ICND1 Failure

Hello all,

I just whiffed the ICND1 yesterday with a 795.

To give you a little background, I have been in the IT industry for over 15 years, most of the last ten years has been in IT Security protecting Fortune 5 companies from internal and external threats. I also served in the Air Force as a Tech Controller building networks from the ground up and serving as a lead troubleshooter resolving complex problems in LANs and WANs. A couple months ago I decided it was finally time to acquire the CCNA, just as a good resume buffer to compliment my experience and other certifications (CISSP, CEH).

So, I took to self study for the exam and originally planned to take the composite exam, until I heard from a few colleagues that the split option was a better route. This original approach may have hurt me as my original focus was broad, rather than detailed on the specifics of the ICND1. I have access to many enclaves with Cisco equipment as I have many networks that I oversee. But just to ensure I am able to touch on all of the concepts, I also built a GNS3 environment. For study I used Skillsoft video, INE YouTube Training videos, Dan's Courses, a whole lot of Reading on Cisco's website, and the CCNA for Dummies mobile app.

I spent a good majority of my study ensuring that the knowledge I was gaining actually had value to an organization. That being said, the questions I received on the exam that I failed where either based on minute little details of an operation, some sentence based on the concept that I glossed over because I was more concerned about how to implement the concept, or were phrased in a way that was difficult to answer without the right context. I suppose in some ways it was the basics that got me, more than the advanced operations. After reading through some of the tech notes on here today, I really wish I had seen those before going in. My advice to those taking the test, is to not only focus on HOW to perform operations, which is critical if you wasnt to be valuable to an organization, but READ the specifics of the conceptif you want to pass the exam.

I will be taking the exam again in about a week, if my ego can recover.

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Comments

networker050184

The devil is in the details as they say. Good luck on the retest!

stunnedsoup

Ah, man I feel for you!

You got it. Brush it off and pass it next time! You'll definitely nail it and everything will be better. I whiffed my 1st try and felt sick because of it. Came back and crushed it. I suppressed the memory so much that I forget that I failed my 1st try until someone brings it up haha.

Best wishes mate!

fearlessfreap24

I haven't looked at the navy skillport in a while, but I'm using skillport through Syracuse VCTP and there are practice tests you can take. vctp requires me to pass 3 practice test in certification mode before they'll pay for my cert.

james43026

That's rough. Yeah, the exams require more textbook knowledge. While real life requires more practical and creative knowledge in comparison.

azreal

stunnedsoup wrote: »

Ah, man I feel for you!

You got it. Brush it off and pass it next time! You'll definitely nail it and everything will be better. I whiffed my 1st try and felt sick because of it. Came back and crushed it. I suppressed the memory so much that I forget that I failed my 1st try until someone brings it up haha.

Best wishes mate!

Oh the sickness is strong. At first it was shock. When the shock wore off, it was depression. Now the depression is still there but has morphed into anger as well. Kind of still in disbelief too. The fact that I failed the basics is what is still shocking and unbelievable. For someone with legitimate real life experience, actually looked up to as a technical subject matter expert in my field, I am to a degree pissed at Cisco for such a lame test and in disbelief that they would focus so heavily in the rediculous little nuances that do not make one better at doing the job in any way or fashion. Some questions such as the submerging and simulations are valuable, and I did really well on those. But the questions about the little blurb in some footnote in some book are rediculous. That and the purposefully confusing answers options that they present in the multiple choice, that need more context in order to answer are really rediculous.

pinkiaiii

its a catch 22 with cisco,im still newbie to all of it,but more i learn the less it makes sense.In your position i wouldnt really care what you got - your experience should speak more then some test.

Since studying for exam its all theoretical stuff how switch router interprets one action vs another how its encapsulated,then you get half arsed questions with partial output and 4 to choose and even worse sometimes 2 of those would give you partial information,but because one gives more its considered correct,or just because you need to use that command first,when in working environment you could try 10 of them in matter of minutes running shows commands and it wouldnt impact end result in finding what might be wrong,only give you more data to work and oversee all results.

Biggest troule i find with study material from cisco is that its 10 pages of technical stuff that once you pass it,most likely it wont come in use,then 2-3 pages of actual commands and few sentences that sum it all up.Anyway its cisco way,so they dictate the rules- maybe study a bit more for full exam thus getting more technical questions and less theoretical stuff.

volfkhat

azreal wrote: »

Oh the sickness is strong. At first it was shock. When the shock wore off, it was depression. Now the depression is still there but has morphed into anger as well...

Yes Young Azreal.
The hate is swelling in you now.
Give in to your anger.
With each passing moment you make yourself more my servant!!!

MWAHAHAHAHA

*That's basically how i feel about Cisco. The test is lame. Their answers are all over the internet. The test proves nothing.

GNKx2210

Hello guy, how many simulation questions and which topics you found in the ICND1 exam?
Please guide me, I planned to take the exam in this Friday.

I'm very excited and I spend my personal money to take this exam.
So I can't fail for this exam.

Please.

Thanks in advance.