Good Afternoon,


First Id like to thank those who helped clear up questions I had as I went through this class and online material.

The second thing I would like to say is that the following is what I experienced. Its my opinion. I wont get involved in debates and offer this posting simply as a single point of view for those considering the LPI Essentials Test. The fact is that while I was trying to get some insight related to material and certs I found information specific to LPI to be scarce. I do not want to do a vendor specific cert.

.. So ..

I passed the LPI Linux Essentials test with a 690 out of 800. Middle of the road, I suppose but a pass is a pass.

The resources selected by the community college; Netacad Online Linux and Linux Essentials by Smith, didnt provided much support towards helping me pass. This is not to say that either didnt have value. They just werent valuable from a test content perspective.

I say this because both resources did not cover topics in the same way as they were presented in the questions on the test. So it seemed like there was a disconnect. As a side note I have a few Cisco Certs and have had Comptia and Novell in the past so Im reasonably familiar with wording issues and the twists and turns that these tests usually present. What I experienced goes far beyond that.

There were specific questions asked on the test that I could not find the answer to in the resources both of which are endorsed. Unfortunately I cant list the exact questions I refer to but for instance - in the text of the chosen resources file systems were described in detail but the test questions asked about specifics that were not explicitly defined in the resources. Very simply regular expressions were detailed in the text but RE questions asked on the test were more advanced than basic. I figured them out because I have prior knowledge of the command line and scripting.. and other basic knowledge of the environment.


I also used Ucertify.com as a third resource to help with some example questions. I sent at least 10 snapshots to Ucertify support outlining errors in their text, video training and example questions. I would not have been unable to identify those errors if I hadnt had some prior background. This really means that anyone using their service is getting for lack of a better term substandard info and the new guy wouldnt be able to spot that easily ! Ucertifys material did help but only slightly. I will be going with the Linux academy for LPIC1/2 and using some of the resources below:

http://www.linuxselfhelp.com/

http://www.linux.org/

http://wiki.lpi.org/wiki/LPIC-1_Objectives_V4 - new objectives for LPIC-1 Jan 13 2015

https://linuxacademy.com/join/pricing

The cost is about $20 bucks a month if you pay quarterly. I read some reviews on Linux Academy and prompted the company. Ofcourse they say their material will "do it". We'll see. The reason why I went with these guys was they say that lpic1 v3.5 course material will be updated to v4 before the end of the week with the new objectives. Additionally, they provide virtual servers which means I didnt have to buy appliances.

To summarize ..
I got an A in class, a 96.8% average.
I went through the book cover to cover, sometimes reading chapters I needed to sharpen up on three or more times.
I went through all the Netacad material and studied and retook labs where they were available.
I went through Ucertify Flash cards, quizzes, Exercises over and over until I got every single one of them right.
Prior Unix / Linux command line and scripting experience is reasonably higher than beginner.
Ive been in IT since ..yup ... 1981 ..


I dont make excuses .. I own my grades... but the outcome sure is strange.

On to LPCI1 Class on Thurday.