Advice on gauging when you are ready for an exam

I had just scheduled my CCNP ROUTE for 4/14, due to it being a half day (Good Friday) at my work, however looking at my training materials and progress thus far I feel like I will be prepared much sooner than that.

I'd like the consensus of the community if it's better to go into the exam room with fists swinging once the material has been covered thoroughly, or if I have an extra few weeks of time before exam day to refresh on topics?

I have been just watching Chris Bryants CCNP videos and labbing my ass off (I really enjoy labbing), and was going to go over ROUTE Simplified once the videos are done to round off what I've learned. I also got in the habit of posting CCNP topics on my wordpress which has been incredibly helpful to go back and see the router output and issues I ran into and how I overcame them.

So I feel like I'm almost giving myself too much time, is there such a thing as too much time spent preparing for a CCNP exam?

Input appreciated as always

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Codeman6669

ive passed ccnp route and switch, and am studying for T-shoot.

Overall, i felt i was ready to test when I was passing all of my practice tests in books etc. If i remember right i actually failed route by a few points the first time.. i think i over thought it honestly. If you feel confident go for it, the most you can lose is $250 (yeah it kinds hurts lol)

ande0255

Yeah I thought it was $350 for some reason, I was very glad to see the $250 price tag in case of a first time failure (as odd as that sounds).

I'm looking at practice exam simulators and things, and it seems like my best option already having physical equipment, is getting the ROUTE 300-101 Lab Manual for kindle and start hitting those labs after I've gone through the study materials.

I think I am just going to keep going back and re-labbing topics and studying notes, its amazing how many small details I have forgotten since studying a given topic, like distribute-list's in OSPF not working outbound with interfaces, and using them to block traffic but keep EIGRP adjancencies.

Good luck on your Tshoot, I think Im going to keep that date and just keep studying / labbing to the date.

shortstop20

I think this mostly depends on your level of preparation.

My level of "covered thoroughly" is more than most people I think and yours may be as well. If that's the case, I personally would want no more than a week between that point and the exam date. That way the material is still fresh in my head and I can use that week to "casually" study by reading my notes and things like that. In my opinion, if the material has been "covered thoroughly", having 2-3 weeks before the exam is only going to hurt you unless you're studying all that time too, but then have you really "covered thoroughly"?

ande0255

It's hard for me to gauge at this point, as I'm re-reading my notes and like posted above I forget things small details, like using a distribute-list on an EIGRP interface to block all traffic while keeping an adjacency in place instead of a passive-interface, where as OSPF the interface won't work with 'out' bound traffic.

So I guess maybe I am looking for CCNP material questions, but don't want to shell out half the test cost for a simulator, debating whether I want to get a simulator to find out in advance where I need to brush up or whether I want my first lickin to be in the test room.

Are there any preferably free or very cheap sites simulations for the test? In looking all I can find is actual answers / **** which I refuse to use even to see the question format style so I pass this completely on my own hard work.

Input on free or cheap practice questions whether it be apps or a website would be awesome, or thoughts on your first exposure to CCNP questions in the test room, like if I can expect it to be the exact same format as CCNA exams?

I really appreciate any feedback, I bet my hands will be shaking in the test room my first go at this one, drenched in sweat and all like my first CCNA exam haha

MitM

For those things you keep forgetting, just keep labbing like you have been. When I was studying for route, I would lab everything, even lab things wrong on purpose, so I could see the outcome. Chris Bryant did a good job on his course. I prefer Keith Bogart (INE) though.

I don't know about simulations, but for practice tests, I've heard good things about Boson. Not really cheap though. $99 I think

ande0255

Yes I have a lab thats going to get it all, I have been going through authentication for EIGRP / OSPF / RIP for the last 2-3 hours to hammer out different ways of making it work like configuring OSPF in router config on one router and on the interface on the other (and it working).

Labbing and noting it in detail with output of behaviors on the blog is taking a lot of effort and time, but being able to refer back to posts on topics I already labbed inside out is working out really well for me, I'd recommend it to any other people studying.

Thank you for your input MitM, yours and any other appreciated!

EDIT:

Also just wrapping up labbing for the night, I configured RIPv2 domain authentication between two routers with an interface in the domain, and I am wondering why it even exists or what it does?

The remote router still gets updates / Hellos, can ping the loopback being advertised into the domain, it seems like RIPv2 authentication is not really doing anything - Can anyone chime in the matter or if they even cared about it for ROUTE?