Close Your Eyes and Picture a Command Line

Have you ever been taking a certification exam, gotten to a question that you couldn't immediately answer, and thought, "OK. So what would this look like on my computer screen?" Maybe you stare at the ceiling for a second, attempting to conjure a mental picture, or close your eyes in concentration. Many of us are kinesthetic learners, meaning that we are most successful at internalizing concepts when we can use a "hands on" approach and go through something step-by-step. It's often far more common, however, that advanced knowledge is presented in a manner that requires us to learn visually, through reading, or auditorily, through listening. If you've ever been to a college lecture hall, or purchased a textbook, then you're likely well acquainted with those approaches.

Often, however, the most successful instruction combines elements of all three approaches. That would probably sound familiar to anyone who has used TestOut Continuing Education's top-quality IT certification courseware. When you're taking a TestOut CE course, you will often hear computing concepts explained in a video presentation, read through a section of review material, and then work through what you've learned by completing one of our high-fidelity simulations that replicate real-world environments and actual workplace tasks. When you learn that way, as opposed to merely listening while someone explains concepts, or scanning the pages of a study guide or textbook, then there's actually a mental picture in your head when you need to visualize what you've learned.

Completing a Linux certification test, for example, generally requires you to know various Linux commands and what they are used for. You can read that information, or listen to someone explain it. How much more likely would you be to remember it, however, after working through an exercise like this: 

That's a screen capture from TestOut CE's Linux Pro course, which prepares anyone who's thinking about taking the popular Linux+ certification exam offered by CompTIA. As you may know, successfully completing the Linux+ exam also qualifies you to receive the LPIC-1 credential from the Linux Professional Institute, as well as the Certified Linux Administrator (CLA) cert offered by SUSE.

By completing the Linux Pro course and exam, of course, you'll also receive TestOut's Linux Pro credential. So you could end up with four certifications in the time that would usually be required to obtain just one. No matter how you learn most successfully, it's not hard to see what a great deal that is!