One week till my exam!

On Monday May 15th at 10:30AM I will be taking the 640-801 exam. I have been working on this since February 8th this year. I know the next 7 days are going to be very stressful. I have purchased a subscription to ****.com, and am vigilantly working on getting 95%+ on each one of the tests, so far I am in the 85-90% average range, yes I have some work to do. I plan on reviewing all the foundation summaries from Wendells ICND book and the chapter summaries from Todd Lammle's CCNA book. I have a few topics I need to work on, such as NAT and some more studying on ISDN (I hate it!!)...

Topics I plan on emphasizing: VLANS,STP,VTP as well as WAN protocols.

Now I hear you get some time to do a memory ****? When is this during the survey? What is recommended to **** onto paper during this time? What subnet table do you guys **** onto the paper?

I appreciate any tips you can provide me for my exam experience. Thanks

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Sandwiches

Hey mate,

Did the exam two weeks ago and passed.

Some pointers -

1. Don't stress too much - just be confident in your ability and what you have studied. On my first go at the exam I had built it up so much in my head that when I got to the test centre I was so nervous I couldn't think straight. Just relax, and if you fail the first go it is no biggie, you can always go back - and you'll have a good idea what to expect the second time.

2. Keep you eye on the time in the exam - don't mess around too much if you don't know the answer.

3. In my test there were basically no ISDN questions - its and old technology mostly used for backups these days. Think about the things cisco would want you to know - like VLANS, VTP, STP, EIGRP, OSPF, NAT and access-lists.

Anyway, good luck.

pizzafart

Modem humper you should probably get good enough at subnetting that you don't have to write a table. Subnetting is a huge part of this and every Cisco exam (3 total) that I've taken so far.

Good luck, it sounds like you've been working hard.

gabrielbtoledo

Oh, that is great. I hate ISDN and Frame Relay. But with my luck, I will probably get 95% of the questions on these subjects (rofl).
Anyway, know well ACLs, OSI (like where routers, switches, hubs work), VLANs, NAT/PAT (yeah, the difference between them). You should know how to read binary as you read base 10. You should be able to subnet using your head and the paper just to make sure. OSPF is very tricky...
Sims shouldn't be too hard. Usually few commands will do the job.
Hmm, I didn't know that **** thing.
Anyway, I finsihed my class last week with A, only student that got the voucher, got 80% on my final, but don't feel ready yet. So a few weeks studying and practicing and then I will take CCNA.
Good luck and keep posting any question you have. I will try my best to help anyone.

mikej412

ModemHumper wrote:

Now I hear you get some time to do a memory ****? When is this during the survey? What is recommended to **** onto paper during this time? What subnet table do you guys **** onto the paper?

You should figure out a subnet table that works for you..... but here's a link to a sample of one that looks good -- watch out for the formating in part where the web compressed multiple spaces into one
http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13035

And a thread about when to **** your notes....
http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12816

And if you've checked out the test demo on the Cisco CCNA Prep Center -- that's 15 more minutes (timed) you have to write reminders on your scratch sheet.

When the pressure of the exam kicks in it is nice to have the backup subnet chart. On the simple subnetting questions you hopefully have practiced enough and won't need it -- but on some of the bigger questions.... (I'll just let your imagination run wild here)

Keep studying.... and then try to relax a little before the exam -- and if that doesn't work, try not to throw up during the exam.

Time management on the exam will be important -- take about 10 minutes per sim -- and watch your time.

Good Luck in advance!

Humper

Thank you very much for the help

I will let everyone here know how it goes !

EdTheLad

If you feel you need to **** a subnet table on paper before the exam, your not ready.You shoud be walking into the exam hoping to get as many subnetting questions as possible.If you want to further you career in cisco subnetting is the foundation of everything.
The sims carry most weight in the exam, so if you miss one its unlikely you will pass, the recommended time is 10mins but i recommend a little longer if you need it and you think you can finish it.
Regarding all those practice tests you are doing im not sure if there is much point.You either know the material or you dont,personally i never manage to do practice questions as i find they extremely boring.

moss12

ed_the_lad stop freaking the guy out stay positive modemhumper

Humper

ed_the_lad wrote:

If you feel you need to **** a subnet table on paper before the exam, your not ready.You shoud be walking into the exam hoping to get as many subnetting questions as possible.If you want to further you career in cisco subnetting is the foundation of everything.
The sims carry most weight in the exam, so if you miss one its unlikely you will pass, the recommended time is 10mins but i recommend a little longer if you need it and you think you can finish it.
Regarding all those practice tests you are doing im not sure if there is much point.You either know the material or you dont,personally i never manage to do practice questions as i find they extremely boring.

Thank you for your positive attitude.

I do the practice tests so I know whether or not I know the material. How do you know if you know the material or not? There must be something you reference to, so you know whether or not you are prepared for the exam.

I think my way of studying will work just fine, I have read Tom Lammle's book and some of wendells for the topics I did not understand. The practise tests help exercise my memory, because I have been reading since February.

theDave

haha - ed_the_lad must have been born at cisco or something.. he seems to be the only one who knows enough so he does not have to study.

practice exams are GOOD. take as many of them as you can. do well on them. practice, practice,practice. if you feel you know as much as possible on every CCNA objective, you will do alright. don't spend a lot of time on the sims. try to get the sims down pat with as little time as possible. don't do more than what the sim asks. don't worry about using ? or tabbing. you are allowed to do this. if you mess up a sim command, don't worry about it. cisco only cares of the end result.

now, ed_the_lad must have an inside track on the CCNA exam, as there is no proof whatsoever that one question carries more weight than the other (including the sims). not to say that sims won't count more, it's about as proven as choosing "i need help with this" on the survey and getting easier questions, or if you miss a question on a subject, the test keeps asking you about the same subject... don't bother with any of this garbage, just concentrate on getting as many questions right as you can.

and relax! it's ok if you fail the exam the first time around. i am sure there are people here who are taking thier 3rd, 4th or 5+ stab at it. that's what makes the CCNA worth more.. if you work hard, you'll get the cert.

no pressure.. good luck!! -D

Humper

theDave wrote:

haha - ed_the_lad must have been born at cisco or something.. he seems to be the only one who knows enough so he does not have to study.

practice exams are GOOD. take as many of them as you can. do well on them. practice, practice,practice. if you feel you know as much as possible on every CCNA objective, you will do alright. don't spend a lot of time on the sims. try to get the sims down pat with as little time as possible. don't do more than what the sim asks. don't worry about using ? or tabbing. you are allowed to do this. if you mess up a sim command, don't worry about it. cisco only cares of the end result.

now, ed_the_lad must have an inside track on the CCNA exam, as there is no proof whatsoever that one question carries more weight than the other (including the sims). not to say that sims won't count more, it's about as proven as choosing "i need help with this" on the survey and getting easier questions, or if you miss a question on a subject, the test keeps asking you about the same subject... don't bother with any of this garbage, just concentrate on getting as many questions right as you can.

and relax! it's ok if you fail the exam the first time around. i am sure there are people here who are taking thier 3rd, 4th or 5+ stab at it. that's what makes the CCNA worth more.. if you work hard, you'll get the cert.

no pressure.. good luck!! -D

Now this is encouraging

Thanks theDave

mikej412

mikej412 wrote:

When the pressure of the exam kicks in it is nice to have the backup subnet chart.

I guess I do sort of, kinda agree with Ed -- if you can smack down those pesky subnet questions without thinking about it, that CCNA exam will be your b???h!

But under the pressure of the exam..... I'm sticking with my original advice.

Hum -- I don't see it here..... didn't I post somewhere I think you're going to to pass this thing? Or did I post that I'd give you a hard time if you didn't pass? Anyways -- same thing!

Humper

lol, now I am definitely under alot of pressure to pass

EdTheLad

theDave wrote:

haha - ed_the_lad must have been born at cisco or something.. he seems to be the only one who knows enough so he does not have to study.

Hey dave, where did i say anything about not studying? I would say i study more than the average.But my technique is not to do hundreds of questions
and after check the answers and half learn half memorize.I try to understand the topics and the ideas and make common sense of it all.
I try and imagine where the techology would be used,its benifits and disadvantages.I have tred to do the questions in the past but i find alot of the questions in the books are asked in a silly way and i fall asleep after about 5mins.After doing the CCNA exam i was very happy with cisco, i respect the CCNA more now,as i know the questions are not the same as the garbage asked in the ciscopress or sybex.
Regarding not passing the sim,i have a friend who did the CCNA exam 4 times.On his third attempt he was sure he got most questions right but not the sim, he failed.On the 4th attempted he got the sim and passed.I've also read on this forum alot of people say the same.I have taken this advice on board and for me its probably the best advice i've received regarding the Cisoc exams.
So, with a week before and exam i give a guy some good constructive advice and i get semi flamed, its not like its the day before! But maybe next time ill keep my advice to myself.

Humper

ed_the_lad wrote:

theDave wrote:

haha - ed_the_lad must have been born at cisco or something.. he seems to be the only one who knows enough so he does not have to study.

Hey dave, where did i say anything about not studying? I would say i study more than the average.But my technique is not to do hundreds of questions
and after check the answers and half learn half memorize.I try to understand the topics and the ideas and make common sense of it all.
I try and imagine where the techology would be used,its benifits and disadvantages.I have tred to do the questions in the past but i find alot of the questions in the books are asked in a silly way and i fall asleep after about 5mins.After doing the CCNA exam i was very happy with cisco, i respect the CCNA more now,as i know the questions are not the same as the garbage asked in the ciscopress or sybex.
Regarding not passing the sim,i have a friend who did the CCNA exam 4 times.On his third attempt he was sure he got most questions right but not the sim, he failed.On the 4th attempted he got the sim and passed.I've also read on this forum alot of people say the same.I have taken this advice on board and for me its probably the best advice i've received regarding the Cisoc exams.
So, with a week before and exam i give a guy some good constructive advice and i get semi flamed, its not like its the day before! But maybe next time ill keep my advice to myself.

lol, unfortunately my exam is monday, I posted this a week ago!

but I am taking your advice and making sure I know subnetting inside out. I agree with you on the practice tests, I am not trying to memorize the information, I am trying to exercise my memory.

We will see how Monday goes, if I don't pass that sucks, I will get back to the books and when I feel I am ready again to have another go, I will be back at the test center. I am sure it will be a learning experience one way or another.

gabrielbtoledo

Hey ed: I know someone that didn't even answer one of the sims and passed. I think each sim is 100 points or so. Because I also heard that people didn't get both sims right and score under 800 points.
Anyway, we should focus on getting right answers, not making mathematically statics of wrong and right ansers in order to pass, right?

Humper

I believe you get partial marks for the sims (if you do some of it right), I think I read that somewhere. Anyways I am aiming for 1000 not 850

We'll see if I can somewhere in between there :0

mikej412

ModemHumper wrote:

I believe you get partial marks for the sims (if you do some of it right)

I had a sim in one of the CCSP exams.... and got 6 of 7 tasks..... couldn't figure out where the heck the 7th thing was..... got a great score, so it looks like liberal partial credit.

Urban legend has it someone failed both sims.... but got everything else correct and passed...... except how do you do well on questions and fail simple hands on tasks?

lwwarner

ModemHumper wrote:

Topics I plan on emphasizing: VLANS,STP,VTP as well as WAN protocols.

Don't forget your routing protos, especially eigrp & ospf, and troubleshooting of same. This is the area that gave me the most problems and my lowest category score (88% for Troubleshooting). Remember that eigrp is multiprotocol capable, and you may need to troubleshoot non-IP routes...

On a completely non-technical note: When they hand you the little marker board, check to see if the marker actualy writes before you head into the exam room.

Good luck tomorrow!

Humper

lwwarner wrote:

ModemHumper wrote:

Topics I plan on emphasizing: VLANS,STP,VTP as well as WAN protocols.

Don't forget your routing protos, especially eigrp & ospf, and troubleshooting of same. This is the area that gave me the most problems and my lowest category score (88% for Troubleshooting). Remember that eigrp is multiprotocol capable, and you may need to troubleshoot non-IP routes...

On a completely non-technical note: When they hand you the little marker board, check to see if the marker actualy writes before you head into the exam room.

Good luck tomorrow!

Thank you sir, that is some good advice

Humper

Today has not been a good day, I keep making dumb mistakes in my studies. I think my brain is fried from all this studying, so tonight I am going to try and get a good night sleep. I will let you all know of the final result tommorrow.

mikej412

ModemHumper wrote:

tommorrow.

Good Luck!

Review, try to relax... and if you can....

Humper

Today I went for my exam, any my results are:

Planning & Designing - 100%
Implementation & Operation - 100%
Troubleshooting - 100%
Technology - 100%

Score: 1000/1000

FINALLY!!!!

The exam went really well, I managed to stay relaxed and focused throughout the entire exam. I wasn't expecting to get 1000/1000. I did get around 55 questions and completed the exam 30mins early. I almost s!it my pants when I saw my score. There was alot of time to **** onto my scratch paper (tutorial's + cisco survey = 45mins total), although I really didnt use it at all. I dumped ACL's and only the /23 mask. Like ed_the_lad said, if you know your stuff (AND can stay relaxed) you don't need to **** anything. When filling out the Cisco survey, I would fill it out as if you were completely newbie (although I have no proof of it affecting any of the test questions).

If would recommend the following resources to potential CCNA candidates it would be:

Tom Lammle's Sybex 5th Edition Book (read this fully + reviewed it quite a bit)
Wendell Odom's CCNA Certification Guide (used this book for STP and NAT'ing as Todd's book does a crappy job of doing so even with the update)
Cisco's website for random topics

For practice questions I used www.****.com . It's a 39.00 paid subscription but it helped out in my studies so much. I cannot stress how helpful it was for the exam.

The following topics I would emphasize for the exam are: STP,VLAN,OSPF,CLI Commands,RIP,PPP,FR and ACL's.

Make sure you know your OSPF and EIGRP commands.

I wouldn't take the exam lightly, but don't let people scare you on how hard the exam was. If you put time & effort into it, you WILL pass.

Good luck to all future CCNA candidates!

Now I have to get ready for school tommorrow, I start my 4th semester in telecom

eastp

May I be the first to say....

CONGRATS!!!!!
On the very very nice score/pass.

Kind regards.
Eastp.

mikej412

ModemHumper wrote:

Now I have to get ready for school tommorrow, I start my 4th semester in telecom

Congratulations!

Hum..... you must have missed the thread about scheduling exams near the end of the week so that you have time to celebrate

lwwarner

Great job, ModemH! Congratulations!

sprkymrk

ModemHumper wrote:

Score: 1000/1000

Wow! Excellent!

ModemHumper wrote:

If would recommend the following resources to potential CCNA candidates it would be:

Tom Lammle's Sybex 5th Edition Book (read this fully + reviewed it quite a bit)
Wendell Odom's CCNA Certification Guide (used this book for STP and NAT'ing as Todd's book does a crappy job of doing so even with the update)
Cisco's website for random topics

For practice questions I used www.****.com . It's a 39.00 paid subscription but it helped out in my studies so much. I cannot stress how helpful it was for the exam.

Thanks for the info. My certification runs out in a little less than 6 months so I am gearing up to study. I administer an environment that only has 4 Cisco routers that don't need to be touched hardly at all, but we have several dozen Cisco switches that I get into occasionally. Unfortunately the CCNA doesn't cover switching much...

So I have ordered Todd's book (5th Ed, I used the 2nd edition a few years ago and loved it), some flash cards and the Exam Cram Practice questions. Also got the CBT Nuggets CCNA videos. If you say the **** really helped, I may do that a month or so before I retake the exam.

Congrats again for an amazing score.

Sandwiches

Well done mate.

Some invaluable information you provided to future candidates -

"I wouldn't take the exam lightly, but don't let people scare you on how hard the exam was. If you put time & effort into it, you WILL pass."

Absoloutley correct. It's easy to get caught up in it and make it a bigger deal than what it really is.

Humper

Sandwiches wrote:

Well done mate.

Some invaluable information you provided to future candidates -

"I wouldn't take the exam lightly, but don't let people scare you on how hard the exam was. If you put time & effort into it, you WILL pass."

Absoloutley correct. It's easy to get caught up in it and make it a bigger deal than what it really is.

Thank you again though for the advice. I got your PM just before the exam, it helped me stay calm and relaxed.

sleemie

Congrats on the score. I feel like i'm ALMOST ready to take the test, but one area i'm a little shaky on is NAT. I noticed you didn't put that in your list of things to focus on. I know you don't know what would appear on my test, but based on your experience would you say that I'd be safe to not get any more involved with NAT other than knowing the inside local address and inside global address information?

Humper

sleemie wrote:

Congrats on the score. I feel like i'm ALMOST ready to take the test, but one area i'm a little shaky on is NAT. I noticed you didn't put that in your list of things to focus on. I know you don't know what would appear on my test, but based on your experience would you say that I'd be safe to not get any more involved with NAT other than knowing the inside local address and inside global address information?

I actually did have a question on it...Make sure you know NAT, and the CLI commands...Do you have Wendell's book? If not the cisco whitepaper on NAT is pretty good.