On Wed, 2010-01-13 at 14:05 -0500, Will Kane wrote: > I'll be sitting for the RHCE exam late next week. I'm hoping the > community can offer some advice on what to do and/or not do in final > preparation for the exam and on exam day.
Everything you need to know is covered here ... "RHCE and RHCT Exam Preparation Guide" http://www.redhat.com/certification/rhce/prep_guide/ If you have hands-on experience with everything listed in that guide, and can accomplish tasks with that knowledge in a timely fashion, you should do well. Even if you do not correctly complete all of the RHCE tasks, you can still obtain the RHCT. > I've been a unix/Linux user for many years as well as a system > adminstrator on non-unix/Linux systems. However, I've only had > systems admin responsibilities for RHEL for a few months. I have > recently graduated from a Red Hat Academy course which did not offer > the exam. That all gives me some readiness for the exam, but it is > far from automatic that I would pass. The Red Hat Academy programs are designed to bring the training to a more traditional institution. They are well received much like the equivalent Cisco programs. Some Academies can proctor exams (have RHCX on-staff). Some cannot. If you've been through the Academy, that bodes very well for yourself. For those that aren't familiar, Red Hat Academy is separate from the at-location or on-site Red Hat training options: http://www.redhat.com/solutions/education/academy/ > I'd very much welcome any insights, suggestions, gotchas, etc from > those of you who have taken the exam. I made all suggestions that can be made above. Experience from the Red Hat exam cannot be conveyed by candidates who have sat the exam prior, per NDA. I.e., it's always in our collective best interest for candidates not to even ask. Red Hat exams are "performance-based," _hands-on_ system exams. Not simulations. Not "performance-based" but with remote connections to virtualized guest images (select Novell and Microsoft's** new 083-xxx series** exams do this). _Real_ systems in front of you. With hands-on, assume what you wish about how much can be tested, in various combinations, over X number of hours because there are no delays, no test or simulation software issues/startup time, etc... ;) Make good use of your time as in any exam as you would during "real world" downtime -- it's as real as it gets. [ SIDE NOTE: That's one of the phrases I use when people ask me how the RHCE/RHCA examination is "different"** ] You may have sat other IT exams before. I have sat Cisco (CCDP/CCNP, not the CCIE), Citrix, CIW, LPI, Microsoft, Novell, Sun and several others (around 50 total). These exams can be completed with plenty of time remaining (I often complete them within only 30-40% of the time allotted, with 60-70% remaining). You can do these at your leisure if you know the content, and even people "fudge" their way through them. Best of luck. You will pass if you are experienced with everything in the prep guide. Cannot stress that enough, and why the format succeeds like it does and is considered the benchmark in the industry by independent media and review outlets. ;) -- Bryan **NOTE: If anyone is interested in my experience with Microsoft's first every 083-xxx series exam that is allegedly "performance based," 083-640 (TS: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring), check out half-way down this entry (starting with "Welcome to 083-640 and the "Lost Connection"): http://bjs-redhat.livejournal.com/2970.html "Normally, the tasks they give you here would only take 10 minutes, possibly only 5, if you knew what you were doing. If you have to look through a few minute items or launch a couple of programs or -- even more so -- expand those detailed policies to find the few policy objects you want to modify, but don't remember the exact hiearchy to get there, maybe 10-15 minutes on a local system. But no, were remote, major latency, and the screen paints like garbage. That's why they give you 60 minutes." I like to point this out to those that say, "oh, Microsoft has introduced 'performance-based testing' like Red Hat." Umm, no. They merely leveraged Novell's existing Linux-based approach (yes, using Linux to test for Windows -- right down to the lack of full integration with ADS and an "unverified certificate" in the NTLM connection ;). Even several Novell people I know who have sat both agree that it is not comparable to Red Hat's hands-on a real system with no latency. ;) -- Bryan J Smith Senior Consultant Red Hat, Inc Professional Consulting http://www.redhat.com/consulting mailto:[email protected] +1 (407) 489-7013 (Mobile) mailto:[email protected] (Blackberry/Red Hat-External) -------------------------------------------------------- You already know Red Hat as the entity dedicated to 100% no-IP-strings-attached, community software development. But do you know where CIOs rate Red Hat versus other software and services firms for their own, direct needs, year after year? http://www.redhat.com/promo/vendor/ _______________________________________________ rhelv5-list mailing list [email protected] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rhelv5-list
