RHCT/RHCE exam preparation

Right, first off let me start by saying that I can’t tell you the contents of the RHCT/RHCE exam. At the beginning of each exam you have to sign a contract that legally binds you to keep silent about it. I can however tell you the methods I used to prepare myself for the exam.

If you’re wondering what things you should be studying, this list from Red Hat should always be up to date, as far as I know. So this is, or should be, your only reliable source when it comes to finding out exactly what you need to prepare for.

Attending a Red Hat course is brilliant. Even experienced Linux system administrators can learn something new there. I myself attended RH133 (Red Hat Linux System Administration) and RH253 (Red Hat Linux Networking and Security), and there are a lot of things there that will prepare you properly for the exam, IF you pay attention. These courses give you some studymaterial as well, so I used those books for studying also.

I can’t emphasize this enough, there is NOTHING like hands-on training. You can read and read all you want, but unless you experience it first-hand, it just won’t sink in. As far as I know, the operating system that’s most similar to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, is CentOS, which means that you can use that for training (and the test-exams!). How to do this, you ask? Easy. Use VirtualBox, or some other software that’s similar, VMWare, Qemu, Paralell if you’re on a mac. You can install a virtual machine and just play around there. That’s what I did. I set up both a client and a server, and from there I tested everything from NFS, NIS, Samba, DNS, HTTP, Squid, and so on. It really helps, believe me.

The following point is particularly important. Read the exam properly. That’s right. Out of 8 people in total taking the exam on Friday, including myself, one failed right at the start because he wasn’t properly prepared, and another one failed because she didn’t go through the exam task-list properly, thus made a mistake that just couldn’t be reversed. So take your time, go through the list of tasks you are given, and make some mental notes, or even better, scribble them down on the sheet of paper you are given. It helps to systematically cross out the tasks you’ve done, so keep a clear overview of how much left there is to do. And remember to spend your time wisely. If a task seems too difficult, try another easier task, and get back to the more difficult one when you have time. At least that way you’ll get some things completed, rather than getting stuck on that particular problem, and not really gaining anything.

If there’s something you feel confident about, read about it again, and again, and again. You might think you know a lot, or everything, about something, but you don’t. Simple as that. Better to be over-prepared if you ask me.

If this sounds like hard work, you’re damn skippy that it is. RHCE isn’t meant to be simple, but I can tell you that the satisfaction of passing is greater than you think. And if you think “I can’t possibly do this”, you can! I myself knew close to nothing about Red Hat-systems a month ago. So what they say is true, if there’s a will, there’s a way.

Good luck to you future RHCT/RHCE’s!