RHCE

[Matthew Miller]

On Thu, Apr 29, 2004 at 03:18:34PM -0400, Mike Jang wrote:
> LPI exams are more standard multiple choice exams. These are sometimes
> associated with "paper tiger" certs. That may not be fair. The people
> behind LPI have worked hard (using psychometrics) to make their multiple
> choice questions a relevant test of real-world skills... but others
> suggest they are still multiple choice questions, whose answers can be
> memorized.

"Psychometrics" always makes me think of Hari Seldon. C'mon, just admit it:
testing isn't a hard science and no amount of technobabble will make it so.

A well-designed hands-on test -- which I believe the RHCE is, although it's
been forever since I took it -- is more valuable than a _perfectly_ designed
multiple-choice test by its very nature. If someone comes to me with an LPI
certification, I think "hmmm, well, this person can cram", and they've
definitely read a book or two on Linux, but if they have a RHCE, there's a
basic assurance that they've got elementary problem-solving skills. Maybe
it's not _much_, but it's certainly something.

(And let's not even talk about CompTIA's Linux+....)



-- 
Matthew Miller           mattdm at mattdm.org        <http://www.mattdm.org/>
Boston University Linux      ------>                <http://linux.bu.edu/>