Taking RHCSA August 3rd

azjag

Hello all,

Wanted to let everybody know I would be taking the RHCSA on August 3rd. I've completed all the classes at my college's RedHat Academy. I also read through Jang's book twice doing all the labs. Still nervous as can be about this test because I don't know what the environment will be like. I'm comfortable working in the cli due to deploying and standardizing the Linux environment at work over the last year or so. I'll let you know after I take the test and when the scores come in.

lordy

Don't worry too much

When you look through the exam topics list on the Red Hat website and feel comfortable with everything listed you will be just fine. Remember that man pages are available so even if you are not 100% sure how to do something or what the required command line switch is you can go ahead and look it up.

Hint: Everybody knows "man", not everybody knows "aprospos" which can come in handy

AceRimmer

It shouldn't be a problem for someone who attended RH Academy courses. RH student workbooks you get on an official course are the most important piece of material you can have to prepare for the exam . Jang is second to that, at best. Create a home lab and go by it.

Quantumstate

Take earplugs. When I sat for the exam, the genius guy next to me was hammering and banging away on the (cheap) keyboard, and I could not concentrate. I only made it through half the exam and failed. RedHat refused to comp me for a retake, so now I've sued them.

paul78

lordy wrote: »

Hint: Everybody knows "man", not everybody knows "aprospos" which can come in handy

Pssst... the command is "apropos"

AceRimmer

Quantumstate wrote: »

Take earplugs. When I sat for the exam, the genius guy next to me was hammering and banging away on the (cheap) keyboard, and I could not concentrate. I only made it through half the exam and failed. RedHat refused to comp me for a retake, so now I've sued them.

Well, you were not there to concentrate but to hammer on the keyboard . There's not much time to think and concentrate.

log32

good luck!

NightShade03

Good luck on your exam!

onesaint

You should do great. Hitting the Jang labs twice as well as deployment in your network will both come in handy. Good luck.

hiddenknight821

Good luck! And let us know how you did. I look forward to take this cert possibly no later than next spring.

azjag

I ended up taking some vacation time to lock down and do last minute studying and labs for the exam this Friday. So far I have managed to get homework done for my college classes that is due on Friday. Hopefully I can get some solid lab time in prior to Friday morning. Also found out a colleague of mine is testing at the same time as I am. This will be interesting to see who finishes first and who has the highest score. oh well, back to the grind stone.

azjag

The test is done and now comes the waiting game. Earliest we can expect results is Monday so it is time to relax and spend the weekend with my daughter. It is hard to gauge how I did without the results. I feel confident in the tasks that I completed and am hoping the few I didn't finish don't count too heavily against me. There were 7 people scheduled and 3 showed up. All three of us took the full 2.5 hrs for the test. Even if I didn't pass I still like the way they formatted the test. There is a lot to be said about passing a practical exam over a multiple choice. In the end it comes down to you either know how to do it or you don't.

NightShade03

Waiting is always the worst part!

hiddenknight821

azjag wrote: »

There were 7 people scheduled and 3 showed up. All three of us took the full 2.5 hrs for the test.

I hope you get the result very soon and passed. I would love to sit the exam in one of the four absent seats. Why in uname would someone wants to waste $400 bucks?

AceRimmer

Had almost the same experience. I took exam with three other people who had exam (and official RH courses) payed by their companies. 2 of them didn't pass initial task, which enables you to do the rest of the exam. Me and other guy were the only one hammering on the keyboard that day .

azjag

Got my results at 3:30 this morning. Looks like I will be taking the test again in a few weeks. The score was close, but not over the 210 mark. Back to the books and labs I go.

varelg

Oh man, the close fail hurts the most... Sorry to hear that, now in retrospect, which topics do you think you likely failed on?

NightShade03

Sorry you didn't pass. If we can help at all let us know!

Ivanjam

You seem to have a lot of stuff on your plate - CCNA, MSISA and now RHCSA, so you did quite well to score close to the pass mark under the circumstances. I am sure your next shot at the exam will be a bullseye, good luck!

azjag

Ivanjam wrote: »

You seem to have a lot of stuff on your plate - CCNA, MSISA and now RHCSA, so you did quite well to score close to the pass mark under the circumstances. I am sure your next shot at the exam will be a bullseye, good luck!

Thank you for reminding me, I need to update that portion of my profile. I am no longer seeking the MSISA or the CCNA. The CCNA was part of the MSISA program. I have the CCENT which I am content with for the time being. The reason I left the MSISA program is because I didn't feel like it was the right advanced degree for me to pursue. In essence I am taking a step back to gauge where I am and where I want my career to go. Once I decide on that I will find the program that fits and pursue a masters again.

log32

better luck next time, practical exams are much harder than written - I'm confident you will do better next time

AceRimmer

I wouldn't call it hard, but practice is essential. And home lab with few VMs and all the needed services (DNS, LDAP, NTP, FTP, HTTP, NFS ...) is verrry recommended. Doing things once on only one VM without every service in place will not do . If you have access to official RH course books you can get pretty good feeling of what (and how) will be required.