Certification Survey Extra is a series of periodic dispatches that give added insight into the findings of our most recent Certification Survey. These posts contain previously unpublished Certification Survey data.

When it's time to get a new certification, some certified professionals head to the testing center intending to sink or swim based on their accumulated work experience, including workplace training, product documentation, and familiarity with daily tasks. If you're confident in what you know, then there's not necessarily a reason to use books, video, online training course, etc., to prepare.

Among certified Linux professionals who participated in our recent Linux Certification Survey, a bit more than half of those surveyed did not use any training materials or study aids created by the certification provider to prepare for their most recent certification exam.

Similarly, roughly two out of every three certified Linux professionals who participated in the survey did not use any training materials or study aids created by a third-party training provider to prepare for their most recent certification exam. So one key takeaway relating to the various kinds of certification training materials out there is that a lot of people in the industry don't use them.

Some individuals, on the other hand, probably especially including those who are relatively new to Linux, do indeed rely on certification training materials and study aids to help them prepare for certification exams. For those who do use books, videos, training courses, and so forth, we asked them where they tend to get their training from.

Among certified Linux professionals who prepared for their most recent Linux certification exam using certification training materials created by the certification provider, the five most popular sources of training are as follows:

1) Red Hat
2) CompTIA
3) LPI (The Linux Professional Institute)
4) SUSE
5) Logical Operations

Among certified Linux professionals who prepared for their most recent Linux certification exam using certification training materials created by a third-party training company, the five most popular sources of training are as follows:

1) Pearson
2) O'Reilly Media
3) Sybex
4) Skillsoft
5) CertDepot

If there's a Linux certification in your future, and you'd like to have the benefits of some additional training, but haven't been certain where to turn, well, now you have some options.