Joy,
inline:
1. As the actual exam pattern recently changed, is the practice exam following the same pattern to ensure that the topic/depth coverage reflects the actual exam and can give the fair idea about the exam readiness ?
[answer] Yes, we think so. The practice test is based on the same objectives as the high stakes exam and includes rationales and explanations of those objectives. In order to ensure integrity in the exam, and because we see items shared online frequently on test cheating sites, we change the exam every month (roughly 10-20%) but it's based on the same objectives and the practice test always gets changed first (the month previous).
The exam changes were also based on the forensics we see where people try and learn the test rather than learn the skills and knowledge critical to successful Hadoop development. As such, the test goes quite keep into sythesizing ideas and concepts that aren't easily learned from a book without, of course, hands-on experience. The practice test tries to point the way in the rationales to learn those ideas, but hands-on experience, understanding code, being able to identify what's happening in a job, combined with the practice test is still the best way to prepare.
2. There are 60 questions in practice test and subscription will be for 180 days. If during these 180 days, if pattern again changes, will the changes get applied to practice test as well? If yes, will I get email notification?
[answer] We're adding 10 new items each month to the practice test in 2014. You start with 60-70 and get 10 fresh each month. We don't email out when changes occur as we add whenever we can. If we find someone has shared an item from the test on LinkedIn or a test cheating site, we kill the item from the high stakes test and move it to the production test and replace it with another around the same concept but uncompromised.
3. During my subscription, if I retake this practice test, will it be same 60 question or its kind of pool of questions and I can expect new question in reattempts.
[answer] I think the above applies here. Right now, there are 60. I'm about to add 10 this week and maybe 30 in the next two weeks as I have a backlog now of new items. So soon, you'll have 80 and we're aiming to add 10 new ones each month until we have 120-150 by mid-year. The "magic" though isn't in gaming or learning or practicing on lots of items, it's on the concepts. Not that items aren't important but we're growing that as the ecosystem grows, as CDH5 releases etc.
