A new Type of Exam

Here’s my idea for a new type of exam …

  1. You don’t tell the candidate the date or place of the exam, just put a note on the door
  2. You don’t show the candidate the questions at all, not even the subject matter … you just show them a range of previous questions that might, or might not, be similar to what you want
  3. The candidate gets a blank piece of paper, writes on it what they think you want and hands it in
  4. Some weeks later you send the candidate a note saying that you’ve marked their paper but you don’t tell them if they’ve passed or failed
  5. The candidate then applies for jobs and tries to work out, based on their success rate, whether they passed the exam or not

Sound ok?

It’s based on the way G**gle works when it decides that one of your websites should be banned … they wont tell you you’ve been banned, they wont tell you why you’re banned and if you ask for a re-assesment they will only tell you when they’ve done it, not whether you passed or not … its all about not giving away information that would let someone work out how to cheat the system … which doesn’t help if you just accidentally fall foul …

Question is, can a naughty competitor create a link farm that will cause someone elses site to fall foul without them knowing? I wonder (NO, I am NOT going to try!)

Ho hum … just part of life’s rich tapestry