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Ask HN: What are best ways to prepare for RHCA/RHCE

3 points by marmot777 ↗ HN
So far I've been studying on my own and doing various exercises. I have an account at a hosting company for developers and have a vm running on my macbook. I'm using Safarionline to watch an excellent series of videos by Sander van Vugt and reading the Linux Bible. This is flat out fun but I've started to feel there's something missing. What's missing isn't enough to cause me to fail anything but it's just a feeling I'm not quite doing this right but I'm not sure why. Any suggestions on preparation for this exam? Any ideas on what's missing? One thing I considered is that I'm doing it 100% on my own but I really don't want to pay $2,500 or $3,500 for a training course and I don't know anyone who's studying for this. It occurred to me that it's possible the feeling of community is missing but I'm just guessing as mostly working on my own is great. So if anyone can look at what I've described as my training methods and tell me what they think's missing, even if it's a guess, I'll take it seriously. Thank you!

3 comments

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brudgers
My recommendation would be to look at the specific objectives listed in the certification criteria, collect materials related to each and to study those in depth. Actually, that's my second recommendation. My first recommendation would be to take the official training. And my zero recommendation would be to work someplace where the employer pays for it: the reason for that is that without an opportunity to actually apply the classroom material in the field in a professional environment, the knowledge has much less value. For example, the RHCA certification can include skills at the design of a data center scale.

Probably not the answer one would wish for.

On the other hand, if the goal is just to learn more Linux, then studying according to the test criteria is a good method...and so is reading interesting books and watching interesting videos.

Good luck.

marmot777
Hi,thank you!

I've worked as a sales engineer for about the last 10 years. I'm looking to switch careers to a full techie not this hybrid sort of sales sort of techie but not really thing. Linux is fun. I love it.

0 - Oh man, a dream come true, but not an option.

1 - I don't disagree but I'm wondering why you think the official training is the way to go? I was hoping to avoid shelling out much cash but if that's the optimal route, I need to consider it. Are you recommending live classroom or online or does it matter?

2 - I'm taking this approach now with a hodgepodge of books, a video course, virtual box, and a hosting account at digital ocean. I'm combining study with hands on and I think about linux every waking and probably non waking moment.

Yes, the goal is to learn more Linux but it's also a serious attempt at a career change. But I do love interesting books and videos. The Linux Bible is outstanding!

marmot777
Oh,unrelated to the certification, I'm learning Python but that's a fun side project.