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."

Comments

Which says what?

[Loki_666]

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.

Re:Which says what?

[Thanshin]

installing Windows 2000 Server. I was a Novell certified engineer and could do it in my sleep.

You woke up and discovered you had installed Windows 2000?

Quite the scary illness you've got there. I'd rather find my horse's cut head.

Re:Which says what?

[dissy]

You woke up and discovered you had installed Windows 2000?
Quite the scary illness you've got there. I'd rather find my horse's cut head.

I don't think they added the horse head option to the installer until Windows XP...

Re:Which says what?

[ruir]

I used to refer to it as Minesweeper Certified Solitaire Expert...

Re:Which says what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Obligatory: "Must Consult Someone Else".

Re:Which says what?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

The part that worries me was: "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."

Sounds like the kid is pretty bright, might well be pretty impressive in a few years; but 'explaining the language of the test' is pretty much a (much easier) equivalent to 'identifying the problem to be solved'.

As an exercise in mental capacity, I'm definitely not going to knock the kid, I certainly wouldn't have managed it at 5, and those capabilities will likely come in handy, I hope for him that they do.

For the MCP, on the other hand, it seems pretty dire that it can be passed by somebody with an excellent memory; but a need to be coached on what the questions mean. Real life is an open book (and/or google) test; but it is notably unsympathetic about telling you what the questions mean, what sort of answer a given question requires, which questions are actually on the test, which answers trigger a surprise exam about disaster recovery 18 months from now...

If somebody is a 'Certified Professional' I'd much rather seem them have an elegant grasp of what the problem is and what the solution should look like; but check the manual for some registry settings, than be conceptually befuddled but have a perfect grasp of the details.

Waste

[mwvdlee]

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.

Re:Waste

[Anonymous Coward]

He's 5, what else would he be doing with his time?

Playing with other 5 year olds.

Re:Goddamn it!

[hcs_$reboot]

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.

Re:Dad sacrifices sons childhood for MCP

[Macfox]

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.

Re:The problem with certifications

[camperdave]

In other words, the error correction process is moved up to layer eight.

Re:Goddamn it!

[MachineShedFred]

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.

Re:Note to IT recruiters.

[frank_adrian314159]

A MS cert does not trump a computing degree.

It depends on how much the five year-old costs compared to someone with a computing degree.