RHCSA Scoring

Hi all, so I have just sat my RHCSA exam. I got through 3/4 of the questions with relevant ease, my machine was was boot able, yet I have just received my score which was 0. Can anyone shed any light on why this would be?

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hiddenknight821

Ouch. If I were you, I'd contact the certification support team. I hope they'll provide you an explanation of your scoring report.

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brombulec

Maybe the root password was different from the requested one - the 0 score indicates that the test engine was unable to log in to your system.
On my RH exams I had 5 or 6 different root passwords and the first and the most important task was to change the password to the provided one (for RHCSA/RHCE exams). It's easy to make a typo and use for example "paswword" instead of "password".

vampug

Have them investigate this properly, especially if you did the KIOSK exam. I scored 20/300 for the ex210K even though I completed every task. RH kept saysing that they stood by their marking and due to the NDA could not discuss. I rewrote the exam in the classroom 2 weeks later, did exactly the same and scored 260. I noticed that the web portal was different between the kiosk exam (openstack v4) and the classroom exam (openstack v5).

Finally, 2 months later, RH said there had been a mistake and I had passed the exam both times - I got my exam refunded and pressed the for a ROL course as compensation for my time/travel/leave etc.

If you sincerely believe that you had a passing score, used the correct passwords and that the server was bootable, then I would ask them to reinvestigate.

As I told them, if they had scored me 100, I'd be p!ssed, but would accept it, but 20/300 was not possible ...

> >>> I apologise for the delay in our response; this is due in part to
> >> the
> >>> degree of difficulty and detail involved in restarting your exam
> >> systems
> >>> and re-evaluating the results. We also wanted to do a review and
> >> make
> >>> certain other candidates were not similarly afflicted. After a
> >> review by the
> >>> exam developer it appears that due to a bug in OpenStack we
> >> incorrectly
> >>> evaluated your first exam results and that you did indeed pass your
> >>> first attempt.
> >>>
> >>> Since you have already retaken EX210, we would like to extend to you
> >> the
> >>> offer to take an exam of your choice at no charge.

asummers

vampug wrote: »

Have them investigate this properly, especially if you did the KIOSK exam. I scored 20/300 for the ex210K even though I completed every task. RH kept saysing that they stood by their marking and due to the NDA could not discuss. I rewrote the exam in the classroom 2 weeks later, did exactly the same and scored 260. I noticed that the web portal was different between the kiosk exam (openstack v4) and the classroom exam (openstack v5).

Finally, 2 months later, RH said there had been a mistake and I had passed the exam both times - I got my exam refunded and pressed the for a ROL course as compensation for my time/travel/leave etc.

If you sincerely believe that you had a passing score, used the correct passwords and that the server was bootable, then I would ask them to reinvestigate.

As I told them, if they had scored me 100, I'd be p!ssed, but would accept it, but 20/300 was not possible ...

> >>> I apologise for the delay in our response; this is due in part to
> >> the
> >>> degree of difficulty and detail involved in restarting your exam
> >> systems
> >>> and re-evaluating the results. We also wanted to do a review and
> >> make
> >>> certain other candidates were not similarly afflicted. After a
> >> review by the
> >>> exam developer it appears that due to a bug in OpenStack we
> >> incorrectly
> >>> evaluated your first exam results and that you did indeed pass your
> >>> first attempt.
> >>>
> >>> Since you have already retaken EX210, we would like to extend to you
> >> the
> >>> offer to take an exam of your choice at no charge.

That's pretty awful - and glad you were able to reach an agreeable conclusion.

That being said, the amount of people who get a 0 and then go on to say "I didn't reboot am am confident it was bootable" is shocking.

If someone got a 0 I am more inclined to believe it's a correct score than 20.

Congrats on passing it both times

vampug

I agree, failed reboot is most likely, but I did meet a guy coming out of the kiosk exam before my exam that had problems twice with the kiosk exam. If I had a choice, I'd do my remaining exams in the classroom as the instructor can always advise/prod you in the right direction. When I did my RHCSA and RHCE exams I rebooted after every couple of tasks - better safe than sorry.

asummers

vampug wrote: »

I agree, failed reboot is most likely, but I did meet a guy coming out of the kiosk exam before my exam that had problems twice with the kiosk exam. If I had a choice, I'd do my remaining exams in the classroom as the instructor can always advise/prod you in the right direction. When I did my RHCSA and RHCE exams I rebooted after every couple of tasks - better safe than sorry.

Agreed. Biggest problem I have with the Kiosk is that sometimes a question can have 2 meanings and not always clear, the person at the other end of the kiosk exam is no comparison to having a real instructor.

vampug

And I was surprised during an instructor led exam when another student had a problem and the instructor, on advice from RH in the US, expanded a disk for the student, allowing him to continue with rest of the exam - to me me, it was blatantly clear that the student didn't read the tasks clearly, created a volume on the incorrect disk and run out of space. In a kiosk exam, you'd just run out of space and be unable to complete the exam. At the time, I thought it was a bit unfair.

hiddenknight821

So would you say our odd of passing would be greater if we're to take it in a classroom versus sitting in front of a kiosk? I'm not suggesting that we'd get helps from the proctors, but rather we can reduce or eliminate the technical problems as the proctors are there to help on our behalves.

vampug

I would definitely say that it is better to do it in the classroom. The Examiners in the classroom are from Redhat or contracted in by Redhat and are generally the instructors that have led the class leading up to the exam so, in my opinion, there is a definite empathy with the examinees. When you do the kiosk exam, you are dealing with someone who knows nothing about the course or exam.

Also, the kiosk keyboard, in the UK anyway, is a US keyboard, a shift 2 is not a shift2 and has a tiny "Enter" key, are generally crap and the monitor is smaller in my opinion.

In almost every classroom led exam I have taken, the instructors have "led" the examinees as much as they can within whatever the "law" is - whether it is telling the guy that what he's looking for might be in the man pages or to look at the info pages - when I did my openstack exam, I didn't realize that a lot of the openstack material/docs was available to view - only when the instructor highlighted the availability of it for another student, did I become aware of it (I think if you attend the course, it helps too).

Thechainremains

so now, if you take the exam in the classroom because you paid thousands of dollars they will help get a passing mark. That's pretty unfair. Why not just be transparent with what was done incorrectly or caused a failing mark.

asummers

Thechainremains wrote: »

so now, if you take the exam in the classroom because you paid thousands of dollars they will help get a passing mark. That's pretty unfair. Why not just be transparent with what was done incorrectly or caused a failing mark.

They won't take your exam for you. Best they will do if clarify an understanding of a question - it is still up to you to complete the tasks set out.

I have an example in my exam where a question was unclear and on flagging it to the instructor they also did not know which way the question should be interpreted, they contacted US and clarified. I still had to do the task.

vampug

Thechainremains wrote: »

so now, if you take the exam in the classroom because you paid thousands of dollars they will help get a passing mark. That's pretty unfair. Why not just be transparent with what was done incorrectly or caused a failing mark.

Sadly I have never had the money for the courses, it's hard enough scraping the money for the exams - £3k so far this year. The instructors will not give you the answers or do the work for you, but, if there are problems with the environment or with the exam, they are on hand to help, and if it is not a problem, they will tell you. I forgot to set up repos for one of my exams - duh - I was 20 minutes late (sitting on the wrong floor in the exam building - it was the floor where I took my previous exam) and wasn't paying attention and didn't read the instructions - which clearly told you the "baseline". I asked if there was something wrong with the repos and the RedHat invigilator immediately said "no", so I knew it was my problem. In a kiosk exam, I would of faff'ed around for 20 minutes or so ( would have probably figured it out by then) before I asked the invigilator to speak to the RedHat team.

For multiple choice exams, when something goes wrong, you go ask the receptionist to fix it, however with a lab based exam, where you might be working on up to six servers that need to be installed, configured and lots of other stupid things, having a Redhat invigilator in the room is a lot easier than going through a kiosk, speaking to someone who knows nothing about your exam.

Thechainremains

I still say.. thats very unfair or lopsided.. but shelling out $3,400 has to buy you something..

vampug

Lots of things are unfair, such is life. Redhat wont even give me an eval copy of Satellite server and am writing the exam in 2.5 weeks. If you don't go on the course, then doing the exams is a lot tougher and you miss out on any tips. To reiterate, the money I have forked out so far, is only for the exams. the £600 is the cost of the exam and nothing more. However, having to fudge your way through things and build a lab environment on your own, gives you a much better understanding than just doing the course. When you do the course, every command you type just works. When you build your own lab, nothing ever works, so in the exam when things go wrong, sometimes, you have already seen the problem, or you might have a better understanding on how to fix it or work around it - so I keep telling myself

hiddenknight821

I thought we can sit the classroom exam without paying for the full-classroom fee. IIRC, all we have to do is show up on the exam day after paying the exam fee, of course.

asummers

vampug wrote: »

Lots of things are unfair, such is life. Redhat wont even give me an eval copy of Satellite server and am writing the exam in 2.5 weeks. If you don't go on the course, then doing the exams is a lot tougher and you miss out on any tips. To reiterate, the money I have forked out so far, is only for the exams. the £600 is the cost of the exam and nothing more. However, having to fudge your way through things and build a lab environment on your own, gives you a much better understanding than just doing the course. When you do the course, every command you type just works. When you build your own lab, nothing ever works, so in the exam when things go wrong, sometimes, you have already seen the problem, or you might have a better understanding on how to fix it or work around it - so I keep telling myself

Not very impressed that you can't get a eval copy of Sat Server - I did.

You can test 90% of the exam objectives with Spacewalk but there is no opensource equivalent of SAM server which is an exam requirement. The general look and feel is a bit different too but not substantially.

You should be able to get a 30 day trial.

vampug

asummers wrote: »

Not very impressed that you can't get a eval copy of Sat Server - I did.

You can test 90% of the exam objectives with Spacewalk but there is no opensource equivalent of SAM server which is an exam requirement. The general look and feel is a bit different too but not substantially.

You should be able to get a 30 day trial.

I am not impressed either, they have changed their policy now. I contacted training, pre sales, sales and have a meeting with one of their account managers after my openshift exam today. I also tracked down the guy who signs the certificates, who is the head of the RHCA program and have been pestering him as well - and he is trying to sort it out for me now.

asummers

vampug wrote: »

I am not impressed either, they have changed their policy now. I contacted training, pre sales, sales and have a meeting with one of their account managers after my openshift exam today. I also tracked down the guy who signs the certificates, who is the head of the RHCA program and have been pestering him as well - and he is trying to sort it out for me now.

Good luck - you might want to have a read of the below 2 redhat links which show how SAM integrates with sat server but you will not be able to try it out without sat server

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Satellite/5.6/html/Installation_Guide/sect-Installation_Guide-Entitlements-Enhanced_Entitlements_Reporting-Summary.html

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Satellite/5.6/html/Installation_Guide/sect-Installation_Guide-Entitlements-Enhanced_Entitlements_Reporting-Configuration.html

vampug

asummers wrote: »

Good luck - you might want to have a read of the below 2 redhat links which show how SAM integrates with sat server but you will not be able to try it out without sat server

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Satellite/5.6/html/Installation_Guide/sect-Installation_Guide-Entitlements-Enhanced_Entitlements_Reporting-Summary.html

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Satellite/5.6/html/Installation_Guide/sect-Installation_Guide-Entitlements-Enhanced_Entitlements_Reporting-Configuration.html

Thx for the info, start tomorrow studying for the ex401.

Still waiting for my results for openshift, my last 2 exams have taken 2 days to get the results, whereas exams before I'd normally get the results within a couple of hours - very frustrating. Fingers crossed, made a mistake and didn't complete 2 tasks, so I think it will be touch and go. Mofo's had one task as not part of the exam points, but I knew how to do that one. And one task that wasn't even in the course material, bit p!ssed about that. Will complain if I don't pass.

vampug

Passed ex401, failed ex280 (but lodged a complaint and got a free rewrite)

FYI If you fail, check the objectives that are listed on the website. If there are tasks in your exam that aren't encompassed by the listed objectives then you might have a case. In the ex280 exam, there were 2 tasks (whch I hadn't bothered to read up on) that were not from the listed objectives (objectives listed chapter x, y, z, but 2 tasks were from chapter b,c etc). RH acknowledged that the exam objectives were correct, but they hadn't updated their website.

asummers

vampug wrote: »

Passed ex401, failed ex280 (but lodged a complaint and got a free rewrite)

FYI If you fail, check the objectives that are listed on the website. If there are tasks in your exam that aren't encompassed by the listed objectives then you might have a case. In the ex280 exam, there were 2 tasks (whch I hadn't bothered to read up on) that were not from the listed objectives (objectives listed chapter x, y, z, but 2 tasks were from chapter b,c etc). RH acknowledged that the exam objectives were correct, but they hadn't updated their website.

That's useful information. I always try to remember some of the more basic RHSCA commands networking, yum, forgotten root password that kind of thing fresh in case there is a gotcha or if I screw up

vampug

Oh yea, I got my Satellite eval 39 minutes before my exam started