Archive for category Certifiable Series
Certifiable: Why Get a Vendor/Distribution Neutral Certification? by Ross Brunson
Posted by RossB in Articles, Certifiable Series, Videos on 2010/12/13
Another question often asked, “Why should I get a vendor/distribution neutral certification? Many people go straight for the leader in the industry, only to have that leadership change, companies fortunes change, market-share erode etc.
Getting a vendor neutral certification means you learn LINUX, and specialize from there.
For more video fun, visit the LPICPrep Youtube Channel.
RossB
Certifiable: Choosing a Linux Distribution to Study for the LPIC1 by Ross Brunson
Posted by RossB in Certifiable Series, Videos on 2010/09/29
This is the companion video to the post LPI Certification and Choosing Distributions.
For more video fun, visit the LPICPrep Youtube Channel.
RossB
Certifiable: Why Learn the GUI/TUI AND the Command Line? by Ross Brunson
Posted by RossB in Articles, Certifiable Series, Exam Details, Videos on 2010/07/06
Lots of people want to know if they should learn either the GUI (Graphical User Interface) or the CLI (Command Line Interface for their certification and also for real life sysadmin work. The correct answer is “both” and we talk about why in this video
For more video fun, visit the LPICPrep Youtube Channel.
RossB
Certifiable: Why Get A Linux Certification? by Ross Brunson
Posted by RossB in Articles, Certifiable Series, Videos on 2010/06/17
A much asked question over the years, getting your certification is not easy but it helps you keep current by giving you goals to measure your progress, helps employers determine that you are qualified and gets you into the interview process, where you can really shine.
For more video fun, visit the LPICPrep Youtube Channel.
RossB
Certifiable: Introduction and Welcome to the LPICPrep Channel by Ross Brunson
Posted by RossB in Certifiable Series, Videos on 2010/06/08
Quick introductory video introducing myself and the LPICPrep Youtube Channel, many more coming.
For more video fun, visit the LPICPrep Youtube Channel.
RossB
Certifiable: LPIC Level 1 Exam Question Types – Part 2 of 2
Posted by RossB in Articles, Books, Certifiable Series, Exam Details on 2010/05/20
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.
LPIC Exam Question Types – Continued…
In part 1 of this mini-series we covered how to take apart and answer the more common question types. In this, part 2, we’ll cover some of the lesser-well-known question types, ones that the typical Microsoft or Cisco candidate won’t have any experience with, and that can be much more difficult to answer.
Fill-in-the-Blank Questions
This question type has been nicknamed by attendees of my bootcamps as TFQs (those fine questions). Fill-in-the-blanks are the most difficult of the types because the possibility of guessing your way through one is about zero. There is just the question and a large, long text box to type your answer into. Typically, the exams contain 6–11 of these questions, by my estimation.
Rule: If it works on the command line, it should be correct. Don’t get tricky, though, and try to show off your skills—simpler is better. Always double-check exactly what the question wanted. Don’t type in a long command string for a question that asks just for the command name.
Sample Fill-in-the-Blank Question
What command with necessary switches shows you the information page and a complete listing of files for a downloaded RPM package file named pkg1.rpm? (Type in the answer below.)
_____________________________
Answer rpm –qpil pkg1.rpm is correct. When typing in answers, be sure you use that standard order of options, such as the q character coming first in queries, followed by the rest of the options. Long options, such as –nodeps, are typically entered right after the short options.
Note: There are multiple correct versions of these answers. For example a tar command that uses the – before options is correct, and one that has the same options without a – is correct, too.
LPI has a table in the exam software that contains all the right strings; your answer is matched against this table when you click Next.
Identify-the-Component Questions
Very few of these appear on the LPIC exams, but the odd one has been sighted by a few people, including the author. Essentially, you’re shown a graphic and asked to identify the component or to select the correct component from a list of graphics shown as answers. Don’t get excited about how Linux+-like this type of question is; very few of them appear on the LPIC exams.
Sample Identify-the-Component Question
What is the component in the exhibit? (There will be a picture in the testing interface of a physical component such as a PCMCIA Card.)
❑ A. PCI card
❑ B. VLB card
❑ C. PCMCIA card
❑ D. Async I/O card
Answer C is correct. The card is obviously a PCMCIA card due to the size, style, and connector type on the left side. Answer A is incorrect because the exhibit shows a PCMCIA card. Answer B is incorrect because the exhibit shows a PCMCIA card.
Answer D is incorrect because the phrase Async I/O Card is too ambiguous and doesn’t mean anything.
Warning: Watch out for questions about SCSI connectors or cable ends; counting the pins is
the best option.
Additional Exam Tips
If you are not finished when 95% of the time has elapsed, use the last few minutes to guess your way through the remaining questions.
Tip: Remember that guessing is potentially more valuable than not answering because blank
answers are always wrong, but a guess can turn out to be right.
If you don’t have a clue about any of the remaining questions, pick answers at random or choose all As, Bs, and so on. The important thing is to submit an exam for scoring that has an answer for every question.
Danger, Will Robinson
Be extremely careful when changing previously answered questions! Many an attendee has missed the exam by 10 or 20 points, and when queried how many questions they weren’t sure about and changed, the typical answer is “one or two.” Don’t change answers unless you are certain you have found a better answer in a later question—go with your gut.
Good Luck, we’ll cover next how to go back and study more about what you might have missed, particularly if you’re like a lot of people and get to, umm, take the exam again in a few weeks…
Enjoy,
RossB
Certifiable: LPIC Level 1 Exam Question Types – Part 1 of 2
Posted by RossB in Articles, Books, Certifiable Series, Exam Details on 2010/05/16
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.
LPIC Exam Question Types
In this article, you will learn more about how the LPIC test questions look and how they can and should be answered. Several types will be unfamiliar to those used to Microsoft and Cisco exams; these are covered in detail along with the usual question types/suspects.
Overall, the LPIC exams are most similar to the Sun Solaris exams; they feature the same question types and similar styles of answers. LPIC questions are short, blunt, and easy to answer if you’ve done the action or item being tested. I have seen grown-ups nearly cry in frustration, particularly if the requisite labs and studying haven’t been performed.
Multiple-choice Questions
Multiple-choice questions are single-answer, as opposed to a Choose Two or Choose All That Apply question. LPIs are much the same as any other vendor’s multiple-choice questions. The main difference consists of long command strings and a lot of options to parse through. There is only one answer, and this question type is the easiest to get through.
Tip: An important strategy for getting through multiple-choice questions is to read all the possible answers and discard any that are silly, obscure, or outright wrong. It’s possible to not know the answer and get the question right through the process of elimination.
This is a main reason the LPIC exams have so many of the other question types—they don’t want us to guess our way into a certification! Guessing a Multiple-Choice is not very hard, you have at least a 1 in 4 chance, maybe as high as 50/50 if you read it right.
Sample Multiple-choice Question
Which of the following commands shows the full listing of normal files in the current directory?
❍ A. ls –l
❍ B. ls -1
❍ C. du .
❍ D. df -h
Answer A is correct because the ls command and stat are the only utilities to show a full set of inode information about a file.
Answer B is incorrect because the 1 option shows files in a single column and shows just the filenames.
Answer C is incorrect because the du command doesn’t show the full file information.
Answer D is incorrect because the df command shows only the free/used disk space.
Choose Two/Three Questions
These are a little tougher than the multiple-choice questions because there are usually five or six answers and the question has you choose two or three answers from the available choices. Not selecting enough of the answers marks this question in the review screen as incomplete. If the exam wants you to choose all the correct answers from the list, the question states, “Choose all that apply.”
Sample Choose Two/Three Question
Which steps must be performed before a newly installed hard drive is available for use by a normal user account? (Choose three.)
❑ A. mkfs
❑ B. mount
❑ C. scsi_info
❑ D. dd
❑ E. fdisk
Answers A, B, and E are correct. For a disk to be used by a standard or normal user, it must have at least one partition put on it (fdisk), have a file system of some type on that partition (mkfs), and be mounted by the root user or an entry in the /etc/fstab file that enables users to mount it without the root user’s help.
Answer C is incorrect because the scsi_info tool gathers information about SCSI devices but is not necessary to the process of a user gaining access to a disk.
Answer D is incorrect because the dd command transfers one file format to another but has no effect on users accessing disks.
Choose All That Apply Questions
More difficult than the previous types, these actually make you think through all the possible answers because any of them might be right. LPI is the only vendor to my knowledge that uses these questions with only a single answer in some cases. The best strategy is to read all the answers and mark the correct ones. Use your note paper to keep track if it’s confusing.
Sample Choose All That Apply Question
Which of the following commands creates a second file that is identical to the first? (Choose all that apply.)
❑ A. cp file1 file2
❑ B. cat file1 | file2
❑ C. cp < file1 > file2
❑ D. dd if=file1 of=file2
❑ E. cat file1 > file2
Answers A, D, and E are correct. Using the cp command to copy one file to the other is normal; the difference between answers B and E is the incorrect use of the | symbol to another file. It must be followed by a program, and the unusual usage of the dd command will work in this case.
Answer B is incorrect because files may not be redirected via a pipe symbol (|).
Answer C is incorrect because the use of the < and > characters produces a syntax error.
To Be Continued…
RossB
Certifiable: Preparing for the LPIC Level 1 Certification – Part 2
Posted by RossB in Articles, Certifiable Series, Exam Details on 2010/04/30
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.
In Part 1 of the Certifiable Series we discussed studying for your LPIC, how to succeed and how to fail.
How Ready are You for the Exams?
How ready are you to take and pass the LPI Level 1 exams? This article is designed to give you an inside view of many details that often escape examinees until they’ve taken their first exam, win or lose. Every bit of advance information that can be conveyed to you will help reduce your stress, dispel the unknown and make you that much more likely to succeed in passing your exam.
The Exams
You will be taking two exams as a part of this certification: the 117-101 and 117-102. In older previous versions of the exams you had two choices for the first exam: 117-101 RPM and 117-101 DPKG. The two 101 exams were identical, except that the RPM exam covers the RPM package style, whereas the DPKG exam focuses on Debian’s .deb packaging style.
Now we’re back to two exams, 101 and 102, with topic 102 of exam 101 being Linux Installation and Package Management, containing both the RPM and DPKG packaging styles, as well as adding the YUM package management style.
Sections and Weights
The exam’s are broken up into sections, 101-104 for the first (101) exam, and 105-110 for the second (102) exam, (see below). Each section contains multiple sub-sections, such as GNU and Unix Commands containing 103.1 Work on the command line and 103.3 Perform basic file management, among many others. Each sub-section’s contents are assigned question weights.
Note: Weights on an exam topic denote how many questions are likely to appear on the exam, not how much is scored for each question.
The table below shows the main section numbers, names and weights for reference.
It’s good to know the breakdown of sections and questions for the exams before you take them. This information is not proprietary; it’s just something you don’t typically see unless you take the exams or do extensive research with the LPI Objectives Wiki.
Taking the Actual Exams
The LPIC exams are all 90 minutes in length. A reminder of this time amount is the ticking clock on the screen that lets you know how much time is left before they kick you out of the exam, or you’re done.
Both of the major testing vendors use similarly functioning systems, so anywhere you take the LPIC exams will have the same methodology of exam generation. LPIC exams are randomly generated at the time of registration and then downloaded to the testing center on the day of testing. Each and every exam is randomly generated, with the questions doled out based on the weights and section. If, by chance, two people register at the same time, they might get vaguely similar exams, but it should be noted that even between the two exams the order of the questions and the order of the answers for the questions will be randomized. It’s extremely unlikely that two examinees will get an identical exam or get the same exam mix and questions for a retake. Don’t bother trying to figure out what will appear the next time; be sure to look at the second sheet of your test results and study further for the sections you didn’t do well on.
Taking the exam is quite an adventure, and it involves real thinking as well as skill and time management. This series shows you what to expect and how to deal with the potential problems, puzzles, and predicaments you are likely to encounter.
Beta Questions
Warning: Exams can contain a number of beta questions, making them longer and adding additional time to compensate for those questions. Many examinees are somewhat taken aback by this practice, and I’m not a fan of experimenting on the paying customers in this way, but it’s a fact of life and you should be prepared for it. These beta questions are being vetted, measured for how many people pass or fail each one and then normalize later for inclusion into future exam question pools.
LPI does not let you know beforehand if you’re taking an exam containing beta questions, you just find out when you sign in and start taking the exam. If the number of exam questions is greater than the total of the question weights for that exam’s objectives, you can count on those extra questions being of the beta variety. For example, a normal exam is around 60 questions and allots 1.5 hours to complete the exam, whereas a beta exam will be 80 questions and is alloted 2 hours to complete. Unfortunately, the beta questions are interspersed with the exam questions that count for your score and you can’t safely ignore or skip any question.
For those who have left-over mental capacity while taking an exam, beta or otherwise, please help the process by adding a comment to any question that seems to have a problem or that you feel could be made either more clear or to the point. You’ll get a nice warm feeling of helping others and who knows, you might want to join the exam development group as a result.
Tips and Tricks to Succeed
One of the strategies that attendees seem to have great success with is skipping and marking questions they don’t know or that will take a lot of time to answer. This requires a lot of discipline, contrary to conventional wisdom. I’ve heard of people getting the answers to previous questions from reading and answering later ones—several people who experienced mental vaporlock had their memories jogged by a question and were able to navigate back and change a wrong answer.
This isn’t cheating, no matter what a purist might say. It’s intelligent use of the interface and your own skills; the testing environment is stressful enough without having your brain lock up on you. Additional stressors include a boss who said, “Don’t come back without your certification,” and knowing that everyone else is waiting for you to emerge victorious before they take the exam! Nothing like being the point man or woman….
Ending the Exam
The next-to-last screen presented at the end of the exam is the Review screen. This is where you can see whether you’ve not answered a question (denoted by a red mark next to it), left any choose-two or three questions with too few answers (same red mark), or marked any questions for review (black check/X next to it).
Warning: It’s essential that you revisit the incomplete or marked questions before you click the End Exam button because it’s too late then!
A certain number of attendees will try to outguess the interface and leave the choose-all type of questions with a single or no answer. This does not generate a red mark next to the question, and you might well forget the question, getting it completely wrong.
Tip: If you marked questions and don’t know the answers, for heaven’s sake, guess! It’s possible you’ll get some right and I have seen examinees miss passing by one question in this situation, don’t let it be you!
The exam ends when you click the End Exam button. The system will print out two sheets; the section scores will be on the second sheet. You’re not informed of your score until you get out of the exam room or to the printer!
Getting Your Score
This I feel is unnecessarily stressful and can give your evil-minded instructor a chance to mess with you! If a candidate has actually failed an exam, we are straight-faced, empathetic and helpful in remedying their situation with study tips and the odd shoulder to sob on. However, if a cocky student does pass and needs a bit of teasing, we’re entirely capable of greeting them with a long and serioius face and a conciliatory pat on the back, then springing the winning score on them! Hilarity often ensues.
Enjoy,
RossB
Copyright 2000-2009 Ross Brunson
Certifiable: Preparing for the LPIC Level 1 Certification – Part 3
Posted by RossB in Articles, Certifiable Series on 2010/04/07
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:
- Get Your Candidate ID from LPI
- Register and Schedule Your Exam
- 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:
- Register for an LPI ID.
- Set up preferences.
- 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:
- Schedule Online
- Schedule by Phone
- 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
Certifiable: Preparing for the LPIC Level 1 Certification – Part 1
Posted by RossB in Articles, Certifiable Series on 2010/03/26
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