Anyone fail LFCS?

justinnoor

I did not pass my first attempt at LFCS :-(. The issues I had were mainly details and anxiety. I knew most of the stuff, but too broadly. Little details, like command line options, killed me. On top of that the anxiety kicked in and I was a nervous wreck.

Did anyone fail the LFCS exam? Did you retake? What advice can you give for people who failed on the first attempt?

coop

I always tell people to view the first take as practice since the second one comes at no extra cost. One thing that is important is to remember you can always do (for example)
ls --help
to get a short listing of options for the ls command, for most commands. Even experienced users forget a lot of day to day command options. Also all main pages are available.

As far as details about the exam, it should not be done on this forum

justinnoor

Understood. I'm not asking for details about the exam content. True, man pages are there, but when something goes wrong, fumbling through man pages when you have a very limited time to submit answers, on top of the anxiety, is easier said than done.

coop

No, I know you didn't do anything inappropriate As far as anxiety goes, I've always disliked time-limited exams as in the real world usually the quality of your solution is more important than how long it took to get it (most of the time) and if you reduce anxiety people usually actually finish the test quicker. Those who take forever do not do better, they often do worse because they overthink things.

But given the nature of a certification exam, time limits are needed and it is up to the exam designers (not us) to make sure the amount of work is reasonable for a normal human. Everyone has different methods for dealing with anxiety and exam prep. Centuries ago, when I was a student, I never studied the morning of an exam, if I could I'd go to the beach or something and zonk out. Others needed to cram up until they entered the room or they get even more anxious all morning We are all different

husam

If your second attempt is the same as your first attempt like your are not sure if your command is correct or not DON'T GO .. you will waste your time easily , The exam should be 2.5 hours NOT 2 hours its SO LIMITED and STRESSFUL

coop

Making exams longer is more stressful for most people and I know that folks have worked hard to keep the time down. If you feel there is too much content on the exam that is a different question and you should take it up with the exam people, not the training folks as we have nothing to do with that.
I do know that studies show that if you are going to pass in two hours, more time such as 3 hours does not change the pass rate on any exam, just the stress.

husam

the content on the exam is not that much and is not difficult for whose have at least five-six months experiment with terminal , just for people they have to master the content and do not focusing on alternative tools and they will pass , just one point about Chapter 28 .. pardon me is a joke anyone who needs to enter this exam can use these graphical environments blindly .

justinnoor

pk8prashant

The examination time should be at least 2.5 hours. The performance-based examination is little difficult then multiple choice based questions.

ojoeowens

Last time I took it there was 30 questions and only 2 hours. I totally agree that 4 minutes a question is way too low when some questions take 6-8 minutes even when you're proficient in the subject.

dinagasy

Hi, me too I did not pass my first attempt. I do not think the time for the exam is not enough, what I notices is that for some questions if you have made a lot of practice can be answered very quickly, it gives you more time to think about the resolution of some more 'complicated' questions. Me I am convinced that if we perform a lot of practices based on the official course the exam can be passed. To be anxious, it is a normal during an exam, the only solution is to learn to manage your anxiousness.

chris66

Magnesium is a natural element that can help with anxiety in general, that being said , Im sure I will super nervous when the time comes, That is why I am practicing so much , I enjoy linux, I do day dream about being a sysadmin even though I dont really know any serious programming.

luisviveropena

Hi @chris66 ,

If you want to become a sysadmin, it will be very important if you develop scripting abilities. Nowadays many job descriptions asks for some programming skills. Especially for everything related to YAML con files and the associated tools.

Regards,
Luis.

llewell

I failed badly on the first attempt and squeaked through on the second, but I only worked at it for a month or so (time pressure; I was unemployed at the time and looking to add stuff to my resume). Now I have to recertify and I'm giving myself lots of time to work through it.
If you really do know it well enough that you only need to look up command line options then switching back and forth between a working session and a man page in screen should let you work fast enough to do it in two hours. If you get stuck on a question just move on. The object is to attempt as many of the questions as possible. Let the ones you know cold buy you time for the ones you have to work at a bit. But don't get stuck on something. If you have to think about it for a minute move on.

chris66

@luisviveropena said:
Hi @chris66 ,

If you want to become a sysadmin, it will be very important if you develop scripting abilities. Nowadays many job descriptions asks for some programming skills. Especially for everything related to YAML con files and the associated tools.

Regards,
Luis.

Thanks Lewis, I have not looked into Yaml much yet, I am familiar with the basics of Vim more than enough to know that I like it more than Nano, I mostly thought Yaml was used for Aws, but I do plan to practice Linux Academy's course on it, What I have done on Java and Python I understood and even enjoyed to a degree.

Now as far as scripting what do you mean beyond editing files?

luisviveropena

Hi @chris66 ,

Now as far as scripting what do you mean beyond editing files?

I mean being able to do some programming is highly appreciated these days. For example, now that we have the DevOps culture everywhere, teams works not only together, but we also need to have a good understanding of what the another guy is doing. And how we can collaborate in the "pipeline".

Regards,
Luis.

chris66

Ah yes, I am continuing to study software development for that very purpose. I have no desire to be a developer, dought my creative ability, but I want to know what they are doing. Thank you

luisviveropena

It's a pleasure!

Regards,
Luis.

jarmez83

Yep, I failed my first time. Currently preparing for the resit. I think I failed for a few reasons - mainly time management. I tried to answer things in sequential order when I should have done a read through first and answered the questions I could get through quickly first. I wasted a lot of time working out some of the 'harder' questions first. Also, my unfamiliarity with this type of exam environment. It threw me a little bit. Overall I wasn't unhappy with my performance - I know how many questions I answered and my score relative to this reflects I was on the right track. My advice for anyone doing it for the first time would be to have a plan and stick to it - two hours go by really quickly. I think I will do better next time.

luisviveropena

Best of luck for the next time!

Regards,
Luis.

mglassman

I failed my first time, but I don't have more than a week to try and catch up on things I failed but should have known. I do not know if the questions are the same and just in a different order or if they completely randomize questions. I thought about the read though and then tackle method but thought that would take up even more time. What I did not like about the exam that I feel took the most time is that some of the naming conventions for directories could have been both shorter and less complex though copy and paste saves that and the text was tiny IMHO.

asantaniello

2x failure here. 2 years in a row I've registered during the cyber monday sale, then 51 weeks later I try to cram and take the exam with a few hours' review and no time to recover and do the retake. I'm a certified procrastinator, if nothing else. It all seems a bit overwhelming when I sit down to start things in December, and so I just keep putting it off until it's too late.
Not this year, though. I did the math and at 44 chapters, x about 15 slides per chapter, x 2 minutes a slide to read and take notes, I'm looking at 25 hours to cover the concepts. Plus say 1.5 labs/chapter x 30 mins/lab, another 30 hrs. So let's say 60 hours total just to get through all the material. If I put in 5 hours a week, I can take the test in 3 months and be reasonably confident, with plenty of time for a retake (and before my next performance review at work!). Having that mapped out is a help for me, and it's probably an overestimate since some of the material I use regularly a work. I suspect the labs (which I didn't do) are the key to doing well on the exam.

What I found challenging during the actual exam was trying to remember things that I've used before in a work setting, but not recently enough to recall it cold or get to the right spot in the man pages. I actually agree with Coop, more time just leaves me fumbling through man pages to attempt questions I just have no business trying, since I didn't study or never encountered such a problem (e.g. exotic options for diff). This is a difficult exam that draws from a lot of material. There are no shortcuts.

I better pass it this time around; I'm already past the break-even cost, even with cyber monday discounts!

mglassman

Didn't see any cyber monday discounts this round.

coop

just google "linux foundation cyber monday" and get:
https://training.linuxfoundation.org/cybermonday/

mglassman

Saw the banner after the fact. Thanks :-)

hinin

Hello everyone.

Maybe my question can be stupid but just I would like to know if you can use the man page during the test ?
thank you

nicolasmendoza

I'm going to take the exam/test this week, November 8... I'm a little stressed because I have just one attempt caused by my membership that will expire in December 1. "A silver bullet"

donaldsebleung

Wish you the best of luck @nicolasmendoza , you can do it

For me, I passed LFCS on the first attempt after just over a month of training with LFS101 and LFS201 (spent a lot of work hours studying the material when I shouldn't be doing so :-P), but only just. I think if one is able to complete most of the lab exercises in LFS201 without too much hesitation and without looking at the solution then (s)he is probably ready for the exam. Though I would definitely recommend going the extra mile and digging a bit deeper in topics where the LFS201 course notes and labs only skim the surface.

hinin

@donaldsebleung is it possible to use help or man page during the test if you have a doubt during the test ?

coop

yes, you have a normal system with such basic software installed

mikerossiter

I failed mine and I felt pretty good about it. I have emailed to see if there is some form of breakdown for me to see. I must've got areas wrong where I thought I'd got them right. I also want to know where my strengths lie and where I need to improve. Just being told a percentage is not much help. Also, it would be great if the Foundation could provide a few screenshots or a video of what to expect. I've been using Linux for years at home and studied for around five months non-stop. I've used courses on here plus Udemy and CBT Nuggets. None of them prepared me for the exam sufficiently. I wish there was a way that you could summarise exactly what needs to be learnt instead of doing it in a general way.