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TeckChek and other online assessments

by Anonymous Monk
on Apr 29, 2003 at 04:24 UTC ( [id://253898]=perlmeditation: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Today I was required to take a TeckChek assessment for Perl/CGI. I was surprised by the nature of the questions and am curious if others have taken this assessment and what they thought of it. My own concerns were:
  • Several questions related to the format function, I wasn't aware that was still considered a "common" function for newcomers or mid-perlers , since I have only used it once in 7 years.
  • Incorrect syntax for variable creation in sample code
  • Several questions related to the English module, which I thought was considered a Bad Thing(tm)
  • Verbiage that didn't seem to sound like someone familiar with Perl culture would have written.
  • Several questions about the command line debugger. With the advent of better and better Perl GUI debuggers I am wondering how long this will be relevant.
  • No questions about use strict or warnings
  • No questions about variable scope
  • Forced the test taker to be on a Windows machine running either IE or Netscape (no 6 or Mozilla support it seems)
  • No questions about module creation
  • Overall I felt the questions were antiquated


With TIMTOWTDI being such a part of the Perl culture and the wide range of domains that Perl can be applied to are there currently any good yard sticks by which to measure ones grasp on Perl?

Disclaimer: Possibly some of the above mentioned missing questions were simply not in my assessment do in part to the randomness of the question pool or their "adaptive" process assumed certain aspects were already known.

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Re: TeckChek and other online assessments
by PodMaster (Abbot) on Apr 29, 2003 at 05:36 UTC
    Several questions about the command line debugger. With the advent of better and better Perl GUI debuggers I am wondering how long this will be relevant.
    Wow, that's just wrong. What the heck does the debugger got to do with Perl? Sure, it's a part of perl (the binary), but aside from that, it has nothing to do with Perl (the language). Ok, ok, ok, ok, it is assesment(however incomplete) and not certification, so I guess it's not that bad, but this is just one more reason we need perl certification approved by the perl community (larry'n'em).


    MJD says you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!
    I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6x+5.8x. I take requests.
    ** The Third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

Re: TeckChek and other online assessments
by vladb (Vicar) on Apr 29, 2003 at 06:08 UTC
    Assessing competency of IT staff sounds like something every conscientious company might do; however, as far as the means of accomplishing this go, I doubt TeckCheck is anywhere close to the mark. After all, they even used invalid code in some of their own questions!

    I glanced over their site and even took their sample assessment test. What surprised me is that the sample test contained questions loosely related to the IT field. For example, one question was on geography, while another touched on general history. In fact, none of the questions I was presented with were anywhere close to IT. I found this rather odd for a company claiming to be in the business they are in. Thereofre, I’m afraid that not having done an actual IT skill testing questionnaire myself, I'll have to base my critique squarely on your summary.

    Concerning test scope, I believe that it takes completely different set of questions in order to objectively measure IT skills of a systems administrator as compared to a programmer analyst. Former would have to be tested on a shallow knowledge of Perl or any other systems scripting language. A programmer analyst, on the other hand, would be expected to have a more thorough knowledge of Perl, software design, etc.

    Relating this back to the Perl/CGI test you took, scoring criteria might vary based on your position within the company. Therefore, questions on the proper use of the 'format' method may carry different weight for different kind of employee? Also, even amongst a group of adapt Perl programmers, you may expect varying level of expertise in any specific area. As you have rightly mentioned, having more than one legitimate way of accomplishing a task in Perl, it may be hard to come up with a yard stick that would provide an objective measure of an individual’s skill. If I was tasked to come up with a test, I’d lean towards questions of general nature that would encompass common Perl features and avoid those rarely used (such as the ‘format’ method :). I think that questions testing common problem solving skills would be more appropriate than those which concentrate on specific, and often obscure, areas of Perl.

    _____________________
    # Under Construction
      It does state quite clearly on the 'sample assessment' page that the sample is a subset of their 'general knowledge' test that only includes World History, Geography and Space Travel :) ...but I think the weakness here is the whole principle of trying to quantitively test what is basically a qualitative thing - how well somebody can program (in perl or otherwise).

      The best ('C') interview test I ever took consisted of the teamleader showing me some code and asking me to find the bug. When I found it, I also stated "but I wouldn't do it that way anyway - I'd use {whatever}". "Fine" he said, and gave me the job. Sum interview time - 10 minutes. He knew coding - he knew *I* knew coding - easy as that. The problem comes when it's HR drones that are trying to do the assessment. That's why people buy into stuff like this.
Re: TeckChek and other online assessments
by Anonymous Monk on Apr 29, 2003 at 09:19 UTC

    What did you expect? They can't even spell "Tech."

    Tell your employer to get a clue. Or quit. Or do nothing.

Re: TeckChek and other online assessments
by jepri (Parson) on Apr 30, 2003 at 06:00 UTC
    The sample test was better than some I've seen, but the that just means it is 'bad' rather than 'remarkably bad'.

    Personally, I would have taken my sock off, drawn eyes on it and then made the 'sock puppet' take the test. Then whenever somebody commented on my performance I'd loudly explain that it was the sock puppets performance, not mine.

    If programming perl involved clicking checkboxes then the test might be a good indicator of perl ability. Since perl involves more than just checkboxes, the test is obviously pathetic and is to be ignored.

    Sidenote: while I get by alright on multi-choice tests, they never test what I consider to be my best skills - research and debugging. No multiple choice test will ever be able to test things like that.

    ____________________
    Jeremy
    I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.

      Takes down notes while laughing too hard to breath. Thank you, you have givin me my laugh for the day. If I could ++ it more than once I would.

      smiles

Re: TeckChek and other online assessments
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Apr 30, 2003 at 16:57 UTC
    I scored 48 / 50 with TeckCheck. I also contested the two questions because one had two completely correct answers and the other had no completely correct answers. I also used my Perl book. :-)

    ------
    We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

    Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

    Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.

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