RHCE study strategies (Need advice from current RHCEs)

_root

Hi,

I'm just scouting out the best way to approach RHCE.
Goal: Is to pass the RHCE as efficiently as possible.
Resources:
Sander Van Vught's prep guide..both video and book
Asghar Ghor's RHCSA & RHCE Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: Training and Exam Preparation Guide (EX200 and EX300)
Jang's RHCSA/RHCE Red Hat Linux Certification Study Guide (Exams EX200 & EX300)
LinuxAcademy.com RHCE
Certdepot

My dilemma is that as you can see- a lot of choices regarding material and I'm lost of how to approach this.

I have given myself until October with exam on the 31st. I have pretty much all the time I want/day studying for it until then


Any advice from current RHCEs or those have their method figured out?

Verities

I think Bodanel and WolfinSheepsClothing are the two most recent RHCEs that regularly contribute on TE. I've been slacking on scheduling mine , even though I've gone through all the material and labbed a ton.

I mostly study at work, since I most of the RHCE objectives are in line with my daily tasks. I only suggest using this method if you are approved to do so or else you could risk losing your job.

Moving on to study materials...I've used Sander's book and videos for the RHCSA and RHCE. His RHCE videos expect you to know more, so its compressed into 8 hours and he doesn't hold your hand as much as in the RHCSA videos. The book is OK, but I really haven't seen much use of it. The reason I chose Sander's materials was because he was the first well known author/trainer to get RHEL 7 RHCSA/RHCE material out. I skipped over Asghar and Jang books, but I did go through all 28 hours of videos from Linux Academy. If you have to pick one way to go I suggest Linux Academy because they provide the lab and video instruction, both of which assume you know very little, so there's more hand holding which is nice.

If you already have RHEL/CentOS experience, I suggest printing out the objective and marking which ones you know both forwards and backwards. Then mark which ones you either have no or little experience with. I use a 1-10 scale for each objective (10 being I know it very well, 1 being I need to seriously work on it). Then review videos for those that you know and you can lab along with the videos or lab afterward (that's what I do) until you are 10/10 with each objective. If I can get to 7 or 8 for each objective and know where to reference them in the man pages, then I move on to the next objective. You can't be expected to remember everything, unless you have a photographic memory, you just need to know enough to pass the exam with a 210/300.

Bodanel

Hey root

I've used the following methodology for both exams. I've took a source that contains all info on the matter (Vugt's book). I've read it and done all the labs there. Then I took the objectives from Red Hat exam page and did a lab that contains all methods for solving an objective. For example: SSH configure aditional options. Read SSH man page try to figure what will probably usefull in production - create a tunnell, SSH keepalive, SSH port, SSH timeout. Understand these options and configure them. Lab will be probably bigger than the exam however you will have a breeze. To keep it short: complement your primary source with others.

I've finished all topics in RHCSA in 1h40 min but going slow due to emotions and trying not to miss anything. In RHCE I've had almost 30 minutes to spare but I could have done it in less. As I'm not a native english speaker I've had some trouble understanding one of the subjects and the proctor didnt care much to explain. Also what I've noticed during my debate with him that it doesnt do much production these days and, in many ways, I'm better prepared for his job than he is for mine

_root

Bodanel wrote: »

Hey root

I've used the following methodology for both exams. I've took a source that contains all info on the matter (Vugt's book). I've read it and done all the labs there. Then I took the objectives from Red Hat exam page and did a lab that contains all methods for solving an objective. For example: SSH configure aditional options. Read SSH man page try to figure what will probably usefull in production - create a tunnell, SSH keepalive, SSH port, SSH timeout. Understand these options and configure them. Lab will be probably bigger than the exam however you will have a breeze. To keep it short: complement your primary source with others.

I've finished all topics in RHCSA in 1h40 min but going slow due to emotions and trying not to miss anything. In RHCE I've had almost 30 minutes to spare but I could have done it in less. As I'm not a native english speaker I've had some trouble understanding one of the subjects and the proctor didnt care much to explain. Also what I've noticed during my debate with him that it doesnt do much production these days and, in many ways, I'm better prepared for his job than he is for mine

Which lab are you talking about here?

Thanks for your input.

Bodanel

Build by yourself. I have in project to put all my methodology in blog post to help others but next week I will be leaving for holidays so I will do this after comming back.

_root

Bodanel wrote: »

Build by yourself. I have in project to put all my methodology in blog post to help others but next week I will be leaving for holidays so I will do this after comming back.

Wow..this labs sound perfect for practice material. Do you mind sharing the blog/lab with me when you're done/when you get back? It would be very helpful for us trying to pursue RHCE.

I have until Oct 31st to study..and pretty much can devote as much time as I need. Hopefully it's enough to pass the exam.

Bodanel

I'll post the link here, I've build it based on the objectives so there no secrets here. If you will find it usefull but please take into account that I've not achieved perfect score on RHCE so it may not be the best method. One other thing, I use only Fedora on my PC with virt-manager so if you may not be able to do this if you have an Windows PC.

_root

Bodanel wrote: »

I'll post the link here, I've build it based on the objectives so there no secrets here. If you will find it usefull but please take into account that I've not achieved perfect score on RHCE so it may not be the best method. One other thing, I use only Fedora on my PC with virt-manager so if you may not be able to do this if you have an Windows PC.

Well, you passed and know the actual requirement for the exam, so your input is very valuable.

I use Ubuntu with KVM and virtualbox