“Studying is great, but it’s the cheats which get you the certification. “
Doesn’t help him to actually know something though.
Companies are pretty wise to that now. Certification helps IF you have experience. It doesn’t replace experience.
No - "actually knowing something" comes from studying and playing around with old hardware.
Passing the exam is something entirely different - assuming the studying has been done [so that there is some baseline level of competence], the quickest road to certification is via purchasing [and learning] the cheats.