03-15-2008
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Reply to Aix certification (223)
Here is my experience. I took the -223 exam in early February 2008. I also saw test -222 was no longer being offered by Sylvan-Prometrics where I test. I researched into this.
Test -223 is very different compared to -222. I base this upon comparing preparation exams offered by a site named ActualTests.com and a site named Pass4Sure.com. Preparation tests from ActualTests.com can be purchased as a subscription $99 USD for lifetime membership. They did not offer the -223 test. They do offer the -233, -234, -235, -236, -237, and more tests which I have no interest in at this time.
Preparation tests from Pass4Sure are $100 USD each. Their tests are more "braindumps"; they have the same questions and answers as the actual certification exam. I leave the legality of this to the lawyers. They also offer the -223, -233, -234, -235, -236, and -237 tests.
With practice exams from either site, you can pass the IBM certification exams, but you definitely don't learn much unless you put in lots of hours of hands-on experience, that is, match prep test questions against the book text and against results produced by an actual AIX 5L workstation. You can pass the test but you still can't solve a problem.
Practice test -233 and questions from ActualTests.com are nearly identical to the practice test questions from Pass4Sure.com. I have the practice exams from both. I do not know how closely -234, -235, -236, and -237 compare. I am guessing they are nearly identical as well.
ActualTests.com exams are somewhat buggy with misspelled words and transposed letters in their text. I find this distracting. Pass4Sure tests do not have this problem. You get the quality you pay for.
Both download in non-editable .pdf format. It takes a lot of creative manipulation to place their test questions into Word format. That is a subject for some other time.
I suggest you seek out specific books and matching practice exams for the certification exam you plan to take. There is no substitute for really learning a command or concept compared to hands-on-the-hardware experience.