Where are the RHCA epics? CCIEs have more (labbing) fun?

One of my favourite parts of techexams are the long running threads in the CCIE forums. It's both humbling and impressive to watch people at the top of their game progress to one of the highest accolades available.

In these hallowed halls of linuxdom we've got the RHCA near the top of our trajectory but no one is running a longer term post about achieving it and I was wondering why.

Does the raw cost put most people off?
Are people moving towards it slowly with a course a year or so as their companies pay for it?
does the fragmented nature of the five courses make it harder to post about?

What do you think? I'm probably going to attempt the other two exams in the RHCSS next year so in January I may well start my own

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Bodanel

Good luck on your quest. I believe it will be very fun for you. In my country is not possible to give any exams above RHCE except RHCVA. I will pay out of my own pocket the rest of the exams till RHCA but i cannot afford to pay travel expenses and accomodation for the other exams so i stop here.
Also the RHCA's have lots of fun at work so they dont spend much time on the forums.

timme

notquitecertifiable wrote: »

One of my favourite parts of techexams are the long running threads in the CCIE forums. It's both humbling and impressive to watch people at the top of their game progress to one of the highest accolades available.

In these hallowed halls of linuxdom we've got the RHCA near the top of our trajectory but no one is running a longer term post about achieving it and I was wondering why.

Does the raw cost put most people off?
Are people moving towards it slowly with a course a year or so as their companies pay for it?
does the fragmented nature of the five courses make it harder to post about?

What do you think? I'm probably going to attempt the other two exams in the RHCSS next year so in January I may well start my own

I plan to join the path to the RHCA in the next year. I've just got the RHCSA, and will start working towards the RHCE shortly, then some books on sripting and sed and awk, before tackling the big challenges.

Please do keep the the thread going, as I will be most interested to hear about your progress. Since I'm starting on the journey, it would be of big benefit to me.

chanakyajupudi

There are very few people interested in doing the RHCA. RHCA does not translate to a job as much as the CCIE.

I am in the process of doing my RHCA. Target 2014.

I have completed RHCSA > RHCE > RHCVA > 423 > 333

436 , 401 and 442 are the three papers left. I plan to do the 436 and 401 as soon as possible. I leave the 442 for the next year.

Cheers

timme

Out of interest, how long does do you think it would take to move from a RHCE to a RHCA if you are working full time?

chanakyajupudi

You need to write 5 papers after the RHCE to become an RHCA.

Assuming you get one paper done in 3 month. Almost 1.5 Years give or take.

UnixGuy

chanakyajupudi wrote: »

You need to write 5 papers after the RHCE to become an RHCA.

Assuming you get one paper done in 3 month. Almost 1.5 Years give or take.

writing papers? I thought they were lab based exams?

instant000

UnixGuy:

I've noticed that people from India may sometimes call taking exams "writing papers".

To be clear, the RHCA exams are indeed performance-based:

Certification program requirements:
Only a current RHCE is eligible to earn an RHCA credential.

To be awarded an RHCA credential, a current RHCE must pass the following expertise exams:
Red Hat Enterprise Security: Network Services Expertise Exam (EX333)

Red Hat Enterprise Deployment and Systems Management Expertise Exam (EX401)

Red Hat Enterprise Clustering and Storage Management Expertise Exam (EX436)

Red Hat Enterprise System Monitoring and Performance Tuning Expertise Exam (EX442)

Red Hat Enterprise Directory Services and Authentication Expertise Exam (EX423)
or Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHCVA) Exam (EX31

All expertise exams are performance-based, meaning that candidates must perform tasks on a live system, rather than answering questions about how one might perform those tasks.

The hands-on nature of these expertise exams make real-world experience a critical facet of preparation.

Source: Red Hat | Red Hat Certified Architect

Hope this helps.

UnixGuy

I see. Thanks Instant000

Bodanel

Actually from what I've found over the internet during my RHCE quest there are exam centers in India when during RH courses the students gets to solve some problem's identical to those in the exams. I dont know if RH agree's with that but this is going around for a while. On another forum some indian guy asked on the RHCE section answers to the questions I've had on the exams. The exact same questions. If you get this kind of exercise during the course the exam is a walk in the park.

chanakyajupudi

When I mean writing papers it means to attend the exam. Yes it is a practical exam - lab based.

In any part of the world there are brain ****. Places like India have multiple institutes / training centres that produce a stipulated number of RHCE / RHCSA per month and they get incentives based on their factory results !

But this is the case only for RHCSA / RHCE / RHCVA . Beyond that you have to go to Redhat for training. They do not tell you the questions !

Bodanel

@chanakyajupudi

Sorry dude but when a guy ask how to solve all the questions I've had in the exam, in the exact same form I've had the exam I dont think it's fair that they give the students an exercise similar to the exam. I know guys who took RH training in Romania, France and Belgium but none had an exercise like this. From what I see you've put a lot of work into these exams: do you think it's fair that some guy has a mock exam to practice ?

chanakyajupudi

I know its not fair. Redhat knows that the institutes are doing this yet they seem to enjoy the Exam fees !

How can students fresh out of college clear the RHCE with 280+ with no real experience at all. I know a centre that makes 100 RHCE's every quarter. Does Redhat not know ?

ChooseLife

chanakyajupudi wrote: »

I know its not fair. Redhat knows that the institutes are doing this yet they seem to enjoy the Exam fees !

How can students fresh out of college clear the RHCE with 280+ with no real experience at all. I know a centre that makes 100 RHCE's every quarter. Does Redhat not know ?

Somehow you make it sounds like RedHat's wrongdoing, and not that of those companies...

UnixGuy

I'm not surprised nor shocked. It's very disappointing nonetheless, but I know that it's done and it's not just Red Hat, it's the good old CCIE labs as well.

And they get away with it in big companies, and they screw it for all of us. This is part of life I guess.

log32

Also I think redhat should change the exam questions more often, this will at least narrow down the options to find the accurate questions on the internet.

paul78

chanakyajupudi wrote: »

How can students fresh out of college clear the RHCE with 280+ with no real experience at all.

Respectfully, I would strongly disagree with your sentiment. The RHCE is not a certification targeted at entry-level out of college individuals.

I did a bit of reading around the Internet and it's very unfortunate and disappointing to read that in India, the concept of cheating through rote memorization of **** to pass these certifications are the norm. Although, in a lot of ways it explains some of the problems that I've been privy to experiencing at my employer.

Some of my colleagues from India had lamented at the lack of technology innovation in India and they blamed the education system which produces IT professionals that learn skills through rote memorization and mimicking.

Sorry for taking the thread on a tangent but your comment was very enlightening albeit disappointing to learn.

antony_pradeep

paul78 wrote: »

Respectfully, I would strongly disagree with your sentiment. The RHCE is not a certification targeted at entry-level out of college individuals.

I did a bit of reading around the Internet and it's very unfortunate and disappointing to read that in India, the concept of cheating through rote memorization of **** to pass these certifications are the norm. Although, in a lot of ways it explains some of the problems that I've been privy to experiencing at my employer.

Some of my colleagues from India had lamented at the lack of technology innovation in India and they blamed the education system which produces IT professionals that learn skills through rote memorization and mimicking.

Sorry for taking the thread on a tangent but your comment was very enlightening albeit disappointing to learn.

i agree with you paul. at least redhat shouldchange questions in very short time(at least three months )... especially for RHCE.. or else people call redhat certification is b*llsh*t....

W Stewart

I'm also a little surprised to learn that brain dumping is common practice. At the end of the day, everybody takes a hit except for the companies providing these braindumps. Vendor certifications begin to lose value which hurts the vendor and the rest of us who put so much time and money into certifying. The brain dumper will find themselves unemployed and often times unemployable and the employers will suffer as well when they hire someone who isn't capable of doing the job they were hired to do.