Passed CompTIA Linux + 103/104! Tips to pass!

I was a bit anxious about this exam so I avoided it for awhile, but finally got the courage. I'm definitely not the proudest of my scores, but I passed. I got a 550 for the 103 and a 590 for the 104.

Honestly, I thought the first was easier, but I seemed to have got a lower score. Go figure.

Some advice for anybody taking these soon. I'm with WGU, so I used the material they provided, but in addition to these I also used CBT Nuggets for the videos and I practiced with what must have been 10 different instances of virtualbox, my favorite being CentOS 7. I used Mint 17 for my personal laptop. I made it a habit to use the command line every single time I wanted to complete a task.

The exam for 103 had 2 fill in the blanks which was nice, but 104 must have had around 15 I believe. I was very unprepared for that because I was expecting only a few. I would have passed with a much higher score for 104 if I'd study more.

Last thing, one of the mentors from WGU posted a share from google drive with a massive amount of practice questions which can be found here https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByXMDcxlNpReSnViaWp1XzBSSlU&usp=sharing
These helped me A LOT. LX0-103_104.Study.Questions was the most helpful. Spend some time with these and you WILL pass!

Good luck for all you future linux certified peeps!

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Comments

fuz1on

Congrats! A pass is a pass and your scores are fine!

Man, 15 fill-in-the-blanks?! I think I only had 10 or 11 - tops!

Congrats!!

Congrats

Congrats!

Thanks guys!

Congrats and thanks for the study questions.

ITBot

Good to know! I have part 2 coming up soon. I had probably 10-12 fill in the blanks for part 1 that really kicked my butt! Congrats on the pass!

nascar_paul

Congratulations and thanks for the resource! It looks GREAT!

TimothyC

careful with the study questions that Vincent posted. I only picked a random sheet and scrolled through, but still found some noteable errors. For example, the material suggests dpkg-configure for resetting the config of a package, but it's actually dpkg-reconfigure. it suggests adding repos to yum.conf instead of /etc/yum.repos.d .. that's just a quick spot-check.

not trying to be 'that guy', but nothings more frustrating than misleading study material IMHO.

Souljacker

In those questions that you saw, did the correct answers exist in the options? I've seen some in the study materials that weren't quite right as well, but they were "close enough" with no other "clear" answers that I could mentally work through what the authors thought was the right answer. This has unfortunately been true of the actual exams I've taken as well.

With the fill in the blanks, is it a literal you have to type the fill in or is it a drop down? I just went through the uCertify pre-assessment and there were some drop down menu questions which I'm guessing probably aren't the same thing. And one lab that asked for an ls switch (which I got wrong from muscle memory of ls -al. they wanted just -l apparently)

TimothyC

the fill in the blanks are keyboard-based (and of course, case sensitive!). I only looked at one document, but after the third incorrect answer, I just closed the window. I'm getting ready to sit for LX0-104, and didn't want to fill my head with any incorrect information.

My personal approach is to go through the exam objectives, and actually lab out the scenarios, one command at a time. This doesn't work for everyone, but I'm literally paid to study, and have a 64GB Hyper-V server at my disposal. #FirstworldITproblems

Exam Objectives (for 102/104): https://www.lpi.org/study-resources/lpic-1-102-exam-objectives/

c0mptia

Congrats!!!

Swift6

Always a big relief when you pass by a narrow margin. Hurts the most if you fail by a small margin.

Good work Vincent.

SkyDiver069

Am looking to do the Linux+ set of exams now so that I can lock down the LPIC-1 and SUSE Sys admin certs, too.. That said, for those talking about passing by a narrow margin, well, on Monday (5days ago) I passed the Linux Essentials exam with a score of 500. Needless to say I wasn't happy with that, but in all fairness, there were many questions that didn't appear on the sets of study material I used, or, emphasized on the LPI L/E Course Outline. . . I thought I was pretty comfortable going in (after all, I've been aircracking for >5yrs), but I guess I didn't have all the command switches locked down in my head, or things like knowing which /dev device to use for a HD using partition 2, on ctlr 2, etc.. Instead, I spent more time then required locking down how to do basic scripting. Where now with Linux+ I see that will be beneficial. . . This time around I will be reaching out to others for brainstorming and guidance, especially given that the exams are $188USD ea.. OUCH!!

techfiend

I'm using WGU's uCertify study material and took the 103 after a week of study. I passed with a 640 but if I didn't have years of linux experience I wouldn't have passed. There were dozens of questions on the test that weren't covered in the uCertify 103 material but are covered in the 104 material. 104 will be another quick study as it's mainly a refresher but I can see this being a very difficult test for those just getting introduced to Linux. Maybe there's better study material out there.

Z0sickx

techfiend wrote: »

I'm using WGU's uCertify study material and took the 103 after a week of study. I passed with a 640 but if I didn't have years of linux experience I wouldn't have passed. There were dozens of questions on the test that weren't covered in the uCertify 103 material but are covered in the 104 material. 104 will be another quick study as it's mainly a refresher but I can see this being a very difficult test for those just getting introduced to Linux. Maybe there's better study material out there.

I'm using cybrary.it videos to study off right now, been using Redhat for the last 5 years but by no means an expert, what books should i get or would CBT Nuggets be ok?

tmcg

I found the Linux essentials the same, was many questions etc that were not covered in the study material. I to hope to maybe do Linux+ after I complete Security+ first.

tmcg

SkyDiver069 wrote: »

Am looking to do the Linux+ set of exams now so that I can lock down the LPIC-1 and SUSE Sys admin certs, too.. That said, for those talking about passing by a narrow margin, well, on Monday (5days ago) I passed the Linux Essentials exam with a score of 500. Needless to say I wasn't happy with that, but in all fairness, there were many questions that didn't appear on the sets of study material I used, or, emphasized on the LPI L/E Course Outline. . . I thought I was pretty comfortable going in (after all, I've been aircracking for >5yrs), but I guess I didn't have all the command switches locked down in my head, or things like knowing which /dev device to use for a HD using partition 2, on ctlr 2, etc.. Instead, I spent more time then required locking down how to do basic scripting. Where now with Linux+ I see that will be beneficial. . . This time around I will be reaching out to others for brainstorming and guidance, especially given that the exams are $188USD ea.. OUCH!!

PM #18
I found the Linux essentials the same, was many questions etc that were not covered in the study material. I to hope to maybe do Linux+ after I complete Security+ first.

Souljacker

TimothyC wrote: »

careful with the study questions that Vincent posted. I only picked a random sheet and scrolled through, but still found some noteable errors. For example, the material suggests dpkg-configure for resetting the config of a package, but it's actually dpkg-reconfigure. it suggests adding repos to yum.conf instead of /etc/yum.repos.d .. that's just a quick spot-check.

not trying to be 'that guy', but nothings more frustrating than misleading study material IMHO.

Hmmm... I was thinking about these comments today as I read through the latest version of the 'official' study guide - and wow the book is wrong. They got that --configure flag right from the book, where it states exactly that it reconfigures an existing package. The man pages in an actual Debian install disagree - you are absolutely correct that it's --reconfigure

The book seems to be correct about the /etc/yum.repos.d so that question was sourced from somewhere else.

The other thing that stands out to me is the absence of the wall command in the text. I can't find it anywhere and it's listed as a keyword on the objectives. I mean, that's a HUGE oversight. I'm messaging the mentors about it, but since there's so many wgu folks here I'm going to post all the discrepancies I find in this thread as well as notify them about it.

No wonder folks are struggling to pass. The text we're given is either missing information or flat-out incorrect.

Mpstyler

VincentjAlvarez wrote: »

Last thing, one of the mentors from WGU posted a share from google drive with a massive amount of practice questions which can be found here https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByXMDcxlNpReSnViaWp1XzBSSlU&usp=sharing
These helped me A LOT. LX0-103_104.Study.Questions was the most helpful. Spend some time with these and you WILL pass!

Good luck for all you future linux certified peeps!

I'm using that textbook too. Is there any discernable order to the Study Questions? I'm going through the textbook one chapter at a time, so a little order would be nice.

Ed.Kok

VincentjAlvarez wrote: »

Last thing, one of the mentors from WGU posted a share from google drive with a massive amount of practice questions which can be found here https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByXMDcxlNpReSnViaWp1XzBSSlU&usp=sharing
These helped me A LOT. LX0-103_104.Study.Questions was the most helpful. Spend some time with these and you WILL pass!

Good luck for all you future linux certified peeps!

Congrats and thanks for the link.
Did the 103 yesterday and passed with 740. Honestly I did not expect this but must say I did study a lot just for the exam. I've been a Linux administrator for about 10 years (on and off) but nothing real heavy. Saw about five 'fill in' questions which where not to difficult. Some question where frustrating because of the nitty gritty detail you are supposed to know. But there are also enough easy questions to buildup enough points to succeed.
I quoted Vincent because I had a look at the questions-doc in his link and a LOT of them where exactly from my exam yesterday so hopefully the part for 104 will help me to pass that exam as well.
B.t.w., just joined this forum today to say thanks.

Ed

ccnpninja

Nice job!

jrel209

So I was curious if there was a general consensus on a book to be able to read and get started. I'm coming into Linux fresh, and Have to do it for WGU in a few months. Wanted to get a head start.

nisti2

Could you please! Reshare the resource!!!

Thanks!!

lobsang

dear friends ...please reshare the sample question links from google drive as current link seems broken.

xxxkaliboyxxx

lobsang wrote: »

dear friends ...please reshare the sample question links from google drive as current link seems broken.

^^^^^^^^ Last minute crunch time

jazz_01

Many many congratulations on your pass. I'm studying for this as well. I'm using uCertify as my sole source at the moment. I'm considering getting a book too.

Krialis

I just passed mine over the weekend! Seems there's a chance you can get more Fill in the blanks. I had 11 o_O

PlayDoh72

Gratz all!

Icem@n

Can anyone share the resource link as i am currently in the process of studying for the first exam.

Thanks.