Why do so many certifying organizations have prerequisites like this? Is it mostly to prevent crammers from “passing” and becoming incompetent “certified” practitioners, or is there something more? A big part of me is telling me that requiring prerequisites to take a certification exam is a cop-out and a tacit admission that the exam writers can’t be bothered to actually test for mastery of the material. If the test was actually good enough, then they could just let anyone take it and laugh all the way to the bank every time an incompetent person tried to cram for it.