LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell (41 page)

LPI Exam 102 is the second of two exams required for the LPI’s
Level 1 certification (officially referred to as LPIC 1). This exam tests
your knowledge on 6 of the 10 major Topic areas specified for LPIC Level 1.
Each section details certain Objectives, which are described here and on the
LPI
website
.

Each Topic contains a series of Objectives covering specific areas of
expertise. Each of these Objectives is assigned a numeric weight, which acts
as an indicator of the importance of the Objective. Weights run between 1
and 8, with higher numbers indicating more importance. An Objective carrying
a weight of 1 can be considered relatively unimportant and isn’t likely to
be covered in much depth on the exam. Objectives with larger weights are
sure to be covered on the exam, so you should study these Topics closely.
The weights of the Objectives are provided at the beginning of each Topic
section.

Exam Topics are numbered using the
topic.objective
notation (e.g., 101.1, 101.2, 102.1).
The 100 series topics represent LPI Level 1 certification topics, which are
unique to all levels of LPI exams (e.g., 101, 102, 201, 202, etc.). The
objective number represents the objectives that are associated with the
Topic area (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on).

The Level 1 Topics are distributed between the two exams to create
tests of similar length and difficulty without subject matter overlap. As a
result, there’s no requirement or advantage to taking the exams in sequence,
the only caveat being that you cannot be awarded an LPIC 2 or higher
certifications until you pass the requirements for the lower level
certification.

The Topics for Exam 102 are listed in
Table 11-1
.

Exam 102 lasts a maximum of 90 minutes and contains exactly 60
questions. The exam is administered using a custom application on a PC in a
private room with no notes or other reference material. The majority of the
exam is made up of multiple-choice single-answer questions. These questions
have only one correct answer and are answered using radio buttons. A few of
the questions present a scenario needing administrative action. Others seek
the appropriate commands for performing a particular task or for proof of
understanding of a particular concept. Some people may get an exam with an
additional 20 items. These items are used to test new questions and don’t
count as part of the score. An additional 30 minutes is provided in this
case, and there is no indication of which items are unscored.

The exam also includes a few multiple-choice multiple-answer
questions, which are answered using checkboxes. These questions can have
multiple correct responses, each of which must be checked. These are
probably the most difficult type of question to answer because the
possibility of multiple answers increases the likelihood of mistakes. An
incorrect response on any one of the possible answers causes you to miss the
entire question.

The exam also has some fill-in-the-blank questions. These questions
provide a one-line text area input box for you to fill in your answer. These
questions check your knowledge of concepts such as important files,
commands, or well-known facts that you are expected to know.

The second part of this book contains a section for each of the six
Topics found on Exam 102 for LPIC Level 1 certification. Each of the
following tables details the Objectives described for the corresponding
Topic on the
LPI
website
.