RHCSA in 5 or 10 days

Most folks going for RHCSA tend to say they studied for 2-6 months for the exam. But the RedHat fast track course is only 5 days long, and their standard track is just two 5 days courses. So apparently if you have 4-7grand to spend, you can be ready for RHCSA in 5-10 days. Is there a way to get this kind of efficiency in self study?

I have the Michael Jang book, and that's what I'm going through presently. I'm not in any particular rush, but I dislike the idea of studying multiple months for something that apparently can be done in a week or two. So does anyone have any tips on efficiency?

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Comments

JustFred

No shorts cuts in life unless you were born with a silver spoon, even those kind of people have their ups and downs. Stick to the plan and you could do it in 2-3 months. This is not bad i think.

Personally i the fast track is aimed at people who have worked with RedHat for a year or more and know more of the stuff.

Bodanel

If you have experience with linux I would say it is feasible to do it in 10 days. From zero to RHCSA in 10 days, first try- I would say 99% NOT possible.

brombulec

From my experience:
I had some experience with linux (not redhat - debian) and unix (Solaris and HP-UX) and I had to go on RHCE fast track course (on RHEL 5) - 4 days of studying and 2 separate exams on last day (RHCT and RHCE). I had some doubts but I did it.
The RHCSA in 10 days is possible but only if you have an experience with linux (as Bodanel said). Without any experience you'll be "RHCSA on paper".

9bits

brombulec wrote: »

The RHCSA in 10 days is possible but only if you have an experience with linux (as Bodanel said). Without any experience you'll be "RHCSA on paper".

It's interesting that Red Hat markets their standard track (two 5 day courses) to people with no Linux administration experience. They're essentially saying new people only need 10 days to understand this material and pass our exam. But am I correct in assuming it's like being hit with a fire hose, and retention afterward is somewhat lacking?

Bodanel

I think you're right. ON the other hand passing an exam is one thing, having an interview one month later and you'll see that you can remember half the topics. If you do RHCSA for knowledge and not for the paper I suggest you do at least 1 month of labbing.

archimedes

When you suggest 1 month of doing lab exercises about how many hours would that be? I looked at the Red Hat 124 and 134 course and their class schedule is 9-5 with a lunch break, so you are in class for 70h(7h day x 5 days x 2 weeks). I am not sure how many hours of that is lab vs instructor talking.

brombulec

For each and every RH exam I had almost 200h of labbing (4h/day*2months (without sundays)) - and this is more than enough.
Don't look for any shortcuts, do the labs and get the experience - 2 or 3 questions on the interview will confirm the knowledge or the "speedy admin on paper".

asummers

10 days IS possible but you are more likely to fail than pass.
Study for 2 months and you are more likely to pass than fail.

9bits

Well, as it turns out, I just got a job in infosec, and it doesn't seem RHCSA will have anything to do with the job. So I decided not to pursue it. I suppose the best course for now is just learn job duties, and only go after certs relevant to what I'll be doing.

_root

I cleared my RHCSA yesterday and I can tell you that if you have had some exposure to Linux and are comfortable with the command line then it's highly doable WITH a vide guide and lots of practice questions. I had only 10 days to prep for it and I had spend that time bouncing around between Van Vugt's video guide and Linux Academy. But it was 8 hours of commitment with last 3 days spent strictly on the command line (no videos/minimal video-watching time). I got afairly high mark but I'm pissed I couldn't get higher (I missed 2 questions).

In case if you were still interested...

9bits

Congrats, man! I wish I could have completed the cert before I got my current job. I might find time in the future, though...who knows.

ally_uk

10 days? Pfffffffffft I did it in 3

it was easy street!

asummers

ally_uk wrote: »

10 days? Pfffffffffft I did it in 3 it was easy street!

Both exams with no Linux experience studied and passed in 3 days? really?

Not sure if I believe you