Linux+ Study Guide: Exam XK0-002 [Paperback]

I have been a casual Linux user for about three years, and a serious student of Linux networking and programming for about a year, so I figured that all I would need to pass the Linux+ exam is a little time with study guide. So I studied this book for two weeks, then went and took the test, and failed. That was my own fault, I didn't apply myself. So I went back, worked through every step of every example in the book, memorized everything I could, and got to the point where I could correctly answer every end of chapter question and scored 89% the first time I took the sample exam included on the CD-ROM. I took the test again and failed again. There were many, many questions on the test that were nowhere to be found in this book, relating to both hardware and software.
I'm definitely not saying this is a bad book, because I learned a lot by studying it, and the style is clear and interesting. Mr. Smith's coverage of printing via lpr and CUPS is excellent and made those areas clear to me for the first time, and his coverage of package management was first rate. I'm just saying that if you are looking for a sure-fire way to pass the Linux+ exam you need a lot more than just this book. CompTIA recommends that you take the A+ and Network+ exams before taking Linux+, and based on my experience that seems like a good idea.

Or maybe I'm just stupid. But I thought I'd let everyone know.

I found this book to be, overall, very good preparation material. It did manage to cover material on all levels and went into sufficient detail for most areas. Smith's writing was pretty clear in most areas, although I found some explanations to be a little too terse though (they lacked the needed detail). While it covered a vast majority of the subject relatively well, there were areas where it did not adequately prepare for the test. That being said, I read about 7 books relating to Linux/Unix over the past year (not all pertaining to this exam), and none of them covered EVERYTHING in the Linux+ exam to a satisfactory degree. In fact, even if I were to pick any two books, I doubt I'd find a combination that covered absolutely everything in the exam objectives to the fullest extent.

I also happened to read Robb Tracy's Linux+ book in addition to this one. I'd say that this Sybex book is less geared to novices than Robb Tracy's book. I think it is assumed that you already know a bit more about the operating system. Even so, this is still at heart only a slightly more advanced "intro to Linux" book. It spends a lot of time with background explanations and conceptual understanding - something I don't really feel you need for this test. You need to know how to operate commands and tools. Not to mention, you should already have some knowledge of the how and why before even starting to study. Either way, it still does a reasonably good job of giving you the information you need to know for the exam.

While I didn't read any more Linux+ books, I did happen to find a much better alternative than the books previously mentioned. The LPIC Exam Cram book from Ross Brunson is hands down the best preparation for this test (assuming you do have some experience with Linux). Let's face it, the test is almost all command line knowledge, and doesn't test your conceptual understanding much at all. The exam cram format fit perfectly, and Brunson's writing was both concise and extremely lucid. In a very simple pattern, the book went over all the commands, what they do and how to manipulate them. It did a great job as not reading like a bunch of rehashed man pages, and did an amazing job of clarifying everything in very little page space. This is just what you need for the Linux+ exam. The scope of this book also came the closest to covering the entire objectives, although it was lacking in a few parts here and there. IF YOU ARE GOING TO BUY ONE BOOK, GO WITH THE BRUNSON LPIC EXAM CRAM. I think if you were to pair the exam cram book with Smith's Sybex book it would give you an excellent chance of passing.

Other honorable mentions included "the Linux Administration Handbook", and the Testout Linux+ computer based training CD's. The Linux Administration handbook is a great reference to have and takes a more practical approach (not exam oriented). The Testout cbt courses do not actually cover a lot, but they are the best instructional video's I've seen (CBT nuggets was way too short and not in depth). The Testout material is more geared to learning linux than passing the test though.

ABOUT THE TEST:

Without violating the NDA, I'll try to do my best to describe the experience and what you need to do to pass. I scored an 855 out of 900, but I have close to 2 years hands on experience and have done extensive reading on the topic (part of the reason is I just wanted to become more Linux proficient, most of it wasn't for the exam or even within the objectives).

First let me say, the test is very straight forward (not necessarily easy though). It maps to the objectives perfectly, and almost all of the questions I received were clearly written (unlike the Server+ test). One gripe I had with the test is that if you DO NOT use the BASH shell and you use the Csh or equivalent, you will be picking the wrong answers. I think in the objectives it states that you are to know the BASH shell, and the questions are written with this assumption. However, if you use a csh and they ask a question that has a valid response for the csh, you may be instinctively picking the wrong answer (even though it may be right for the csh).

My biggest gripe with the test though was that the suggested experience is severely misleading. I don't think 6 to 12 months experience is nearly enough to know what is needed for this test. I think if we were to say 6-12 months, we'd have to assume that you are actively using the OS 8 hours a day for a whole 6 months. From my experience however, Linux is often used in a server environment where its configuration is changed infrequently. I know a lot of Apache, MySql administrators who don't really do much until there is a problem or they need to make changes (which may not be often).

A lot of people who are bonafide administrators with a good amount of experience who don't intensively study for this test may be disappointed with the results. The material covered doesn't go far enough to test real proficiency in areas that some administrators work in (if you're an Apache, DNS or NIS expert, you really won't get extra points). The test is also likely to go beyond what some are normally used to. It's a very "old school" type test. If you look at the objectives, there is no material about getting wireless networking to work, running Wine, or what GUI tool does what. The test is complete command line system's administration, which goes deeper than many of us newcomers are used to (let's face it, we can use GUI tools for a lot of stuff nowadays). Do not underestimate it.

That being said, here are some helpful tips to pass:

Learn the following things, in order of importance
1) Know the location and purpose of every major config file.
2) Know all the major command-line tools and what they do (you may need to reference a few books to get full coverage here).
3) Know the more common switches for command line operations (don't beat yourself up about knowing the more obscure ones)
4) Know the major settings in the listed config files. You won't have to build a config file from scratch (remember, its multiple choice), but you should know what does what inside that config file.

If you are just learning Linux, and/or do not have any other IT experience or certifications... take a step back. Knowing your hardware and networking is a must and covers about 15% of the objectives. This is one of the more difficult tests to "fudge" your way through. Its simply too much to memorize, so you are going to have to actually spend time doing some of the things in the XK0-002 objectives. As mentioned, Testout is a great video instructional tool if you don't learn well from reading.

Use more than one source!!!! Reading a single book will not allow you to pass the test like with some other certifications. In fact, reading alone won't do it. You are probably going to have to set up VMware and do quite a bit of practicing on an actual command line. (I recommend using fedora core or SuSe).

Remember to actually READ the objectives (free download from comptia.org). You won't know what you haven't covered and how important each topic is without the objectives. Knowing what you need to know and how heavily weighted the area is makes a BIG difference.

Invest in practice test questions, or testing simulators. This is where you will find out what you really know and what you don't know. The questions at the end of the chapter's in your books help, but they are very poor preparation. After a practice test or so I realized I simply didn't understand the X windows configuration (I thought I did before hand though). Testing your knowledge is the best way to find out what you are weak in, and you don't want to find this out when you take the actual exam.

Good luck, I hope this helps!

Currently I'm on the sixth chapter of this book and so far so good. For those who are pursuing CompTIA's Linux+ certification I believe, according to CompTIA, that this book will provide all the help and resources that you need to pass the exam. One qualm though, grammatical errors and a few incorrect verbage.It would have been best that they were omitted. The author uses,"however," and, "though," so much and incorrectly that it makes reading difficult and not very enjoyable. So far I believe his, "however," means, "for example," you can try that and see if it helps, I have not figured out, "though" as yet. "However," if you can get around these quirks, then you'll be rewarded to know that this book is complete for the Linux+ certification and very informative, "though."

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