Disadvantage non native speakers

[Cees]

Last month I have been studying CISSP with the books 

CISSP offical study guide, 7th edition

CISSP offical study guide, 8th edition

CISSP offical student guide, 5th edition

I am not a native English speaker. my mothertongue is Dutch. 

I made an English-Dutch dictionary with 30 essential words. https://quizlet.com/_5ibmh0

1. Some words are essential like non-repudiation but many other words can easily be replaced, e.g. rote memorisation. I call upon the writers of these books to take this into account. The English grammer is already enough of a challenge.

2. There is no Dutch dictionary allowed (online or hardcopy) during the exam, To me this is an unfair disavantage. 

Why can't there be a dictionary provided during the exam. 

Cees Doets

The Netherlands

[dcontesti]

@rslade Rob, prior to being on the Board, "I" was an exam supervisor/proctor and my instructions from the Holy Three (Scott Hayden, Warren Pearce and Ben Gaddy) was no dictionaries of any sort...As with all things they change.

However I still feel that a dictionary could unfairly help a candidate....this is my opinion only.

d

[dcontesti]

Totally agree that English (especially American English) can be and is confusing to non-english speaking folk.  

Just look at words that are spelled the same but mean different things  i.e.: process or process...same word on the surface but in context can mean two different things.

I know (ISC)2 was working on translating exams, etc but it is a costly process (ooops there's that word) and also can take time to do.

I suggest you and others send a note to Member Services with a request for Dutch translation (I believe they can forward to the appropriate folk).

Regards

Diana

[Cees]

>>> However I still feel that a dictionary could unfairly help a candidate....this is my opinion only. >>>

Why do you think this is unfair?

BTW, there is an online dictionary available during the exam for several languages but not Dutch.

Cees Doets

The Netherlands

[rslade]

> dcontesti (Contributor I) mentioned you in a post! Join the conversation below:

> As with all things they change.

Interesting to see the changes over time.
 
> However I still feel that a dictionary could unfairly help a candidate....

Especially if you write cheat notes in the margins 🙂

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[dcontesti]

Sorry missed this one.

I guess it's a personal thing.  If I have a dictionary that spells out the definition of a word, it might/could help lead me to a specific answer....whether that answer may be write or wrong is questionable but it could provide an advantage to some folk.

This is my personal opinion and I may be wrong but then I don't set the rules.

I was not aware that there were dictionaries available during the exam but if there are, it should be fair and they should be available in all languages (again a PERSONAL opinion).

Regards

Diana

[dcontesti]

@rslade

Cheat notes in the margins......HA, I write them on my sleeve 😉

[Cees]

Now I understand your word unfair!

the dictionary I mean is not the explanantion of a word but the translation. 

E.g. Non-repudiation would be onweerlegbaarheid in the Dutch laguage.

[dcontesti]

Thanks for clearing up that.  I went to the literal meaning of the word dictionary.....

I have no issue with a straight translation between languages 

Have a great week

Diana

[kmjordan]

I took my CSSLP exam at the end of a boot camp training class week.  Of the 12 class participants, 7 of us elected to take the exam that week.  Of the 7 exam takers, 5 were native English speakers, and 2 were not.  The 5 native English speakers passed, and the 2 non-native English speakers did not. 

While taking the exam, I noted that a lot of the keywords that had been covered during training were not on the exam - instead, synonyms were used, so English vocabulary became vital to understanding the questions.  I suspect a dictionary (or perhaps a thesaurus!) would have been helpful to the non-native English speakers, and wonder if that was a contributing factor in the exam results.