Study sessions

strauchr

I typically try to make a schedule for studying for exams - for example a chapter a day etc.

However, especially for this exam, I have days where I am too tired, stressed, busy, have a headache or just plain not motiviated. Sometime I try to push through it but then don't feel as though I am actually processing what I am reading.

With other exams I usually just let my plans blow out a little bit but for some reason I am having real trouble this time around. I am doing my CCNA and had it planned to be completed by end of 2005. Well I have not even finished reading the book, and have labs and IP addressing left to get through so it seems a long way off.

So my question is - how do others keep on track when having difficult days. Please note its not so much about motivation as it is about just off days and limited time.

eurotrash

for motivation, well i am with a training provider that cost me a crapload of money. never mind the fact that i am doing complete self study *i'm wiser now*, i still paid them and if i complete all my stuff by a certain time limit, they will help me with finding a job.
plus the fact that if i don't finish on time, i will have to start paying for my exams (again, nvm the fact that the amout i originally paid covered all the exam vouchers).
so that forces me to study. atm i'm reading the syngress 293 and do 50 pages a day (about 6-7 hours a day, which includes being distracted on the internet (as i am right now)).

for time, well i quit working full time in favor of part time (2 days a week) so that i could concentrate more on studies. so i study 4 days a week.

Webmaster

I haven't focussed on passing one particular exam for some time, and spend most of my day reading, but something that used to work well for me to get into study-mode are practice exams. The interactive ones that is, not reading questions in a book. Even if I don't know much or even anything about the subject, I usually start with some practice exams, and later fill in the blanks and glue the bits and pieces together by reading the book. That way, every time you read a section in the book, 'things' that you've read and seen in the practice exams get clearer or start making sense, instead of reading something entirely new. For me, it also works the same way with reading non-certification material, ie. articles, and for Cisco exams, using a simulator (the CCNP beta sim). As in performing labs before reading the details about the theory behind the technologies.

As for having limited time, try to pick a single topic and read as much about it as you can. Just that topic, or part of a topic/technology, and don't worry about going outside the scope of the exam, as long as it is on the same topic. I.e. pick a topic (STP, VTP, Access-lists) and read the corresponding Cisco docs (e.g. technology overview). Even after 30 minutes or an hour you will feel you at least have learned something that day.