Cisco exam frustration

Just venting here....:

Last time I took the CCNA (2001) passed very 1st time. Just took the ICND2 exam for the SECOND time only to miss by 24 points. Beyond frustrated right now. Scored 735 two weeks ago.

LAN switching...64%
IP Routing........64%
IP Services.......33%
Troubleshooting.53%
WAN Tech.........88%

Evaluated the sections which I under-performed and purchased the Boson practice tests. Felt super confident as I evaluated each question. Scored 801. An improvement by 66 points but still not enough.

LAN switching...91%
IP Routing........57%
IP Services.......33%
Troubleshooting.76%
WAN Tech.........75%

I've already signed up to take it again next week. Another week of studying/practicing the same material. Just hoping I don't lose my focus. Send me some encouragement peeps. I am starting to lose faith after 70 hours of self-paced study in the last 6 weeks.

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Comments

anoeljr

You can do it man. I've seen many people on here who have also struggled, but they managed to pull through. Sorry I can't give you any pointers as I don't have any experience with Cisco, but you'll do great. Just make sure you go through the areas you scored lower in. Third time's the charm right? I'll leave you with the words of Theodore Roosevelt:

"[h=1]Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well."[/h]

xnx

Focus time on Frame Relay and EIGRP

Doyen

anoeljr wrote: »

...Third time's the charm right? I'll leave you with the words of Theodore Roosevelt:

"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well."

That is a nice quote! I've taken the composite exam 3 times before I passed. I started to study for it on February of 2013 and took the exam 7 months later in September before old exam was to cycle out. I didn't pay attention to the tutorial and only answered the first question for 2 of the 3 simulations (found out there were more questions on the last simulation). I scored an 816 out of the minimum of 825. I took the exam again a week later on the last day it was offered (drove about 2 hours to the center that was available) and did much worse due to the ACL simulation and hardly any subnetting questions. That two hour drive made me feel terrible and that I didn't know anything...also got a speeding ticket on my way back.

I decided to take a break for around a month (studied and took the VMware VCA exams) before I started to study the newer topics in the 200-120 exam and my weak spots. I studied and labbed for another 7 months or so and passed in April 2014. Be tenacious and study your weak spots. Keep in mind that the exam topics have changed- both versions of RIP are gone, Netflow, HSRP, GLBP, and such are now on the exam. Good luck!

networker050184

Perhaps doing another week of the same thing isn't the best approach if it's already failed to prepare you twice.

Magic Johnson

networker050184 wrote: »

Perhaps doing another week of the same thing isn't the best approach if it's already failed to prepare you twice.

Lol zing!

roch_greg

OP, you didn't mention what study materials your using. Maybe you need to change up. Are you doing any practice exams prior?

Knowing you "show" commands is crucial as is knowing how the technologies work that your being tested on.

After studying a subject see if you can explain how it works and know what they key terms are.

Hang in there though, you'll get it.

Doyen

I am by no mean insulting your method of studying, but instead of exposing yourself to your same methods, may I suggest that you switch it up? Try using another source as a "review" to touch up what you know, what you think you know, and what you should know better. Consider playing around with labs via Packet Tracer or may watch some videos (CBT Nuggests, Chris Bryant, Infiniteskills, and maybe Lammel press).

networker050184 wrote: »

Perhaps doing another week of the same thing isn't the best approach if it's already failed to prepare you twice.

Some good advice there. Don't take it again so soon just because Cisco allows it as the time frame for a retake. A week didn't work out for me on my 2nd attempt, but then again I was overconfident with only minor reviewing. However, I will say that after my 2nd attempt, I have become considerably modest with IT. I felt like "King of the world" during my studies with "1 and 1 being 2"... until a good friend opened up CCNP material to humble me with that "Cisco Calculus". Okay, maybe not humbled, but hungry enough to know what level I strive to be someday...so I'll continue to stay modest until then

, blinding myself of the truth that that their isn't a learning ceiling in Cisco.

Jon_Cisco

Good Luck with the retest. You have some exposure the the new test and came pretty close to passing.

The one trick I found worked for me was using the practice tests to take notes on my weak points.
As you read the questions and answers if anything is unfamiliar write it down on a list.
When your done this will be a list of things you decided you were not strong enough on.

It's to easy to skim the answers after the test and say oh yeah I knew that. Use the moment when your stuck to make your notes.

Good Luck!

Deathmage

What I'm finding to help me with my studies is I've read the Exam cram book in one weekend and I just got through about half way through the CCNA in 60 days book and the wording was so horrible I stopped. I'm now doing Odom's book and I got Todd's brand-new book all lined up. CBT Nuggets with Keith Barker is the final piece of the puzzle.

It also helps for me tremendously that most of our switches in the core are Cisco switches at work so I get exposure everyday but if you don't have a live experience like that do what I do...

...it's a bit extreme (but I have learned so much by breaking my home network so many times on purpose) but I have a full-scale corporate network in my basement complete with Sonicwalls at my DMZ connected to a 101mbit, a HP Procurve as a MDF (while learning Cisco), 3 Cisco AP's throughout the house, 2 Dell R610's with 32 GB of RAM each with 8 2008 R2 server running on them all of them on their own vlans connected to the Cisco lab's 2950 switches with inter-vlan routing taking place on the 2600's. I also have 3 gaming PC's that I use for LAN parties that are also connected and you can't forget the 3 Acer One mini laptops with Ubuntu 12 on them, aka my putty box's. All of this hardware about can be acquire for about $1200. The R610's I got for 250 off ebay and popped in cheap DDR3 memory into them, they got dual 2.0ghz Xeon's. I know my case is extremely extreme but my house is completely wired, even the fridge has a cat5 on it, lol!!!!

Needless to say you should perhaps expand your test environment to what a real network looks like. It's one thing to study a book/simulator it's a whole different story to see it on a live network. Like today for instance I have 2 of my good friend's over playing World of Warcraft on the LAN PC's while I test the configurations of the vlans and how they affect PC's and the VMware 5.1 servers. I know my testing lab covers so many vendors but I'm a JOAT's at my current job so I need to keep my skills sharp across many domains.

Perhaps something like this could benefit you for your studies. I'll know in a few weeks when I take the CCENT exam myself and CCNA in about a month to follow I hope. And one thing that I saw from someone post on here about 6 months before I took the A+ exam.... "Never give up! - Just keep swimming (like Dory said to Nemo)"...

MTciscoguy

Deathmage wrote: »

What I'm finding to help me with my studies is I've read the Exam cram book in one weekend and I just got through about half way through the CCNA in 60 days book and the wording was so horrible I stopped. I'm now doing Odom's book and I got Todd's brand-new book all lined up. CBT Nuggets with Keith Barker is the final piece of the puzzle.

It also helps for me tremendously that most of our switches in the core are Cisco switches at work so I get exposure everyday but if you don't have a live experience like that do what I do...

...it's a bit extreme (but I have learned so much by breaking my home network so many times on purpose) but I have a full-scale corporate network in my basement complete with Sonicwalls at my DMZ connected to a 101mbit, a HP Procurve as a MDF (while learning Cisco), 3 Cisco AP's throughout the house, 2 Dell R610's with 32 GB of RAM each with 8 2008 R2 server running on them all of them on their own vlans connected to the Cisco lab's 2950 switches with inter-vlan routing taking place on the 2600's. I also have 3 gaming PC's that I use for LAN parties that are also connected and you can't forget the 3 Acer One mini laptops with Ubuntu 12 on them, aka my putty box's. All of this hardware about can be acquire for about $1200. The R610's I got for 250 off ebay and popped in cheap DDR3 memory into them, they got dual 2.0ghz Xeon's. I know my case is extremely extreme but my house is completely wired, even the fridge has a cat5 on it, lol!!!!

Needless to say you should perhaps expand your test environment to what a real network looks like. It's one thing to study a book/simulator it's a whole different story to see it on a live network. Like today for instance I have 2 of my good friend's over playing World of Warcraft on the LAN PC's while I test the configurations of the vlans and how they affect PC's and the VMware 5.1 servers. I know my testing lab covers so many vendors but I'm a JOAT's at my current job so I need to keep my skills sharp across many domains.

Perhaps something like this could benefit you for your studies. I'll know in a few weeks when I take the CCENT exam myself and CCNA in about a month to follow I hope. And one thing that I saw from someone post on here about 6 months before I took the A+ exam.... "Never give up! - Just keep swimming (like Dory said to Nemo)"...

Hey sounds like heaven to me, I have a very similar set up in my home, my wife thinks I am nuts but I am having a ball with all of gizmos and gadgets! What is really fun is getting to play and learning all at the same time.

Deathmage

MTciscoguy wrote: »

Hey sounds like heaven to me, I have a very similar set up in my home, my wife thinks I am nuts but I am having a ball with all of gizmos and gadgets! What is really fun is getting to play and learning all at the same time.

... now I don't feel the only uber nerd in North America with a overkill home network.

... until this happens then yep this emote sums it all up! ....

Jon_Cisco

Deathmage wrote: »

... now I don't feel the only uber nerd in North America with a overkill home network. ... until this happens then yep this emote sums it all up! ....

Part of my interest in IT is the fact that I can constantly study and learn. I'll never catch up to technology so it should stay interesting for the next 20+ years. I'm not where you are yet but I definitely think having a home setup keeps it interesting. So far I have 4 computers 3 routers 4 switches layer 2, 3 and PoE. I just started playing with servers so vmware player for now but I would not mind getting a real virtual setup going.

devils_haircut

Deathmage wrote: »

(lots of stuff about hardware)

So what's your energy bill look like? I'd be homeless in a mater of weeks if I had all that gear running, not to mention my apartment would be around 90°F.

Deathmage

devils_haircut wrote: »

So what's your energy bill look like? I'd be homeless in a mater of weeks if I had all that gear running, not to mention my apartment would be around 90°F.

LOL... What energy bill? - I have 6 arrays of solar panels on my roof with a 16 hour battery store for in the evenings, its supposed to run the house at 75% draw in the evening with 25% from the grid. My electric bill is like about $50 a month or something. I actually get a huge tax break by putting juice back on the grid....

as for the basement, the foundation sits on Shale rock so the basement is always a cool 50 degree year round, so that's helps with my cooling issue...

Jon_Cisco wrote: »

Part of my interest in IT is the fact that I can constantly study and learn. I'll never catch up to technology so it should stay interesting for the next 20+ years. I'm not where you are yet but I definitely think having a home setup keeps it interesting. So far I have 4 computers 3 routers 4 switches layer 2, 3 and PoE. I just started playing with servers so vmware player for now but I would not mind getting a real virtual setup going.

...I don't know the terms fully for this forum but I do have alternate means of VMware if you catch my drift. I think anyone and everyone these days know how to get something online if you really want it. If you know what I mean send me a PM and I can send you a invite.