Slashdot Mirror
World's Youngest Microsoft Certificated Professional Is Five Years Old
HughPickens.com writes Gurvinder Gill writes at BBC that Ayan Qureshi is the world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional after passing the tech giant's exam when he was just five years old. Qureshi's father introduced his son to computers when he was three years old. He let him play with his old computers, so he could understand hard drives and motherboards. "I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he'd remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information," Qureshi explained. "Too much computing at this age can cause a negative effect, but in Ayan's case he has cached this opportunity." Ayan has his own computer lab at his home in Coventry, containing a computer network which he built and spends around two hours a day learning about the operating system, how to install programs, and has his own web site.
Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) is a certification that validates IT professional and developer technical expertise through rigorous, industry-proven, and industry-recognized exams. MCP exams cover a wide range of Microsoft products, technologies, and solutions. When the boy arrived to take the Microsoft exam, the invigilators were concerned that he was too young to be a candidate. His father reassured them that Ayan would be all right on his own. "There were multiple choice questions, drag and drop questions, hotspot questions and scenario-based questions," Ayan's father told the BBC Asian Network. "The hardest challenge was explaining the language of the test to a five-year-old. But he seemed to pick it up and has a very good memory."
Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) is a certification that validates IT professional and developer technical expertise through rigorous, industry-proven, and industry-recognized exams. MCP exams cover a wide range of Microsoft products, technologies, and solutions. When the boy arrived to take the Microsoft exam, the invigilators were concerned that he was too young to be a candidate. His father reassured them that Ayan would be all right on his own. "There were multiple choice questions, drag and drop questions, hotspot questions and scenario-based questions," Ayan's father told the BBC Asian Network. "The hardest challenge was explaining the language of the test to a five-year-old. But he seemed to pick it up and has a very good memory."
Either the kid is pretty damn smart, or else the quality of the MCP exam has become so easy even children can pass it.
Ill go for a little from column A and a little from column B. Bright kid probably (and coaching from Dad helped for sure) but MCP probably isn't worth jack shit.
I remember years ago being asked by an MCSE for help... installing Windows 2000 Server. I was a Novell certified engineer and could do it in my sleep.
A MS cert does not trump a computing degree.
This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
The only way that we have found for being able to assess a candidate's suitability for work at our company is to write tests that suit the job, and then ask the candidates to demonstrate their skills. We've had people with all sorts of qualifications relevant to the LAMP architecture not know the basics of regex, sql, bash, etc. Let alone what ARP is.
IMO qualifications in IT aren't really very relevant, other than showing the intent/interests of the individual. Also, as IT is changing so rapidly, by the time a (non-theoretical) qualification has been published, it is pretty much out of date.
My response, as an employer, to this news could be summarised as: 'We never had much credence to the MS qualification in the first place - and now we have none.
This comment was written with the intention to opt out of advertising.
The kid apparently has either a talent for computers or for learning.
Either way, it's a waste to train him for an MCP exam when the kid could be learning something actually valuable in the future.
I have no idea whether an MCP exam is easy or difficult, but it'll damn sure be useless by the time he is old enough to get benefits from such certification.
Having the kid get an MCP certification is about the parents' bragging rights rather than actually teaching the kid something valuable.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Seriously why fill a such important time in child's development with crap that will be irrelevant before he'll hit puberty. There's many more important lessons in life than this. The dad thinks his kids something special now, but in a few years when those valuable lesson and experiences can't be drawn upon....What then? This dad is a douche-bag.
Area51 - We are watching...
"The hardest challenge was explaining the language of the test to a five-year-old." Makes you wonder how thorough this 'explaining' was. I may be wrong, but standard applicants probably don't get much in the way of explanation, and understanding the question is a very important part of any problem solving.
In other words, the error correction process is moved up to layer eight.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
You don't pass them by knowing your material (unless you're an idiot savant who has memorized every meaningless facet of the product) or by taking classes. You pass by memorizing the bizarre questions they ask and the answers they expect to see. I was forced to take a few MS exams for work, and I passed them all on the first go-around, but I don't know jack about Windows.