During the 2014 Dutch TechDays, I participated in a Microsoft knowledge contest by Compu’Train, that dared Developers and IT Professionals to answer questions in their respective areas. As a mere joke I entered the competition, while Daniel continuously tried to distract me.
Nonetheless, I answered the most IT Pro questions correctly of the 200 TechDays attendees that took the test(s): I answered 13 questions correctly of the 20 questions and I took 5 minutes to do so. Not a great score, but it was the high score for the IT Pro part of the contest during TechDays.
As my prize, I won a Surface 2.
Today, I was invited by Compu’Train for the finale of the contest in Business Center Netherlands (BCN) Utrecht. Compu’Train set up the location as The Battle for TechEd, as the grand prize was to win a trip to TechEd Europe 2014 in Barcelona, Spain.
Compu’Train didn’t just invite me… they invited the 10 Developers that answered the most questions the fastest at TechDays, the 10 IT Pros that answered the most questions the fastest at TechDays, and the four best online contestants.
The finale for the Microsoft knowledge contest was pretty straightforward: both groups got their own 80-question exam, that they needed to complete within 30 minutes. This would give an accurate non-cheatable score for each contestant.
To compare the results of the two groups, the average scores and average time needed for the top 25 of each group at TechDays would serve as the denominator for their scores and times. What you should know: the Developers at TechDays scored high on average and didn’t need the entire 5 minutes, in contrast to the IT Pros, who scored poorly and needed the entire 5 minutes most of the time.
I was up against a really good developer. Of the 80 questions he checked 74 correct answers and only needed 13 minutes to do so. I scored 49 out of 80 and achieved it in 21 minutes. However, due to the results of the people at TechDays, Compu’Train declared me the winner.
That’s right. The largest IT training company of the Netherlands declared me the winner of their Microsoft knowledge contest against 400 other Developers and IT Professionals, declaring me
the best allround-skilled Microsoft IT Professional of the Netherlands!
Thank you!
Indeed. [;)]
> Of the 80 questions he checked 74 correct answers and only needed 13 minutes to do so. I scored 49 out of 80 and achieved it in 21 minutes.
How does that work? You had 6.5 times as many incorrect questions, and you used 60% more time, but you still won?
Sounds like it was near impossible for him to win
Let me explain.
There were two different tests:
During the Dutch TechDays event, hundreds of people did the tests. This produced two results. For developers the high score for instance was 18/20 in a mere 2 minutes. For IT Pros the high score was 13/20. Many Developers didn't need the full 5 minutes at TechDays, while many IT Pros did.
From these scores you might conclude the IT Pro tests were more difficult than the Developer tests…
As was explained before the finale, of each of the two results an average was taken from the 25 best scoring individuals of the score and the time remaining.
As signed by a notary, that average was applied to the scores and time remaining for the finale tests, so that the IT Pro scores and Developer scores were compensated for the different difficulty level.
Since the scores and time remaining for the Top10 individuals in both groups were shared with the contestants, my strategy was to answer as much questions as possible in as little time.
So yea, I mean how is that even fair?