users, comparing against other test results to look for evidence of fraudulent activity. A forensic algorithm takes into account a number of factors from a learner's exam performance and compares that to historical trends, with various points acting as red flags.

Whether you are aware of it or not, you are likely to display certain characteristics in how you answer questions and progress through an exam if you have prior knowledge of the content.

So, it's better to just use Transcender practice exams, flashcards, and train for real. It's not worth getting caught. Particularly, if you're testing with Microsoft.

You aren't really learning anything.

When using with an exam dump, you really don't have much to engage with – only the repetitive action of memorizing questions and answers.

You aren't actively retaining information from simply reading through questions and drilling the correct answer into your brain. Because braindumps don't explain the reasoning behind answers, you aren't really learning the concepts. Memorizing a question and answer keeps you away from the concepts and skills that will make you better at your job, and help you progress your career.

When you're preparing to take an exam, you don't just need to pass the exam. You need to be able to apply every concept you have learned in preparing for that exam so that you can do your job to the best of your ability. The primary goal in taking an exam should not be just to simply pass it, but to make steady improvements in the work that you do.

If you're feeling jittery about an exam, buckle down on your practice exams. It's an effective way to get the same leg up on the exam, albeit legally.

There's no quality control.

Braindumps provide absolutely no form of control, so you don't know whether you're using a "reliable" exam dump. The questions, answer options, and answers could be completely incorrect, and there is no way to check them until it's too late. There isn't even a way to confirm whether the dumper actually passed the exam.

Actual certification questions go through rigorous research, design, and testing before they end up in a question bank. With exam dumps, there's no way to tell where the information came from, or how old or accurate it may be. You want the best study material available, and there's absolutely no way to guarantee that exam dumps can meet those criteria.

When studying for your next exam, there are plenty of practical strategies that will help you learn the material: reading official study guides on the material, taking practice exams, labbing it up in your home lab or other virtual environments, and even watching training videos.

Braindumps, on the other hand, are one of the worst ways to study for that certification exam. They are illegal, and will eventually expose you as a fraud on the job. Just don't do it!

Need some more practical studying methods? CBT Nuggets has you covered.