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Hi all, I completely concur with the opinion listed in Sander's email regarding the value of "hands on" certification. I am a RHCE and instructor myself and I firmly believe that LPIC should be a "hands on" exam, not a multiple choice exam. Sander correctly states the biggest issue regarding "hands on" exams: How these sorts of exams can be administered throughout the world while maintaining the integrity of the exam seems to be a daunting task. However, another concern is that to make an exam "hands on" really requires you to pick a specific distro to do the exam on. This appears to "break" the LPIC mandate of making "vendor neutral" exam. My thoughts on these two issues: #1 Putting together a "hands on" exam is not impossible. While it may not be possible to make use of the current delivery methods (Prometric or other testing centers), it is possible by putting together a new matrix of testing centers. Using existing testing centers may seem like an easy solution, but easy isn't always "best" (otherwise we would all think Microsoft Windows is the "best" Operating System). I think you will find that many training sites would be interested in becoming a LPIC testing center (I will volunteer my training site in San Diego, Technical Training Resources, for example). Picking a single testing center in a geographic location can make the administration of this matrix less daunting.Those are my thoughts...I'm interested in what others have to say! -Bo Rothwell Sander van Vugt wrote: Hi List, Just proctered the 101 and 102 last weekend for 13 guys in the Netherlands. Amongst them was a true Linux expert, who commented "I'm sure I've failed". His - IMHO correct - remark: Why should I know the difference between blah -d and blah -D if in the real world I would do blah --help to find out how it works and use the command appropriately within 30 seconds? I couldn't agree to him more, especially after listening to some examples about the questions that these people have had. Please allow me to elaborate a little."hands on" certifications seem to make so much more sense these days. Take the Novell CLP/CLE or the Red Hat RHCE exams, these measure real working knowledge of real working systems. I know, this isn't possible because we (LPI) want to be able to take exams everywhere, even if no infrastructure is available, and do it for a reasonable price as well. So that's a dead end. Any alternative that would work? Well, maybe there is. Has anyone of you ever taken a Microsoft test? In their more advanced tests, they have scenario's and try to measure real world knowledge. For example: let's say we want to make a question in which we want to measure knowledge of the tar command. You can go two directions: 1) A user wants to make a compressed backup of his home directory. What command would he use? a. tar -zfvx . b. tar -cz . c. tar -czf blah . Another way is by making it a tiny little scenario in which we don't measure knowledge of options, but the ability to use the command (I know, the question is lame, it's the idea that counts): 2) A user has problems making an archive of his home directory. Every time he tries to do so, he gets an error message: "Cowardly refusing to create an empty archive". Which is the most likely cause for this error? a. he tries to make a tar for a directory that is empty b. he has forgotten the -f option to specify the file he wants to make the backup for c. he has forgotten a specification like . at the end of the command to indicate what exactly he has forgotten. I know, asking questions in this way makes LPI 1 easier compared to what it is now. This adds to the thought that Matt has had recently, that maybe the level should be somewhat lower. If we *really* want to make LPIC-1 a junior level admin certification, we shouldn't ask about options no one ever uses, we should ask about things that are used in real life. Small scenario questions are so much more real. To finish this, a fact that shocked me. Just to do a self test, I did some of those preparations that you can find on the internet myself. I'm not new to Linux, I'm using it since 1993 and I hold all relevant Linux certifications and passed LPIC-1 a long time ago. Also I'm a trainer, preparing junior admins for their jobs as a Linux admin at least a week a month, doing that for more than seven years now. Guess what my results were? Yes, I failed. Either I must be a very stupid person / drank to much beer the evening before, or something really is wrong. Looking forward to your comments. Sander van Vugt _______________________________________________ lpi-examdev mailing list [email protected] http://list.lpi.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lpi-examdev |
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