Failed JN0-102

First time I failed a certification. What's worse is that I failed by only 1%. Got 64%. Passing was 65%.

I don't know if I just got over confident, having passed the previous 7 exams successfully in a row.

I admit, I didn't study as hard as I should have.

OTOH, the study materials were kinda lame. The other exams, I actually had a text book, took a week long course, had practice tests, etc. With Juniper all I really had was 2 pdf's off their site, the genius app on my phone, and I went through part of their networking fundamentals course.

But honestly, like half the stuff I got on the test didn't even seem to be covered by any of that stuff. Like I said, I probably should have studied the material more in depth, but there were topics on the exam that I don't even remember skimming on the PDFs.

It irritates me that there are no real practice exams by a company like Boson or something. I went to Barnes and noble, but they only had stuff on cisco and network+, nothing on juniper. Part of me wants to just study more and go in and take it again, and the other part of me just is like whatever, I don't even care.

Have any of you failed exams? What did you do? Take them again? Move on to something else? I have to think about this for a bit before I decide what my next course of action. Just wanted to vent. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

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Comments

networker050184

This is a walk in the park for people that have completed the CCNA. Have you thought about heading down that road first? It's a much more sought after certification and there is more material than you'd ever need available.

Kandinsky

I thought about it, but that's what everyone does. I want to stand out from the crowd, not just be another CCNA.

sabrii

Kandinsky wrote: »

I thought about it, but that's what everyone does. I want to stand out from the crowd, not just be another CCNA.

It looks like one can get a CCNA when buying laundry detergent these days.

The best way to pass your Juniper (or whatever tech exam you take) is to analyze the questions properly before answering.

Are you sure that you understand the question? What is the item writer looking for? People often forget to properly read a question and provide one answer where two are required. How plausible are the distractors (the wrong answers)?

Remember that all questions that you see are written by an SME of the company, and reviewed by a group of at least six SMEs. All these SMEs have egos and want to be meaningful. Very often, distractors are changed to confuse you as a candidate, and not every SME is fair. Analyze before you answer.

--
Sabri
JNCSP-SP, JNCIE #261

Kandinsky

It looks like one can get a CCNA when buying laundry detergent these days.

True. I know Cisco is more wide spread, but after reading about Juniper's approach to networking, it just seems...better. What irritated me is what I mentioned in my OP, there's not a lot of training material for JUNOS compared to other platforms. All I had was the 2 pdfs, the genius app and a basic networking course and that was it. And I think it barely covered 50% of what I actually encountered on the test.

Also in regards to training materials, it was supremely annoying that a lot of the stuff I found was all geared towards Cisco people trying to learn Juniper. As someone who doesn't know Cisco it was very distracting to try to read this stuff. It was all like "In Cisco you use this command, but in Juniper you use this command." I don't care how it's done in Cisco, I'm trying to learn Juniper. Just give me the Juniper way. It would be like trying to learn to speak Spanish, but instead of them just teaching you Spanish they're like "In Portuguese you say it this way, but in Spanish you say it that way." Very annoying.

In regards to distractions, I was about 2/3 of the way through the test and this clown comes in and sits down at a station a couple seats down from me and started being super distracting. Coughing repeatedly, sighing heavily, clicking his mouse over and over again rapidly for no apparent reason, cursing under his breath, shifting around in his chair. It was very distracting. It makes me think that if I had only gotten one or two more questions right I might have passed.

When I walked out of the room, I took a look at the guy and he looked like one of these socially maladjusted types. Like the kind that are completely oblivious to the fact that they are nothing more than a living, breathing annoyance to everyone around them. I can never seem to get away from these people.

discount81

CBT Nuggets has a video course specifically for JNCIA, I used that and studied some of the material on Junipers website when I took JNCIA, and it seemed to cover everything.

There are plenty of Juniper books available now, but most of them are covering higher level material.

dsgm

I recently tried to recertify for this exam with the JNO-102 and it so much more difficult than the first time i did it, topics on there that are not even mentioned in some of the low level juniper pdfs, i think they have revised it, i am currently reading anything i can get my hands on before i go again.

and im in the same boat as OP i want juniper because first i like the syntax and second you rarely find anyone doing juniper, i will be going professional after this, good luck OP

Node Man

As engineers for large enterprises or ISPs, I don't think we can just chose to be Cisco or Juniper anymore. Juniper is rising in market share and now even Arista is on the map. Many of us use Juniper right along with Cisco. Many people prefer Junipers more modern and streamlined flow than Cisco. Even great features like rollback and not being case sensitive. Also Cisco gear still supports alot of legacy protocols that Juniper never bothered with.

IMO, Cisco certs will get more job interviews, but Junipers are more easy to work with.

gibbers82

CCNA will give you a good overview of networking concepts and common protocols, yes its Cisco specific but you will also gain lots of other networking knowledge that is invaluable which will help you in your career

CCNA_King

Kandinsky => What did you decide about the JNCIA, JN0-102? I'm in the same situation as you, failed the JNO-102 because the study material is junk and anything beyond that is nowhere to be found. Will you try again or move on and stay with Cisco?

[Deleted User]

Dang. Sorry to hear that!! Good to know that the passing score is only 65%!!

I'm finding the JNCIA video training from INE and CBT Nuggets to be well laid out especially INE!!

Also recommend this for hands on practice if money is tight along with getting good practice exam questions!!

Juniper Simulator With Designer For JNCIA With Exam Simulator

jinbako

Have you had any hands-on experience with Juniper devices? I passed today and hand-on experience can go a long way to making the exam easier to pass.

I'm looking at buying a used SRX device off of eBay as I get ready to study for the JNCIS-ENT exam.

packetphilter

Not sure if the OP looks at this anymore as it was started about a year and a half ago. I took the JNCIA after I got my CCNA and I barely passed. I did very well on CCNA, but then I had a lot of good training materials like real Cisco equipment, CBT Nuggets, GNS3, and Boson. For JNCIA, I just used the Juniper pdfs, which I found quite inadequate.

I'm not sure about OP's claim that one can get a CCNA like buying laundry detergent. I put a lot of study time into my CCNA and I found it challenging. I understand the desire to go a path less traveled, but CCNA is popular because Cisco is popular and widely used. Even if someone wants to go the Juniper path, I'd recommend a CCNA first. Then once you're learning Juniper you'll be able to see exactly how it's different, which is more valuable than just knowing one thing. You'll also be able to decide if you actually like Juniper more.

jinbako

I should have mentioned that my reply was to kMastaFlash.

As for the value of of the CCNA and JNCIA, they both have their respective place in the IT landscape. We use Juniper in our environment so I decided to go that path. I will eventually look at obtaining the CCNA as well.

[Deleted User]

@jinbako

The only hands on i have with Juniper is with the simulator software I purchased and the video training form INE. I did pass my CCNA back in 2015 and recertified it just a few weeks ago. I thought why not go for JNCIA since I hear there is a lot of similar concepts on the exam like subnetting etc. It basically just comes down to knowing the JunOS specific commands etc.

Also, could you say what the passing score is?

jinbako

@kMastaFlash

The NDA doesn't mention passing score but it does mention confidential information and the passing score is not listed anywhere on their website so I don't want to risk it but I will say I think it depends on the version of the test you receive. I've seen multiple people post different passing scores but I think they are all in the ballpark.

As for hands on, I would seriously look at some of the SRX devices that are available on eBay for about $150. They give you access to the full Junos OS which is really helpful for going deeper in the interface than any of the videos I watched go. I'm not familiar with the simulator you are using but I'm guessing that it definitely won't hurt.

Also, as your CCNA shows, you have a firm grasp of networking fundamentals, I would be surprised if your struggled with the JNCIA. Just work with the interface as much as you can to learn the differences between Cisco and Juniper and you should be fine.

Kandinsky

@CCNA_King - I pretty much gave up on Juniper at that point. I considered getting CSA+ for awhile, but then ended up getting Server+ instead. Then I got an Apple certification after that of all things lol. Personally, I'm kind of over networking. I've been getting more into the sysadmin side of things lately and I think sys admin appeals to me more than network admin.