Solaris 8 Exam II 310-012

[sibleyrw]

I have a backround in SVR4 Unix and Unixware .
My company wants me to get certified in Solaris 8.
I passed the Solaris Admin part I.
And have gone through the books I reveived when I went to SUNs ADMIN II and the EXamCRam. I failed part II the first time. Any ideas for what I can do. I have a limited old sun box.

 

[SamBones]

A limited old Sun box is good enough, as long as it has enough memory and disk to install Solaris 8. I've got my Solaris 8 Certification and here's what I used to study for it.

First, I have a "limited old Sun box" that I got off of eBay. I ordered a Solaris 8 media kit from Sun for $100. This includes all of the CDs and a small manual set. I installed the OS several times, trying different options and partitioning schemes. The install from a slow CD drive takes a long time, so this was kind of painful.

For books, I first started with a blue and white book (I forget the title now) from Sun Press, or something like that. It was really bad. I was finding mistakes all through it. Even on topics I was just learning about.

So, I got the red ExamCram book. This became my main study guide, and I still use it for reference. I found it by reading the reviews on Amazon.com. I would take this book with me to lunch everyday and read one chapter and take the test at the end of the chapter. Then, that night I would log onto my workstation and try everything that I could.

After finishing the first half of the book, I took the test for Part one in the book and used that to brush up on what I was weak on. I signed up for the Part I test, took it, and passed.

I did the same for the second half of the book covering part two of the certification. Every day at lunch, then try it out. Part II was a lot harder for me because it covered stuff I didn't really have previous experience with. So, after I completed the second half of the book, I went through it again, just as before, a chapter a day at lunch. I wasn't feeling very strong about Part II, so I also went to Sun's web site and bought their online test for Part II. It was $70 and has several hundred questions. I ended up going through this two whole times and a couple times just doing a few dozen questions. I used this to find out what parts I was weak on and went back to the book and workstation to learn it better.

The day of the test I just went over the quick reference card several times before walking in. I ended up passing with an 80%!

Make sure you read the ExamCram testing tips too. These are good tips. Make sure you mark one's you're not sure of for review, then go back later. Make sure you do what the question asks for (if it says pick three, make sure you've picked three). If you don't know, guess. Etc, Etc...

Anyway, I think for me buying the practice test from Sun really helped. There were a few things it asked me that the book didn't really emphasize enough. I know I got a few right on the real test because I had been asked the same thing on the practice test. Being able to pass the practice test probably means you can pass the real test and it helps your confidence.

Hope this helps.