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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 problem is that you only have to remember specific information to pass a certification. /why/ it is the way it is. Only that it is.
This doesn't mean you know
This makes the difference between IT professionals who love their work, and will find new solutions, versus the sys admin who can follow the instructions laid out before him.
You might be able to say 'FTP uses TCP' 'Voice uses UDP' Oh, you passed.
This doesn't mean that they understand that TCP sends acks for each received packet to insure each one is received in order, and if it isn't, it resends the package.
That UDP sends it blindly hoping it worked.
Or why. E.G FTP uses TCP because you're transferring files, if part of the file is missing, it's toast. So you need acknowledgement for each packet sent.
UDP is used for voice. This is because with voice, if part of it is missing you get a slight drop in quality, a blip or blurp in sound, machine like sounds or depending how long, a missed word or two.
You can still understand the conversation for the most part with minor impact. If it was TCP, people would cut out a lot more vs the odd artifact in the sound.
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?
add an arm wrestling component to the test.
Some kids played with model airplanes and found it fun, grew up to be pilots or aerospace engineers.
This kid, assuming he enjoys computers, more power to him.
It took me 3 attempts to pass that exam and now there are 5 year olds who can pass it?
Indeed. You need a mental age of 5 years to pass.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
"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.
The MCP cert is a way to prove you are more knowledgeable about the Windows client computer than your grandmother that calls you for help. Like the A+ exam, I found it remedial. MCPs are not MSCEs. I enjoy how the people who insult MCSEs either 1) do not have it, or 2) have a different certification (NCE). And yes, your anecdotal stories are very cute.
ARP as in ethernet ip-mac mapping ? How exactly is that relevant to a LAMP job ?
This is unfortunately true for most certification programs. In Cisco SupportPro training (1996 I guess) I remember some of my classmates' points was better in the exam performed before training than the certification exam. That was because, in the first exam they used a simple criteria that "which answer is most costly and Cisco friendly", but in the actual exam they tried to use the training material they were given...
This isn't what happened here. It's one thing for a kid to play and learn. Here we have a father pursuing his sons MCP certification, for his own gratification. If this was about the kid, it wouldn't be in the news.
Area51 - We are watching...
Presumably OP is interviewing for sysadmin positions maintaining LAMP installations, not developing LAMP based services.
Either that or OP is just as clueless as his candidates
There is a third option: The boy is a "paper" MCP. He knows the right answer to the questions, but doesn't understand the reasoning behind it.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
"the basics of regex, sql, bash, etc. Let alone what ARP is."
never ask a question that can be answered by the web,,,
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
When I was a video game tester at Accolade/Infogrames/Atari (same company, different owners, multiple personality disorder), we kept a five-year-old in the inventory closet in case we ever needed a console button smasher. After you turn 30-years-old, you're likely to smash the console than smash the buttons.
This is unfortunately true for most certification programs.
Thats really not true. Actual Cisco certs like the CCNA / CCNP / etc are about Cisco equipment, but they test pretty heavily your understanding of basic networking protocols.
And keep in mind that a lot of these certs ARE centered around a particular vendor; a RHCP or MCSE are going to focus on Red Hat and Microsoft-- but that doesnt make them pushovers.
Id like to see you go into a VCP cert and BS your way through by picking the answer that favors VMWare, for example.
This is 95% of all MCP holders.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
If he enjoys computers, then give him a REAL OS to deal with. Why train him on the DUPLO of the computer world?
Honestly this kid needs a good linux and a good compiler. Any monkey can do IT, geniuses need to learn the inner workings and have the tools to break things or make them different. He needs to be using an OS that lets you interact with the hardware level and have access to compilers.
MCSE is the factory worker of the 21'st century. Do you want to be an assembly line worker or an engineer who designs the machines that others stand at and put caps on the bottle?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
To find out who's the youngest linux kernel developer who (to have some objective criteria) had a patch accepted into the mainstream line.
Or you know, anything else besides something based on multiple choice and memorization.
I apologize for the lack of a signature.
I used to work tier 2 tech support for RoadRunner. People, usually from Florida, would call in complain their internet wasn't working. I would always get people trying to let me know just how smart they were.
Customer: "Hi, I'm A++ and MCP certified and I have a certificate from Devry so I know my stuff but I can't get my internet working"
Me: "What makes you say it isn't working Sir, what exactly is going on?"
Customer: "I can't load any websites except ones I've seen before, I tried restarting but it's just doing the same thing"
Me: "...type ipconfig, what do you see?"
Customer: "...static IP..."
Me: "Sir, do you have a kid who uses your computer for gaming? You have a static IP, that's the issue. follow these instructions and it will work..."
Customer: "No, I certainly don't have a static IP. I looked for that. The issue must be on your end"
Me: *FACEPALM!!!!!!!
comclusion: MCP MEANS NOTHING!!!!!!
Well, it depends upon the job. As OneSmartFellow correctly divines, a recent post was for a sysadmin / sysops post. We don't require other devs to know what ARP is, but it's always good if they have some idea about the network stack.
We have been repeatedly amazed by the levels of ignorance that IT-qualified candidates have had. One of the most disappointing finds is that very few who have come from university have any substantial programming experience. Likewise, 'hack-a-day' php coders and sql-ers about, but most of them do not know when to apply a left join, some of them don't even know what a key is used for (just think of all that wasted cpu time due to ridiculously poor sql implementations. It makes me shudder).
Regarding the idea of methods for developing a re-usable, maintainable codebase for our work (primarily webwork) - seems to be beyond everyone that we recruit. The team that we have right now is second to none - but we have found that a well-written test reduces the initial number of applicants from about 700 to 800 down to about 10, most of whom we will interview.
This comment was written with the intention to opt out of advertising.
MCP, however, is a pushover. You can get that by simply passing one of the MCSE tests, usually the one centered around the workstation OS.
If you can install it and do very rudimentary administration, you can get an MCP.
Still impressive at the age of 5 though.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
People laugh at that comment but he's quite right. It is literally impossible to work today in the programming field with just the information you can remember in your head. You should instead focus on getting people with good reasoning and research skills. People who can learn fast, apply past lessons and derive a correct solution based on your situation.
There's still a need for quite a large amount of information to be remembered by team members, but that is definitely trumped by how fast they can acquire it from resources they will have on hand at their work. For programmers they will have a syntax highlighting, auto-completing editor, project and make file management tools, language references, API references, and of course, vast realms of information on the net.
I was a little surprised the other day when I tried to remember the old definition for an OOP language. Inheritance and encapsulation jumped straight to mind but the third was just out of reach of my memory - despite actually using it every day for almost 30 years; polymorphism. I'd had to think I wouldn't pass some recruiter's idea of an test simply because my memory isn't what it used to be.
There's some skills like regex that I need to look up every time I use them. Mostly because they are used infrequently, have an arcane syntax, an API that varies from one language / environment to the next and every implementation seems to use different syntax. I've written heaps of SQL, I know where to place a key when to leave it down to a table scan. I can find my way through a query plan and figure out which part of a query is nonce...and yet I might still have trouble remembering some vague syntax thing. I have existing code to remind me and the web for when I don't have a snippet.
There's too much emphasis on rote learning of information that often is not even that useful, and not enough on developing analysis, research and planning skills.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
H/R Drone: Do you have 5 years experience in the field?
Kid: I am 5!
1) He said most, not all.
2) It's beyond-belief true for Microsoft exams. Unless you think like a MSFT marketing manager (and not, you know, an actual sysadmin), the MCSE tests will be impossible to pass. I've gotten near-perfect scores on those things simply by suspending disbelief and thinking like a Redmond Marketing droid.
3) I actually agree with you about the Cisco tests - or at least concerning the older ones (not sure about more recent ones, as I haven't had to touch one in years), since they did probe the protocols pretty deeply.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Cisco certification is better than MS and Check Point is better than Cisco AFAIK, with a serious margin of error, based on territory and certification authority. Again this is my (unfortunately true and based on facts) view. Your take naturally can be different, but BS is one of the most effective tools of trade in commercial certification. That is why we still have universities...
You don't even have to do that. You can just take the MTA, which is an exam that is so easy they permit high school teachers to serve as proctors for it.
Right now I'm trying to get the MCSA for Windows Server 2012 R2, and it's a PITA. The biggest problem with it though is that there are NO training manuals for it that are sufficient. The Microsoft Official so called study guides sold at book stores are a joke. CBT nuggets/trainsignal are also insufficient. Microsoft's reasoning apparently is that you have to be very seasoned with Windows Server 2012 R2 before you can pass the exam. Problem is NO shops run Windows Server 2012 R2 yet. That won't happen until Server 2016 or whatever it ends up being comes out.
Which is annoying because I bought a voucher pack and I just can't find the right study materials for it, and it's about to expire in a few months.
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.
Before accepting that a 5 year old not only passed the exam, but could read and comprehend at a fully adult level, I have another hypothesis: the dad did it... He obviously made the kid's website, so why would it surprise anyone if he "helped" the kid through the test. It's the same way that kids used to win slot-racing competitions.
While a good exam isn't supposed to test the student's ability to understand the language, it is supposed to test the student's ability to understand the underlying concepts. This means that the exam should, in part, test the student's ability to read a question, identify the key concepts, and figure out what is an appropriate answer based on those key concepts. If you receive help reading the question by converting concepts into something easier to understand, then that would seem to undermine the test result and therefore the certification achievement. Not to the point where it's completely void, but it may not be completely accurate to the kid's skill level
Now, i don't know if the parent acted as a dictionary or actually simplified the language, but the sentence in the summary does seem concerning.
"Why it's so simple, a five year-old child could understand it. Now go out and get me a five year old child"
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
If this kid has a memory like this he should be doing more important things than learning how to be a windows admin.
"If you love someone, set them free. If they come home, set them on fire." - George Carlin
I remember earlier in my career, looking for work with a tertiary qualification and 4 years experience in the IT workforce under my belt (I worked in IT before, during and after tertiary study) and being turned down by potential employers because I wasn't "Microsoft Certified"
Nevermind the fact that at least 2 of the papers I studied toward that tertiary qualification revolved around configuring and supporting Microsoft networks and I'd been working with Microsoft technologies full time for about 2-3 years prior.
I later just got the damn certification anyway, because I needed the job prospects that came with it. I learnt very little by doing it.
FTFM: Make that six.