WGU -- Week Update

Ok, here's a bad of the WGU experience. This is picking the nits off of nits, so take it that way. Consider it a lesson learned on my part. I'm waiting to take the CTV1 or SY0-401 certification test. The goal was this Friday. Well, goals and reality don't always meet up.

Within WGU, you have to request approval to go take your test with your mentor and quite possibly the course mentor. Once s/he approves the test, you have to request the test within the course of study. Then testing or whoever issues you a testing voucher. At $250 per test, I'll wait for the voucher thank you very much. Official policy is 48-96 hours or so is the policy to issue the voucher. Until this time, it had been less than 48 hours. Not this time though. Bah. Oh well. The location where I test is fairly flexible so I don't factor that in.

The lesson: if you know what day you want to take your test, make sure you give yourself 5-7 days to get all the appropriate paperwork filed. 10 days if you are that type (raises hand). Consider it your own personal project management experience. Yeah, knowing if you are ready 10 days out can be a challenge. You will figure out your rhythm.

WGU Update -- BNC1 Down

This is the organization behavior course. Having been in mid-level management, it was nice to have official terms for some of the things I have experienced. Anywho, on to the course itself. Follow the course of study to the letter. This is a good course if you haven't been back to school in a while. Read the chapters, and don't let the first section beat you down as it is 3 chapters in the book. There are a lot of terms. The rest of the course subsections are only 1 or 2 chapters long each. Do the practice tests. Grade them with the lectures. If you aren't good at tests, listen to the lecture on how to eliminate obviously wrong answers. Mr. Jividen takes time to help you on this technique throughout all of the sections. If you are good at testing, fast-play will be your friend. Review the key areas (groups, teams, and the org section). Test. Its the Kryterion one so its a home test for most. Move along.

I made about 40 5*7" notecards for this one. I like putting an entire topics on a card. I write smallish. example, one card for me was the 5 stages of group formation. Another was the 4 types of decision making in group or whatever it is called (Face-to-face, brain-storming, Nominal, and virtual). I put a few comments about little subsection. I use traditional cards. My eyes are old and tired and staring at the screen at night hurts after reading it all day.

I found the material entertaining, but i enjoy people watching and observing things. If you don't enjoy understanding (or at least the attempt to understand) the human aspect of life within a business environment, well, this will not be your cup of tea.

Next Course Done -- DHV1

Took the next test in the line up, DHV1/Windows OS Fundamentals. Its a fairly easy test if you support Win7 from either desktop or network side of the house. Using the online book plus taking the measureup self test did the trick. I'm not a big fan of the learnkey stuff on this one. I took the learnkey practice test and quit after asking MS-DOS/Win95 questions. It was only 10 questions into the practice test.

Be sure to READ the measureup answers. Select all questions, pick an answer, read the solution. It includes both what is right and what is wrong with the others. The book needs this to be a complete solution.

Also spun up a Win7 Pro VM on VirtualBox using the student software agreements. I hate blowing up my work machines. Took 6 days of off-on studying. 1 day cram. made an 88.

Desktop Technician Interview Questions

One of my friend/co-workers in at k-12 district asked for some desktop technician interview questions. Sorry the layout is ass. Cut and paste. and if i'm wrong, prove it :) just kidding.

Customer Service

You have a ticket from the teacher stating her machine does not work? How would you handle this ticket?

Ask if/when this is a good time to work on the ticket with the customer

Ask the customer what the problem is

Duplicate the problem with the teacher

Resolve the problem if possible; escalate if not

Verify system is working with the teacher and notify her the ticket will be closed

close ticket

A teachers machine has crashed, and you determine the drive is dead. How do you handle the situation knowing the teacher maybe upset about losing his data?

Relate to the customer/empathy

Might say check network for a backup

Offer future ways to prevent total data loss (copy to flash drive, backup to network, backup to cloud)

Follow-up; what if the customer asks to speak to a manager?

give out managers information & notify your manager

If there was one thing you could teach or have ever computer user know starting today, what would it be?

this is open ended. You be the judge;

don't open email from people you don't know; dont click on links; don't share passwords; 

Technical -- software

In k-12, we have both teachers and student who look for new and interesting software. Sometimes that comes with a price, malware or virus infection. What tools have you or do you use to clean off malware & virus

Should say something about an Antivirus product

say something about malware removal kits (cc-cleaner)

Follow-up this one; what was the worse infection you had to clean and how did you do it

maybe boot to safe-mode; boot to usb drive; had to reimage;

Have you ever develop an image for machines such as a lab, library, office suite? What did you use? 

Windows servers; SCCM; ghost; KACE; - lots of answers

Follow-up: how do you maintain the image going forward as patches and updates are released

Technical -- hardware

I like to do these with a machine. put 5-10 labels on the machine ask them to ID memory slots (and types), processor, power supply, video cards, PCIex1 and x16 slots,  -- trying to think of some;

a user is complaining they cant connect to wireless, how do you troubleshoot;

1) make sure the wifi card is turned on on the computer (slide the latch)

2) make sure the card is enabled in the OS (bottom right)

3) Make sure the user is connecting to the right wireless network (SSID)

a) delete network and re-add

4) make sure the user is typing the credentials right (try email if they are the same to verify)

5) escalate

A computer doesn't appear to come on; troubleshoot;

-- trying to find out if they know to start at the beginning and not in the middle

1) verify power (wall and power strip and cables)

2) verify monitor is on

3) power on machine -- (if the mention post, throw the question below in now)

if no power; dead power-supply

if power, but no video -- check video cable; check monitor --

...they got it if they get that far correctly

Describe POST and what it is does;

1) Power-on Self Test;

2) machine is verifying physical status of its innards (memory, motherboard, video card, some others)

What does a machine do that fails POST

1) beeps and shuts down;

Technical -- OS

How do you join a computer to a domain

system properties, join domain (or right click computer/properties...) if they get that far, they have good idea.

How do you boot to safe mode and when would you do it

f8 at boot; driver issue after updating hardware drive is typical reason; usually, made a config change that was bad, have to clean it up

How do you edit the registry on windows; when would you? are you comfortable doing it?

regedit/regedt32; when: specific instructions by vendor or microsoft to fix issue; everyone should be cautious using regedit!

How do you add a printer to computer

they should give you one or two paths to add printer wizard

Where are the users' profile stored on a win7 box

(c:\users)

What is your favorite OS right now?

Technical -- Network (yes, ipconfig is that important)

How do you find a computer's IP address

ipconfig

How do you find a computer's default gateway

ipconfig /all

How do you have a computer update its IP address

ipconfig /release & ipconfig /renew

A customer is saying she can't get to the internet. You've verified the physical connections & IP address information is correct, what are your next steps;

Might say verify physical cables are plugged in a the lights are green anyhow

Use ping: ping the gateway, then ping the site

use nslookup or dig to see if DNS is working (nslookup www.google.com)

use tracert to find the error on the pathway

What does it mean when a windows machine gets a 169.254.x.x address; Why is this usually bad?

No DHCP server was found and DHCP is enabled for the device; Customer is likely unable to access resources; This is not a NIC problem

Technical -- Cabling

Have you done cabling before? What are the two main standards for CAT5e/CAT6

568a/568b

What are the 8 colors in a twisted pair cable

Orange, Orange/White, Blue, Blue/White, Green,Green/White, Brown, Brown/White

What is the maximum distance of Cat5e on 100M network

328 feet; might say 300 feet -- close enough for practical world 

Sept 2014 WGU Courses -- DRV1 & DSV1

September 2014: I completed the two Linux Courses, DRV1 and DSV1. The tests weren't bad, however, the primary study material left a lot to be desired. On the DRV1 (LPI101) course and study guide, I was making the upper nineties on the practice questions from WGU material. I knew the answer to the question, not just memorizing question 4 answer c. I knew what the other 3 answers represented or what the question was asking. However, the real test material was quite a bit different. Very frustrating experience.

I jumped to the forums after eeking out a 600 (500 to pass). Many had the same issue. I tried the recommendation of many and went to the linuxacademy.com site for the LPI102 course. MUCH BETTER! They offered a monthly plan which i picked up for $25. The course was 30 hours of material. It was lecture with the instructor doing a lab. as part of the package, you can launch up 4 different linux machines with a variety of OS. I spun up two machines, CentOS and Ubuntu (RPM vs. Debian). Some of the files are in different locations per distribution, plus it was good practice to deal with the different tools on each. My typical session was to listen to the instructor, watch what he did, then duplicate it on my own machines. So, it took longer than 30 hours to complete the course in LPI102 pausing the lectures. After each section, I would review the course notes to make sure I covered anything not specifically covered in the lecture. Some commands just have a lot of options. Last, studying there and passing and understanding all the prep material, I tried a WGU practice test to get used to seeing test questions. I went into the testing site only making 80% on the WGU tests.  I made a 670 on the DSV1/LPI102 course. The questions I missed were my fault. It was covered at LinuxAcademy, but I simply didn't recall the answer. Plus some were those details where I go, screw it, if they ask that level detail, I'm guessing. I can deal with that feeling much better than going into a test having studied the wrong material.

Anyhow, recommendation: use the study programs, examples, and guides at the LinuxAcademy. 25 for a month, 60 for a 3 months is worth it. Duplicate what the instructor is doing in EVERY LAB. Yeah you may have to pause, rewind, and go wth did he just do?. I didn't ask any questions of the two gentlemen who provided the course, but they are responsive in the forums. Use the practice tests from WGU to get some questions thrown at you a day or 2-5 days prior to the test. Master the material/commands where you have to type something that was in both study materials. Master the locations of anything covered in both. Review the LPI101/102 exam objectives (duh?) to ensure you aren't going to be surprised on the topics. Don't expect the exam questions to be repeated word for word in your study material. That's called a brain dump. Neither of the training providers are in that business. However, read the test questions again. Sometimes they combine topics, ask a question a different way than you studied it. Usually you can get the questions down to 2 options.

Good luck.

Certification Testing Center Experience and Information

Are you nervous about taking your first online testing experience at a dedicated testing center? Here's my thoughts and experiences.

• Before the test!

1. Pre-Scheduling Stuff: If your certification requires you to join a community, sign an NDA, or other things before you take the test, do it! Go visit the vendor's site, (Cisco, CompTIA, LPI, ITIL, whoever) and see if you need to complete any forms. Remember your login. Also, consider, do you use you work email or personal email? Plus, if you register, you typically get your scores posted quickly and certifications faster
2. Scheduling: Find a testing center! (Duh, right?) Most tests are offered by certain testing providers, PearsonVue, prometric, certiport, etc. Visit your certification vendor to find out whoever offers your test. The certification vendor will link to the correct testing provider. Most of the testing providers have search engines to help you find a location near you. If you are lucky and live in a metro area, you may have many to choose from. Just be aware to consider drive-time during the time of day you are scheduled to test. A 9AM test to a center 10 miles from you might take you 30 minutes in traffic. So, if traffic stresses you, try to work with your employer to get an off rush-hour time to the center.
1. If you are with WGU or other online technical/similar university, you may want to call and find out if your center partners with WGU, etc. You will be able to schedule a majority of your tests at this one location. Familiarity relaxes you and its one less thing to stress over.
2. Write down the test you are taking
3. Travel: All centers recommend to arrive around 15 minutes early. If it is your first time, pad that amount of time. You can sit in your vehicle and study if you are there too early. Bring that piece of paper with the test info with you.

• At the Testing Center

You've arrived! Are you nervous, anxious, scared?! Yes, most test takers are. I've had an alphabet soup behind my name in certifications before, and I STILL get nervous (I hate to fail). Here's what going to happen.

1. Pre-Test Paperwork: Greet the person at the front desk. The testing center will want to know your name and what test you are scheduled to take. The piece of paper comes in handy here if you get nervous and your brain can't recall anything but what you have crammed into it.Yes, if you put your life on your phone, just use your phone. Your photo ID will have your name if you forget that. Give the test info to the nice person getting you registered. You likely will be asked to sign a sign-in register. You will also be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. They will also ask for your two forms of ID (DL and CC, or Passport and credit card, etc). They will make copies of the photo ID and return your IDs.
2. Pre-Test Frisking: Be prepared to go through airport security. Well, not exactly, but close. Only bring what is required, typically two forms of ID. I bring my cell, wallet and keys. The center should give you a locker with a lock and key to secure your items. You get to hang on to the key to the locker where you stored your stuff while you test. You cannot have anything with you when you take your test...Speaking this, you will be asked to 
1. Empty your pockets & show your emptied pockets -- front and back --
2. Remove your coat, scarf (sorry atticus), or any other "extra" clothing
3. You will be required to show your legs (lift your pants to your calves)
4. Show your arms in long sleeved shirts
3. Pre-Test Mug Shot: Many tests will require you have your picture made, even if it is with the same certifying authority for each and every test you take. You will get to sit and have your picture made. It may even be printed on your results! Don't worry, all my friends say i look like a crazy person in my photos. You try looking relaxed when you are stressed and didn't sleep for squat.
4. Pre-Test Launch: Often you will be asked
1. Do you need to use the bathroom. Hey, if it is 30 minutes, might not be a big deal. If it is 2 hours, you probably should. Plus, sometimes a little splash of cold water from the faucet feels good.
2. Do you need earplugs. I get them the first time. Put 'em my pockets. Since the facility I have been using is quiet, I don't any more. 
3. Last, you'll be asked to "follow me" into the testing area proper!
5. Testing Area: It is typically a room with testing stations separated by partitions. The stations at my location are about 4 foot each. The testing station will have a keyboard, mouse and monitor. The monitors at mine are at least 19", and i think 21". I don't measure them as my mind is elsewhere. You'll also probably notice several security cameras. Yep, you are being recorded.
6. The Test:  You will sit down at a station specified by your exam proctor. Your proctor will get you logged into your specific test on the computer. S/he may give you a blank laminated paper with a pen. Again, you may be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement and NDA on your testing workstation before starting. The testing software will ask if you are ready to start. It will often give you the requirements of "passing" before you start. And you start. Each test will be different. Make sure you have read everything regarding the test. Some are only multiple choice, some are scenarios, some are type in the commands to configure this magic box to do "x", etc. Most tests of have time limits. 
1. Test speed: Some tests will be soooo slow between questions. Most of the time the engine is drawing the scenario questions with diagrams. Patience.
2. Marking Questions: Some tests let you mark questions for review. I use this, but i seldom if ever change my answer. However, sometimes a question later may trigger your brain and you come up with the right answer to an earlier question. 
3. Question Review: Some tests give you the option of reviewing your answers. Up to you. I only review my marked ones.
4. The finish: When you are done with the review (or test), typically there is an end test/submit test/finish button to select. Do it when you are as done as you'll ever be.  the testing engine will give you a warning saying something along the lines of, are you really really ready to submit this for grading?! Yes.
7. SERIOUSLY?!?!: some testing engines will ask you demographic questions before giving results. WT...And these can be about 10-20 questions. What did you use to study? Who is your employer? Hell, I don't know if i'm employed any more if I don't pass! geez, give me the results. Finish it anyway. I try to be honest on them now. WWJD?
8. The Results: The testing engine will give you the results. I hope they are good for you! Remember, passing is passing unless you plan on teaching. No one cares if you got the exact minimum requirement to pass, except for the people who want to brag about themselves. Whatever, if you pass, you passed! You'll probably start to ask yourself, now how do I make sure I don't loose these results so where is the print or emailto: button? Your proctor or exam admin will have them. Close out of the testing engine and get ready to leave.
9. Leaving: Pick up your laminated paper and pen from your station. Get up and leave quietly. Remember, there are other souls being tortured next to you. Open the door quietly; shut it back quietly from the testing area. Go to the sign-in or designated area. They will typically do the following:
1. Let you retrieve your stuff from your locker.
2. Print out your results. Some will be marked with a specialized stamp.
10. Paranoia: It will take a few days for your results to post with your certification provider. No matter how many times you click refresh on email, it will still take a period of time. Relax. you passed. You will get email regarding your next steps (confirm your physical address, your name, etc). Just hang on to the original print out of your results just in case

ITIL Foundation Exam Passed

As stated, I am between semesters and still wanting to be productive with my time away from work. I took the ITIL Foundation 2014 exam at a Pearson VUE center. It is a 40 question test. Made and 85%. If I do my math right, I missed six questions. I probably knew 30 outright were correct. Most of the remaining questions were 50-50 choices in the end as half the answers were wrong.

Studying :I used the Sybex study guide along with the ITIL Foundation Essentials book. I read the Sybex front to back without notes. There were soooo many new terms to me. After that, I focused with the Eseentials book. Last, I re-read the chapter summaries in the Sybex and took the end of chapter tests. Anywhere I did poorly, I read (and re-read and re-read...). To get used to answering questions, I took a practice exam and the Sybex practice exam. As I've stated elsewhere, study what you get wrong. Understand what the wrong answers could be rights answers for (if they aren't just made up words). I probably put in 3-4 full days of studying (40ish hours).