Taking CCENT Today

bender_fender100

I thought I had it rescheduled for next week but turns out that didn't happen, so I'm taking mine today at 12 and mainly what I've done was make sure that I went over things like OSPF, the show commands, and switching related topics and watched some videos on my weakest areas and got through a ton of the Odom simulator stuff this week as well. I also fired up the Packet Tracer and did some last minute practicing there. I really feel that I know subnetting quite well and can easily understand and come up with the table before I start the exam and everything. I can't believe it's finally here. Nearly two straight months of studying and having to keep up with a very busy college semester. It's been quite a challenge but rewarding in many ways.

If I don't do as well as I hope, I'm planning to retake it and keep on going.

TWX

I just want to tell you ... good luck, we're all counting on you.

techfiend

If you can subnet well you'll likely pass, it's a good chunk of the test. Good luck!

bender_fender100

techfiend wrote: »

If you can subnet well you'll likely pass, it's a good chunk of the test. Good luck!

Of course. I even did at least 10-20 different subnetting exercises in the Odom simulator and got every single one right nearly every time, it was just watching out for those reserved IPs addresses and Class D addresses that they liked to throw in there sometimes that I had to watch out for. A lot of them I was able to do from my head too.

I'm really glad it's mainly subnetting because if it's that, I'll be just fine most likely. Even if they give me an OSPF lab, I think I'll be fine with that as well as long as I know the show commands and what I need to look at.

Jamesweb

Bender, good luck today man on your exam! You got this and all the studying will pay off. hopefully I will be not too far behind you and attempt this exam in the next month anyway. Going to keep going through the Odom simulator labs too, I am finishing chapter 10 labs now and in the book. I already went completely through Lammle's book and all labs there, Cbt nuggets and other videos. I am sure we will see that "I PASSED" thread today so again good luck!!

bender_fender100

I didn't pass but did way better than I thought I would and the test itself was nowhere near as hard as the Boson tests. Here's what I got in each category.

775 was my score. I surprisingly bombed the device security part but did better on troubleshooting than I thought.

Operation of IP Data Networks 100%
LAN Switching Technologies 64%
IP Addressing Ipv4 and Ipv6 67%
IP routing technologies 79%
IP Services 75%
Network Device Security 38%
Troubleshooting 71%

I'm ready to take it again in two weeks. Lots of subnetting and an ospf lab. You don't configure anything, just know the show commands.

fuz1on

Sorry to hear/read bender! 775 is really close - you'll get it in 2 weeks for sure! Work hard and good luck!

bender_fender100

fuz1on wrote: »

Sorry to hear/read bender! 775 is really close - you'll get it in 2 weeks for sure! Work hard and good luck!

Thank you. Believe me. Considering since I've never taken any IT certification exams before, never had any previous networking background or experience in that field or had anything else like a Network+ or an A+, I was amazed myself that I just needed 29 more points and I would have passed no problem. I think I know what question I screwed up in the security category, so now I'm just figuring out what I should focus most on before I retake it again. I still think for some reason, some of the switching topics I need to work on some more and I'm really figuring out how I can get that cleared up. Does anyone have another suggestion or have been in my position before?

Deathmage

Stay persistent bro, it's a exam of steel ballz....failed it twice before passing.

What I did was, just focus on the book and re-read the whole dam thing, two weeks is plenty of time for lazer focused reading.

I fiished Odom's book 2 weeks ago and just did two video classes online since then and this weekend I'm re-reading the book and going over the highlighted areas for the 1st time through. my ICDN2 is the 31st.

I've labbed every part of the book in the lab, tonight is Boson time. tomorrow is just labbing all day long...

techfiend

subnetting.net - Subnet Questions and Answers the Odom sim is a good start to subnetting but it it doesn't have enough variety.

bender_fender100

Deathmage wrote: »

Stay persistent bro, it's a exam of steel ballz....failed it twice before passing.

What I did was, just focus on the book and re-read the whole dam thing, two weeks is plenty of time for lazer focused reading.

I fiished Odom's book 2 weeks ago and just did two video classes online since then and this weekend I'm re-reading the book and going over the highlighted areas for the 1st time through. my ICDN2 is the 31st.

I've labbed every part of the book in the lab, tonight is Boson time. tomorrow is just labbing all day long...

I've never read much from Odom's book, but I'm going to try doing that now, in addition to anything from Lammle that I didn't read. I mentioned a while ago that I kinda stopped after Chapter 8 because I was finding it much easier at that point to get some hands on lab experience and watching videos on the topics. Now I feel that I can go back, read those chapters on my problem areas thoroughly, do the questions and the practice labs that they provide in there now that I have much more of an understanding how to set up my own topologies and configurations in Packet Tracer. Exam Cram was also really helpful for me despite the typos I found in there, and I'll still be reviewing and rereading some of that but closer to when I actually retake it.

I really like Chris Bryant's videos and didn't watch as many from him as I did with other Udemy and CBT Nuggets videos, so I want to go through more of his stuff as well when I go all out on the reading this week since I like that he gets specific enough to where I can use those to help me get the harder topics drilled into my head. I also did purchase Netsim the other day, so I'll be working with some of those labs too for extra practice.

Thanks for the encouragement by the way. I was amazed by your story and how you eventually passed yourself. I'm very confident that I can do the same if I keep at it.

volfkhat

bender_fender100 wrote: »

Thank you. Believe me. Considering since I've never taken any IT certification exams before, never had any previous networking background or experience in that field or had anything else like a Network+ or an A+, I was amazed myself that I just needed 29 more points and I would have passed no problem. I think I know what question I screwed up in the security category, so now I'm just figuring out what I should focus most on before I retake it again.

775 is a great score from someone with ZERO experience in testing.

I wish i saw your thread before you tested.
Whenever i take a real test, I always Write down ANY question that is problematic.
When the test is over... but before i get up.. i sit and Memorize all trick questions.
Then i get up, walk to my car, and Immediately write down the questions.
From there, i google my way to victory!

Obviously, this method only works if you already Grasp the concepts, but just need a little bit 'extra' to get over the hump.

bender_fender100

volfkhat wrote: »

775 is a great score from someone with ZERO experience in testing.

I wish i saw your thread before you tested.
Whenever i take a real test, I always Write down ANY question that is problematic.
When the test is over... but before i get up.. i sit and Memorize all trick questions.
Then i get up, walk to my car, and Immediately write down the questions.
From there, i google my way to victory!

Obviously, this method only works if you already Grasp the concepts, but just need a little bit 'extra' to get over the hump.

I definitely know the specific questions I need to look at more closely. Thanks for the advice.

hannism

I'm sorry you didn't make it, but I know you'll pass the second time. Now, you know Cisco's format and what to expect.

bender_fender100

There's just something really interesting about reading on a topic from a different perspective and explanation that I had trouble with. I just started really getting back into studying and I've now been reviewing concepts out of the Odom book and it's making quite a difference. Before, I was still really fuzzy on the switching process and the forwarding, filtering, and MAC address table concepts, but then reading that part thoroughly and taking good notes and it all started to click nicely and made me understand that the concept itself isn't as difficult as I thought it was.

I'm now going through all the areas that I did the worst on the CCENT using the Odom book and then I'll be going back and doing some labs out of the Lammle book on those topics, which I know is gonna help me improve my troubleshooting too, and also make sure that I get a more thorough handle on the security topics there too. It's not nearly as much as I thought I'd have to go back and work on, but I need to be diligent about it. I have the ICND1 objectives in another window and I've been going through every topic in the LAN Switching Technologies, the IP addressing and Network Device security sections where I made less than a 70% on.

A lot of the information I learned is still in my head as I was able to answer the questions out there without too many issues even after taking the week off for midterm reasons. I have a feeling I will do much better when I take the CCENT again next Wednesday. That's my short little update for now.

volfkhat

Wise words.

i watch a lot of video lectures for my training.
But I have found that watching the lectures the "2nd" time is when the concept really 'CLICKS' for me.

As for the ccent, i was really disappointed at how few "simulation" questions there were.
it felt more like a bunch of goofy network+ multiple choice Qs.

I have NO problem with having to grasp/understand fundamental Concepts....
but i would at least like the exam to actually test me on them.

bender_fender100

I'm feeling really close to going back and retaking it. On the Boson exam itself, I did much better on the categories that I did the worst at on the actual CCENT the first time retaking it (network security 78% and LAN Switching Technologies 100%). I could never really pass those exams, but it's always been around 60-70% of the questions on those than I can actually get right and after retaking the incorrect questions score more in the 70% range.

What else can I possibly do from this point? I already know the subnetting table really well and can logically write everything from CIDR 30 to CIDR 17 out no problem and figure out all the host numbers, masks, subnet numbers, etc. In terms of the Lammle book, I only really have the ACL chapter that I need to read and I still want to review summarization again, and I know the Odom book has a few chapters on the Advanced Ipv4 concepts. I have completed most of the hands on labs from the book too and taken lots of notes. I even have a much better understanding of how switches and their processes. Maybe I could still work on some problems that require me to look at the routing table or mac-address-table just to be sure.

I even thought I was going to need more time so I moved the test to Sunday, but might reschedule it sooner. I have a couple of troubleshooting labs in the Odom simulator I will finish.

TallDude7

you did really bad in security. not really that much security in CCENT. just physical port security, SSH on Telnet, and password encryption in the devices. review that and you'll pass

bender_fender100

TallDude7 wrote: »

you did really bad in security. not really that much security in CCENT. just physical port security, SSH on Telnet, and password encryption in the devices. review that and you'll pass

That's what a lot of my review was on and actually doing several labs focusing on the configuration of those, some ipv4 concepts, layer 2 switching, VLANs (which had several network security concepts), OSPF and a few hours ago, I read over NAT again. I also went over the CDP commands and protocols and some of the show commands. It was a lot less to go back over than I thought it would be. I really don't know how I did that badly on that network security section. I felt like I done those configurations many times but I've seen others who also did really bad on that part for some reason.

Edit: Just before going to bed, I went into Packet Tracer and managed to configure all the devices, set up the passwords, SSH, vty lines, telnet, console lines, and then add IP addresses and subnet masks to all the interfaces and then enable OSPF on all the networks and even played around with some loopback addresses, all without having to look up anything and doing it from memory. I also played around with the show cdp neighbors command, the show ip ospf neighbor, show ip route, sh ip ospf database and some of those other commands too and did some VLANs and port security practice. I know more than I thought.

bender_fender100

I hope I'm not annoying anyone by bumping this thread again, but I have been marathoning Chris Bryant's videos for the past two days and taking a lot of notes and getting more labbing done that way and I'm done with nearly most of the chapters in the Lammle book. i I'll be reviewing some more tomorrow and then Saturday, I'm off to retake the exam. After I get done with these ACL lab videos, I only have the Router on a Stick videos that he has and those subnetting videos just for extra review to be 100% sure I'll do as well as I can that day.

The only thing that I really have a question on is I've noticed that some of the subnetting tables I've seen from various sites have all the different subnet numbers depending on the address class even for Class A addresses, while others I looked at, like the one that I've always used, have just the netmask, number of subnets, and hosts but I never thought to go that far to try to fit all of that onto my table. I hope I don't have to be concerned too much about that since I still know the rules behind subnetting and understand what the interesting octet is.

TallDude7

I would write out the table from /30 to /8. thats what I did

bender_fender100

TallDude7 wrote: »

I would out the table from /30 to /8. thats what I did

I can do that and I've been playing around with separating them into different columns so I'd be able to fit them all on the laminated sheet. I have usually done it from top to bottom, listed the increment beside the CIDR number, the mask, number of hosts, and subnet numbers and then to the left side write out which address class they belong to. I want to try rotating the laminated sheet and see if that helps too. I had to ask for a few other sheets the first time.

CiscoWayne

I just wrote out:

128 192 224 240 248 252 254 255
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

/9 /10 /11 /12 /13 /14 /15 /16
/17 /18 /19 /20 /21 /22 /23 /24
/25 /26 /27 /28 /29 /30 /31 /32

...and that sort of told me everything I needed. Obviously you still need to know your powers of 2 for working out the amount of subnets and hosts, so you can add that in too.

2^*
1 = 2
2 = 4
3 = 8
4 = 16
5 = 32
6 = 64
7 = 128
8 = 256
9 = 512
10 = 1024
11 = 2048
12 = 4096

etc etc

bender_fender100

CiscoWayne wrote: »

I just wrote out:

128 192 224 240 248 252 254 255
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

/9 /10 /11 /12 /13 /14 /15 /16
/17 /18 /19 /20 /21 /22 /23 /24
/25 /26 /27 /28 /29 /30 /31 /32

...and that sort of told me everything I needed. Obviously you still need to know your powers of 2 for working out the amount of subnets and hosts, so you can add that in too.

2^*
1 = 2
2 = 4
3 = 8
4 = 16
5 = 32
6 = 64
7 = 128
8 = 256
9 = 512
10 = 1024
11 = 2048
12 = 4096

etc etc

I like how that method cuts down on the amount of times I have to write down those masks. I've noticed that there's a clear pattern and logic to subnetting and knowing the powers of 2, which i can do up to 32,768 and greater by working out the math, though it might seem like I don't need to necessarily go that high. I feel comfortable finding the broadcast address and first and last valid hosts and switching back from CIDR notation to writing out the full mask. The hosts I've learned that it's almost like starting out with the subnets at the beginning of each address class, except in reverse and always two less than the subnets. That is how I like to think about it.

Anyway, I've been staying up late just doing some practice labs I downloaded. I even know the port-security commands from memory now. I cannot wait to take the test again tomorrow and come out passing. I just have this strange feeling that I will and have had the feeling for a few days now, but I can't be sure.

Later today, I'll be going through the OSPF videos one more time and doing some configurations there, doing some extra subnetting practice, and taking one last look at NAT and DHCP again. It was well worth going through the Chris Bryant videos on Udemy because they helped me to put everything that I've learned together and to reinforce some concepts that I already read about that I feel that I really know and understand now. I don't even have to think too much about the show commands, they just feel like second nature at this point to me.

CiscoWayne

I think you'll be fine mate. At least this time you know what to expect.

I know when I took my ICND1 I was super nervous, because I wasn't really sure of what to expect. ICND2 was harder, but I was much calmer that time around.

Good luck for tomorrow dude

bender_fender100

CiscoWayne wrote: »

I think you'll be fine mate. At least this time you know what to expect.

I know when I took my ICND1 I was super nervous, because I wasn't really sure of what to expect. ICND2 was harder, but I was much calmer that time around.

Good luck for tomorrow dude

Thanks. I'm just going down that Cisco blueprint of the exam topics and one by one making sure I've covered everything important that I'm gonna see. I didn't do that the first time, so I'm hoping that will also make a difference.

I've been using the debug command lately in the labs, but I don't know if that will work on the exam or not. It would be kinda handy to have for any possible OSPF questions and hopefully save some time on any of the simulator questions. I know that I won't be able to use the do command.

bender_fender100

I just took the assessment in Lammle's book and answered all the ICND1 related questions and missed about 9 of them. The rest I got completely right now and the ones I got wrong I was really close to getting right, especially the last one about the intervlan routing. I still want to take the test tomorrow though. I think the biggest thing I gotta watch out for is to read the question at least two times before answering it so I'm 100% sure of what it's asking and not second guessing myself so much on some of them. I also got all the subnetting and route summarization questions correct the first try.