That would be an accurate statement, if that was truly ISC’s intentions. But I find that hard to believe, honestly what it seems like is that they are promoting this certification as a test to see what it looks like in the industry and they are using puppets as they’re test bunnies. I can assure you that if this trial doesn’t go well, they will remove the cert from their body.
In any case, ISC doesn’t lose money nor do they just hand out free stuff. ISC has done a darn good job making that pretty clear, that being said I was and have never expected to have a free retake. What I do expect is a company being willing to work with someone when they have a need to reschedule, honestly I think it’s ridiculous that a fee was charged to me the day after I booked the exam and that they had no decency to even try to work with me. It also sickens me that for someone taking a CISSP they could potentially be out $1400, there are plenty of other certification bodies that are just as credible and it seems like ISC really needs to relook at their policies regarding retakes and reschedules. I don’t expect a retake to be free but at the very least it could be discounted.
All this said, I just don’t feel the certification is worth $199 and it’s ludicrous to charge such a price. It’s no more valuable than a entry level Microsoft cert that costs $99
