Just passed Linux+ LX0-104 Exam!
Hey all, Passed LX0-104 with a 750/500 ! Was very satisfying! Although it was not my first attempt...:
Quick bio: I graduated with two A.A.S degrees in Networking Technology and also, Information Systems Security in May of last year (2015). Since then I have obtained my Network+, Security+, and as of today - Linux+ certified.
Ok, so I passed the first exam (LX0-103) about 2 months ago. It was fairly hard -scored a 570, passing is 500. There are a lot of very long/obscure command parameters in the questions that are hard to remember. If I had had a console to be able to do a quick $command --help I would have scored higher.
I had the LX0-104 scheduled for 2 days after - I failed it! 485/500. Lame.
Rescheduled for a week later - failed again! 490/500.
So I decided I needed to supplement/change/revise my study plan and materials. I purchased CompTIA Certmaster -as I used it for Net+ and Sec+ - and it was really helpful. ( It was not available when I attempted the first two attempts -it is brand new.) And also CBT Nuggets videos.
I passed today with a 750! I almost aced it.! Here is what I learned and what I did to prepare:
Firstly, I must say that the book I started with (Sybex Study Guide, Third Edition) is NOT enough on its own. The main problem with this book is that a lot of the topics that they state you just need a "general understanding of" or "know it exists" - you really need to actually understand them IN FULL!. I had a Centos7 VM and a Debian VM and practiced everything in detail. I coupled that with Certmaster along with CBT Nuggets (2015 by Shawn Powers).
The CBT Nuggets were very valuable. I then used the objectives as a checklist and practiced everything on there until I understood it. I highly suggest doing everything from the command line (unless it pertains to the GUI/Display Manager stuff.
You must be comfortable with using the terminal/CLI. Period.
Hope this helps -happy to answer any questions!
Quick bio: I graduated with two A.A.S degrees in Networking Technology and also, Information Systems Security in May of last year (2015). Since then I have obtained my Network+, Security+, and as of today - Linux+ certified.
Ok, so I passed the first exam (LX0-103) about 2 months ago. It was fairly hard -scored a 570, passing is 500. There are a lot of very long/obscure command parameters in the questions that are hard to remember. If I had had a console to be able to do a quick $command --help I would have scored higher.
I had the LX0-104 scheduled for 2 days after - I failed it! 485/500. Lame.
Rescheduled for a week later - failed again! 490/500.
So I decided I needed to supplement/change/revise my study plan and materials. I purchased CompTIA Certmaster -as I used it for Net+ and Sec+ - and it was really helpful. ( It was not available when I attempted the first two attempts -it is brand new.) And also CBT Nuggets videos.
I passed today with a 750! I almost aced it.! Here is what I learned and what I did to prepare:
Firstly, I must say that the book I started with (Sybex Study Guide, Third Edition) is NOT enough on its own. The main problem with this book is that a lot of the topics that they state you just need a "general understanding of" or "know it exists" - you really need to actually understand them IN FULL!. I had a Centos7 VM and a Debian VM and practiced everything in detail. I coupled that with Certmaster along with CBT Nuggets (2015 by Shawn Powers).
The CBT Nuggets were very valuable. I then used the objectives as a checklist and practiced everything on there until I understood it. I highly suggest doing everything from the command line (unless it pertains to the GUI/Display Manager stuff.
You must be comfortable with using the terminal/CLI. Period.
Hope this helps -happy to answer any questions!
Comments
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stryder144
Member Posts: 1,684 ■■■■■■■■□□
Welcome to the forum (almost typed 'welcome to the family') and congratulations on passing the exam and attaining your Linux+ certification! That is awesome. Good on you for sticking it out. So many others will fail and give up. You did the right thing by reassessing your study habits/materials. Sometimes we need to do things a bit differently.The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position. ~ Leo Buscaglia
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jcp1856
Member Posts: 51 ■■□□□□□□□□
congrats on the pass. I'd say yes you definitely have to be comfortable with the CLI otherwise don't take Linux+. I worked as a Solaris admin for a few years and am very much comfortable with the CLI. I'll take the L+ in a few months. A bonus to getting L+ certified beyond the partnership with LPI is the fact that it never expires in its current version -
thomas_
Member Posts: 1,012 ■■■■■■■■□□
A bonus to getting L+ certified beyond the partnership with LPI is the fact that it never expires in its current version
Correct Linux+ doesn't expire currently. However, your LPIC-1 will expire, go inactive, whatever LPI calls it, after a certain amount of time -
shochan
Member Posts: 1,013 ■■■■■■■■□□
Congrats on passing! I was planning on purchasing the Certmaster questions for this exam too! I was also going to take the Cybrary online course as well as hitting up the CLI cmds on my Ubuntu. I know there are many flavors of Linux out there, but could you tell which distro Linux+ was really after?? I am pretty sure most of the cmds are all the same in the distros, but I could be wrong.CompTIA A+, Network+, i-Net+, MCP 70-210, CNA v5, Server+, Security+, Cloud+, CySA+, ISC² CC, ISC² SSCP -
ITrascal
Member Posts: 55 ■■■□□□□□□□
as hard as this exam sounds i'm thinking i might as well do the Redhat. But the lifetime cert with Linux+ has me teetering
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NerdIT
Registered Users Posts: 3 ■□□□□□□□□□
Thanks guys!
As far as distro's go, It is for the most part neutral -there were probably just a handful of RedHat or Debian specific questions. These two underlying distro's are the foundation of the most common out there (RedHat -Fedora, CentOS, and Debian -Ubuntu, Kali, Mint) and of course there is SUSE (SLES, openSUSE, Leap). The main difference between the 3 is how packages are managed, i.e RedHat distro's use YUM to install/manage packages, and Debian variants use APT-GET/aptitude. SUSE uses zypper.
Package management is covered in the lx0-103 exam. Other than that there are just a few config files (network config files differ off the top of my head) that differ from distro to distro. As I said I had CentOS7 (RedHat) and Linux Mint (Debian) virtual machines up at all times while studying using VMware workstation. When watching the CBT Nuggets I would follow along (I would ssh in using Putty and have a prompt for each VM on one half of my screen. Same when doing the Certmaster questions. -
NerdIT
Registered Users Posts: 3 ■□□□□□□□□□
I also considered going straight for the RedHat Certs -as it is highly desired by employers- although through my research about it (some of which I came from here!) it seemed the consensus is that the RedHat certs are much more difficult. The main thing I heard/read is the main factor to that is the RH cert is performance based i.e not multiple choice. This deterred me and I really wanted to have the whole gambit of CompTIA cert (I'm a bit of a completion-ist/OCD) so I went ahead and committed myself.
Although in hindsight, I would have preferred more performance type questions -as the multiple choice questions were ironically difficult because of how almost identical some of the answers can be. At least a dozen times between both exams I found myself with problems where I had boiled it down to 2 possible answers -and they would be very, very similar (as in space or no space, double brackets...or single., uppercase flag..or lowercase flag?!, etc.). -
si20
Member Posts: 543 ■■■■■□□□□□
Congratulations! Just passed the LX0-103 myself and it was hard! I will take your advice for when I do the 104! -
shochan
Member Posts: 1,013 ■■■■■■■■□□
I also considered going straight for the RedHat Certs -as it is highly desired by employers- although through my research about it (some of which I came from here!) it seemed the consensus is that the RedHat certs are much more difficult. The main thing I heard/read is the main factor to that is the RH cert is performance based i.e not multiple choice. This deterred me and I really wanted to have the whole gambit of CompTIA cert (I'm a bit of a completion-ist/OCD) so I went ahead and committed myself.
Although in hindsight, I would have preferred more performance type questions -as the multiple choice questions were ironically difficult because of how almost identical some of the answers can be. At least a dozen times between both exams I found myself with problems where I had boiled it down to 2 possible answers -and they would be very, very similar (as in space or no space, double brackets...or single., uppercase flag..or lowercase flag?!, etc.).
I purchased a comprehensive RedHat study guide from this linux website, Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides - you will see it posted in there for $35CompTIA A+, Network+, i-Net+, MCP 70-210, CNA v5, Server+, Security+, Cloud+, CySA+, ISC² CC, ISC² SSCP -
Dakinggamer87
Member Posts: 4,016 ■■■■■■■■□□
Congrats!!
*Associate's of Applied Sciences degree in Information Technology-Network Systems Administration
*Bachelor's of Science: Information Technology - Security, Master's of Science: Information Technology - Management
Matthew 6:33 - "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."
Certs/Business Licenses In Progress: AWS Solutions Architect, Series 6, Series 63 -
cabowabo
Member Posts: 49 ■■□□□□□□□□
Congrats!B.S. Network Admin | CCNP-Wireless
CERTIFICATION GOALS 2018: CCNP-W [X] ACSA [X] JNCIA [X]
CERTIFICATION GOALS 2019: CCIE-W [ ? ] CWAP [ ? ] -
Kenobyte
Member Posts: 13 ■■■□□□□□□□
Thank you for the pointers I have this on my radar not something I will get to for a while but definitely good to read someone else's experience.
