[KLUG Members] RE: Certification -- WAS: Nautilus in RH 7.3 and Samba shares...revisited...

[Darrel Ray Clute, III]

Yes the RHCE is expensive in a relative term.  Most industry certs run
$100-200 per test.  True most certs are a single test but if, for
example, you were going to go for a Cisco cert other then the basic you
will pay more out for the cert but the tests are more standard.  The
CCIE on the other hand is a two stage test.  

First stage you have the 2 hour writen test which is $300 a pop if you
don't pass it the first time.  If and only if you pass the first portion
do you qualify for the second portion.  

The second portion is a $2000+ test which is a 5 day (unofficially 3
officially) process.  True the price for this portion includes air
travel to San Francisco, and accomadations but is still fairly high. 
The first day you are flown in to San Fran and allowed time to recoup
from in jet lag.  The following morning you go to the Cisco campus, are
given a "case study" that you must 1)Design, 2)Provision, and 3)Build. 
You have 8 hours for the entire process and you are using equipment that
when spread through the "room" (more like a warehouse of 2500+ sq ft) is
a fairly large sum of time in itself.  The following day is again a
resting phase during which time the proctors evaluate your work and then
subtly break the lab.  Next you have 8 hours to return everything back
to a working stage.  

Immediately after you are done the proctors begin to evaluate the final
part of your work and you are taken back to the hotel.  Your flight back
is usually late morning early afternoon and you don't even know whether
you passed or not for 2-5 business days as they contact you via email
and phone.  You receive writen confirmation 5-10 additional business
days later at which point you are also given your CCIE number.  Then
6-10 weeks later you receive your certificate and card.

Then prior to 2 years after the completion of the lab you get to do the
entire thing over again.  

Long story short RHCE is expensive but not the most nor is it the most
difficult.

-- 
Darrel Clute, CCNA/CCDA
Partner
Computer Vision Networks
517-712-5827
http://www.computervisions.net/


On Thu, 2002-12-05 at 15:57, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> [ Since this involves "professional development," I assume it's "on-topic" for
> the MEMBERS list?  If not, let me know. ]
> 
> Quoting Tahnesha Pinckney <tep@hanify.com>:
> > I was considering RHCE as well (maybe I wouldn't be having all these
> > probs..), but could not negotiate a "business" reason in my request to
> > have the firm fund it.  They would only cave in on the MCSE since most
> > of our systems here are running WinNT 4.0 and a migration to 2000
> > looms on the horizon...
> 
> The RHCE is $749 and is only given on a Friday at an approved RedHat facility. 
> This is, again, because it is lab-based, a full day long, and 100% peer-reviewed
> (not "computer graded") -- purposely designed after the Cisco CCIE (only 2.5
> hours of "build" and 2.5 hours of "debug" -- instead of a day each like the CCIE).
> 
> There are three other organizations providing Linux certifications, and all are
> "computer administered" (unlike the RedHat cert):
> - CompTIA Linux+:  Single test
> - Linux Professional Institute:  Multiple tests/levels
> - SAIR GNU Linux:  Multiple tests/levels
> 
> > Their Network+ and Server+ courses are quite good...
> 
> Er, I beg to differ.  I got a 93% on both with 0 study, and you only need
> ~65-70% to pass.  They were "definition tests" IMHO.
> 
> I found the first half of Sun's Solaris Certified Network Administrator (SCNA)
> exam that govered "general TCP/IP concepts" to be a far better test of
> "knowledge" than the Network+ by an order of magnitude.
> 
> BTW, I also scored 93% on the i-Net+ and 95% on the Linux+.  I scored perfect on
> both sections of the new, adaptive A+ -- they couldn't ask a hard enough
> question for me.  They asked me to become a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the
> A+, but their terms didn't appeal to me.
> 
> > both of which I'm taking as well.  I wouldn't be the surprised if
> > the Security+ is just the same.
> 
> I'm hoping so because, like the Network+ and Server+, I'm taking it "straight
> up," no study.
> 
> > As for the MCSEs, I'm taking the first exam at the end of the
> > month which, if you ask me, seems like a very simple exam to pass in
> > comparision to all the Linux/Unix stuff I'm trying to learn.
> 
> The problem with "computer administered" exams is that they are either:
>  1) Simple -- e.g., CompTIA
>  2) Memorization -- e.g., Sun, or
>  3) Ambiguous -- e.g, Microsoft
> 
> CompTIA makes the tests simple.  Sun and Microsoft make them harder to pass by
> either extensive "memorization" or "ambiguous" questions.
> 
> The only "real exam" is one that is given in a lab environment, on real systems.
>  That way, you're not screwed if you don't know something little, and nothing is
> ambiguous -- _but_ you have to know what you are doing to pass.
> 
> That's why the RHCE is ones of the best tests of actual "knowledge."  The trade
> off is the cost of administering them, which means the cost of the exam for the
> trainee, and the availability of them is limited to fixed locations where there
> is the actual equipment and an authorized, peer RHCE to grade you.
> 
> Cisco tries to thrown in "simulations" in its computer administered tests (most
> things outside of the CCIE).  While these do enough, there are usually only a
> few per exam.
> 
> Novell adds "screen shots" and "click throughs."  While these make it better
> than Microsoft's "case study" and ambiguous questions, it's still far from
> lab-based exams.