Red Hat Exam Study Strategies

Red Hat Exam Study Strategies
 by: David Gerrells

Preparing for Red Hat exams can be a daunting task. The scope of the topics covered and the depth of knowledge required are enough to make even experienced Linux professionals balk. Furthermore, the pass rate is notoriously low. These exams are difficult! However, that is precisely what makes the certifications so valuable.

Red Hat describes their exams as “practical” and “hands-on”; candidates are expected to configure live systems. Real-world experience is important, but it may not always be enough on its own. Because the exams cover so much material, it is often the case that certification candidates will be required to configure services on the exam that they have never used in the field. This is why the road to certification success usually includes a combination of real-world experience, practice, and both classroom and independent study. I will discuss how to optimize your practice and independent study, using the methods that worked best for me as I prepared for the RHCSA and RHCE exams.

In order to become competent on so many subjects, you must begin by breaking down the exam material into manageable chunks. Fortunately, Red Hat does some of the work for you; for each exams Red Hat provides a list of Exam Objectives on their website:

RHCSA exam objectives can be found here: https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhcsa/objectives/

RHCE exam objectives can be found here: https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhce/objectives/

Red Hat has similar pages for all of their advanced certifications as well. These Exam Objectives list all of the topics that may appear on a given Red Hat exam. As you may notice, some of these objectives are rather vague. Here is where your work begins; you will be using the Red Hat Exam Objectives as a starting point to make a comprehensive list of items to practice.

Begin by pasting the Red Hat Exam Objectives into your favorite text editor. Under each exam objective, list every possible action you can think of that might fulfill the requirement. By “action” I mean some change to system configuration, be it using a command, installing packages, modifying a file, etc. If you can not think of any actions to list for a particular objective, consult relevant man pages, files in /usr/share/doc/, and the Red Hat's Deployment Guide, which can be found here: