Certifiable is a series dedicated to helping you get ready to take the LPIC 1 exams, both in mental state and how to study and experiment more effectively.

Registering and Taking LPI Exams

There are three things you need to do to take an LPI exam with one of the testing providers:

1. Get Your Candidate ID from LPI
2. Register and Schedule Your Exam
3. Show up and take the Exam

Getting Your Candidate ID from LPI

The first thing you’ll have to do as an LPI exam candidate is to go to the LPI site and register to get your candidate ID.  You can do this by navigating to the LPI home page, then select the “Certification” button on the top menu to open the Certification page, and click on the “Register Now” link on the left panel.  This will take you to the Registration page, where you can click on the “register here” link to start the registration process.

Note:  If you already have an LPI Candidate ID, you should NOT register yourself again, you’ll have multiple ID’s and exams won’t count properly.

Completing the registration is a three step process:

1. Register for an LPI ID.
2. Set up preferences.
3. Optional demographic information.

Once you’ve filled out the form and agreed to the terms, press the “Submit” button and you’ll be shown a page that contains your sparkling-new LPI ID.  Print the page, email it to yourself, write it down, but remember that number, it’s key to being able to schedule an exam with the testing providers.

Note:  If you somehow lose the number, or the browser crashes before you can print it out or write it down, just login to the LPI member area and you’ll see your number at the top of the page.

Registering and Scheduling an Exam

Taking your exam requires you to register and pay for the exam first, which you can do by visiting either VUE or Prometric‘s sites.  For example, to register and schedule an exam via VUE, you would navigate to the VUE website, click on the “Learn” tab and from the menu in the middle of the page select “Information Technology – IT” and scroll down in the right panel to select the “Linux Professional Institute — LPI” item.

This will load up the page that pertains to the LPI Programs, where you can search for the right exam, locate a testing center, manage your exams and get support for any issues you might encounter.  You can also navigate directly to this page by appending “/lpi” to the end of the VUE site URL.

There are three options for scheduling an exam:

1. Schedule Online
2. Schedule by Phone
3. Schedule through Testing Center

Warning:  if you choose to schedule online you will have to go through yet ANOTHER registration process with the testing provider to complete the scheduling online.

Show Up and Take the Exam

When you arrive at the testing center to take your exam, you need to sign in with an exam proctor. They will ask you to show two forms of identification, one of which must be a photo ID, preferably government issued. After you have signed in, you are asked to deposit any books, bags, or other items you brought with you. Then you are escorted into the closed room that houses the exam seats.

All exams are completely closed book, open mind. In fact, you typically aren’t permitted to take anything with you into the testing area. Some centers are a little more relaxed than others; shop around to find one that suits you. Some gladly give you extra paper or laminated sheets, but others might seem stingy or suspicious of your motives. Try to understand what might have caused those behaviors—for instance, the center might have been plagued by cheaters and questionable examinees in the past.

You will be furnished with a variety of possible note-taking materials, all of which must be surrendered upon exiting the exam room. Possible scenarios include: a pen or pencil and blank sheets of paper; a notepad of paper and writing implements; and a laminated sheet of paper and an erasable felt-tip pen.

Tips for Remembering Key Information

You are allowed to write down any information you want on your writing tablet or whatever the center has provided for you. You should memorize as much of the material you think you’ll have a hard time with, charts, tables etc. so you can write that information on the blank sheets as soon as you are seated in front of the computer.  Take a few minutes before you hit the exam start button to write down all the items you memorized and think you’ll need.

Tip:  Here’s the key to using the writing materials you have been given: Write down anything you want to remember for the exam, starting from the moment they sign you in.

They (the mythical they) say that humans only use 10% of their brain’s capacity, with no one quite sure what the other 90% is taken up with. I can tell you something that no scientist will agree with, but I know to be true for techies: It’s all operating system overhead! We use it for motor skills, surfing games, and finding the nearest Starbucks.

You have only a limited amount of mental RAM, so use it wisely and commit things you know you’ll need to paper as a way to free up that 10% of your brain so it can all be used for the purpose of taking the exam.

The Testing Room

Typically, the room will be furnished with anywhere from 2 to 30 computer stations, each of which should be separated from the others by dividers designed to keep you from seeing what is happening on someone else’s computer. Most test rooms feature a wall with a large picture window. This permits the exam proctor to monitor the room, prevent exam takers from talking to one another, and observe anything out of the ordinary that might go on. The exam proctor will have preloaded the appropriate LPIC certification exams. You’re permitted to start as soon as you sit down in front of the computer. Ensure that you agree to the testing agreement, as refusing to do so will void your exam.

Note;  You might experience a wide variety of types and styles of testing centers, as well as differences in enforcement of policy, so shop around and find one that meets your needs and style.  I have literally taken exams in an approved testing center that was off to the side of an airplane hangar, with a friendly but somewhat-disinterested cat sitting on the table while I took my exam.

Enjoy,

RossB

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Certifiable is a series dedicated to helping you get ready to take the LPIC 1 exams, both in mental state and how to study and experiment more effectively.

Let’s Roll

So, you’ve decided you need to get a Linux Cert, and have chosen the Linux Professional Institute’s LPIC Level 1.  Excellent — it’s not an easy cert, but I’m absolutely certain I can be of assistance in your reaching this goal.

Plenty of people have taken the Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC) exams, but only approximately 40% make it through the first exam (101) on the first try. That’s a pretty slim margin, but it helps keep the certification worthy and respected in the exam industry.

It’s funny, but if you have someone take the two exams (101 and 102) that make up the LPIC Level 1 cert back to back, they’ll usually do worse on the 102 exam.  If they pass the 101 exam, then work for a while at those tasks and study for the 102, they usually do BETTER on the 102 exam, mostly because they have practiced and absorbed the tasks that make it easier to understand what’s being asked, and have some frame of reference for being able to answer those harder and higher-level questions.

Realistically, people prepare for the LPIC exams in several ways—some advisable, others not quite cheating but not recommended. It’s better to avoid even the appearance of cheating, and you’ll feel much better about the resulting cert if you play it by the book.

Studying and Preparing

The following list is a (recommended) set of things you should do to prepare for this set of exams (and others):

• Study the objectives, thoroughly.
• Understand every command listed in the objectives.
• Try everything mentioned several times on a live machine.
• Read every study guide in existence.
• Buy books like this one and read them thoroughly.
• Search the Web to find answers (known hereafter as Googling).
• Take a class, do all the labs, and use it as a springboard to learn more.
• Acquire your own Linux guru to bug incessantly with questions about how things work.
• Join your local Linux user group (LUG) and geek out regularly, or start the local LUG if it doesn’t already exist.
• Read every study and article (TCO, implementation, and so on) published on the topic.
• Regularly learn a new topic and focus on measurable steps.

Now for the list of things you should avoid when preparing for these (or any) exams:

• Surfing the “braindump” sites; most of the answers are fallacious at best, and fantasy and criminally wrong at worst.
• Using test-preparation guides that purport to “guarantee” your passing.
• Several vendors offer what (at least to this author) look like exact copies of the questions. This is illegal.
• Using study-buddy situations in which a group of candidates serially take the exam, slowly building a pool of questions for later examinees.

Taking an exam can be a very nerve-wracking experience. When I do bootcamps, part of the introductory briefing is to take everyone to the testing center and let them see the “torture chamber” so it’s not unknown when exam time comes.

Take Heart, Grasshopper

The LPIC exams are one of the most difficult in the industry, and I’m not just telling you this to make you uncomfortable, either. The usual Microsoft or Cisco question can be quite wordy, with a lot of fluff and distracters—not the LPIC. LPIC questions are rarely more than a couple of sentences and are usually as blunt as a two-by-four to the knees.

Rather than worry about the environment and how the testing center will be, concentrate on the exam questions, the types and strategies, and how you’ll prepare for the exam.  Good preparation makes the rest of the experience take a back seat. You’re there to take the exam, not worry about whether they’ll give you enough paper or pens.

Prepare — For Success

This series—besides explaining the LPIC exam environment and software, will describe some proven exam-taking strategies you should be able to use to your advantage.

Enjoy,

RossB

Copyright 2000-2009 Ross Brunson

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