My CCNA Journey Officially Commences

MontagueVandervort

Best of luck!

kaiju

Spiegel said:

Another issue I'm experiencing. I'm using Subnetting.net to practice my subnetting and sometimes I'll enter the correct answer but the website marks it as incorrect. Here is a sample:

Just in case you did not get an answer, I will try to help. I did a screen capture so the nth power would show properly.

DatabaseHead

Great thread appreciate all the good insights.

Spiegel

Not going to lie. I'm getting a little nervous about the exam. This is my first vendor specific exam so I'm trying to psyche myself out by reading other people's experience along with labbing and quizzing myself everyday.

DatabaseHead

Wrong or right, the way I look at it is this certification is > than all the other ones you possess currently.  It's not even close, AGAIN this is IMO.  

MontagueVandervort

Try to relax. I think you'll be ok as you seemed serious enough throughout the process. As long as you can correlate all the ideas together, you'll get it done.

P.S
Make sure your subnetting speed is fast. It helps a lot.

kaiju

Good luck!

Jon_Cisco

The one thing to remember is you can always take it again. Sometimes your gonna nail an exam and sometimes your not. Once you have taken it you will either pass or have a better idea what to expect.

Personally I think your gonna nail it. Putting in the work is the most important part.

Spiegel

Question about broadcast domains. I know that routers can create a broadcast domain per port and in the picture provided I counted three broadcast domains. One to the left of R1, one in-between R1 and R2, and one to the right of R2. Why is this question marked as having only 2 broadcast domains?

Lunchbocks

The link between R1 and R2 is a serial link, and the instructions say ignore the serial link and the console link. So you have a BD to the left of R1 and a BD to the rivht of R2.

MontagueVandervort

Sometimes we go in for the kill and don't read the question carefully.

Always read the questions carefully.

Spiegel

Yes, I see it now. Thanks guys. This was late last night. Super tired lol

Lunchbocks

NP, I understand.

MontagueVandervort

I get that ... as sometimes I'm stumped over entering commands in labs at 1 and 2 am.

Spiegel

Progress Report:
Only 4 more days left until I take the exam. I'm feeling somewhat confident I'll do well. It's hard to tell given that so much has happened since I first began this journey. Life, family, holidays, moving, work...I somehow managed to find study time around all of that to reach this point.

Things to focus on: 

• Subnetting, improving my speed
• NAT
• Ethernet fundamentals
• ACLs
• RIPv2
• Troubleshooting

I think these are the areas I want to focus on the most as I continue to study these remaining days. I have a general understanding but definitely want to make sure I fully comprehend the topics.

Any last minute advice is welcomed. 

Lunchbocks

MontagueVandervort said:

Sometimes we go in for the kill and don't read the question carefully.

Always read the questions carefully.

I'm usually pretty good with tests, but that has been my biggest problem taking them. On my Network+ exam, I forced myself to read each question twice to make sure, because I'll think I know what they are asking and miss an important part. Back in my algebra classes, it would be those little insignificant things like a negative sign that I would glance right over.

Spiegel

So I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around subnet zero. According to the books it is the first zero in a subnet. Not sure I follow.

MontagueVandervort

Hope this helps if you haven't figured this out already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGmyOFOq_nY

Best of luck on your exam tomorrow!

Spiegel

I ended up finding that video later last night. It did help a bit. Thank you!

Spiegel

Welp...down to the wire. Roughly 12 hours away from taking the CCENT exam. I'm not exactly sure how ready I am. I understand most of the topics fairly well. I feel like I could pass this thing but the opposite is true as well. We shall see.

kaiju

Things to write down on your scribble sheet while the test is loading:

2 to nth power (0 to 12) with the corresponding /value

 -  Ex.[/24 = ((2 to the 8th) - 2) = 254 (don't for subnet mask of 255.255.255.0)
For hosts: 2nth - 2 with nth being the 0 bits in the host section
For subnets: 2nth with nth being the 1 bits borrowed from the host section.

 - Ex: Have a class B address and you need 300 subnets. (2 to the 8th = 256) < 300 <  (2 to the 9th = 512). So add nine 1 bits and you end up with a /25 (16 + 9).

 - This will leave 7 host bits so there will be 126 hosts (2 to the 7th minus 2) in the subnet.

That quick reference will help you to save time if you haven't gotten it completely ingrained on the membrane.

GOOD LUCK!!

@meggo - can we get superscript enabled?

Lunchbocks

Good Luck!

Jon_Cisco

Good Luck!

Meggo

@kaiju I don't see where I can turn it on in the back end, so I'm going to ask my CSM. 

In the meantime, you can force it using "toggle html view." Superscript HTML tag is  .

Spiegel

Progress Report:
CCENT ACQUIRED!!!

To be honest I didn't lab as much as I would have liked. Did a bit here and there on the Cisco simulator I purchased and some from the Boson NetSim. I barely cracked open the Boson Exam Environment, mostly used the practice tests provided by WGU in the uCertify course (which is essentially a copy paste of Wendell Odom's book).

The had three practice exam banks I could essential choose from, only one of which I worked from. It is where you had to answer the same question three times to "Master" it and then proceed to the next questions. I took aggressive notes from the that and made a huge stack of flash card notes. Studied and researched every question I got wrong or right, especially from those questions I wasn't super keen on. I had scheduled my exam for the 4th of this month and I didn't want to move it, sticking to my schedule due to my other courses I have to attend too. I basically ran out of time which didn't give me my time needed to dedicate to labs.

I'm honestly surprised I passed given all the interruptions between September and December. I started my new term at WGU in December so I basically started my studies over then given the additional materials I was given. The CBT Nuggets videos with Jeremy Cioara were golden. It reinforced my reading and solidified my understanding on the subjects.

Now that I know what it's like to study for a Cisco exam I will be making some modifications to how I will approach my ICND2 studies. I'd love to start on it as soon as possible but will have to wait until I wrap up my remaining courses for this term. I'll try to start casually reading the ICND2 book until I really start my studies to give me a head start.

So be on the look out on this very same thread in the not so distant future (aiming for 2-3 months from now) for the second half of this journey.

If any have additional questions regarding my studies and exam experience feel free to ask. I'll gladly share during this intermission.

Once again, I want to thank everyone that has supported me, cheered me on, and provided advise. Every little bit counted towards this success and I can honestly say I wouldn't have passed if it weren't for this forum and everyone in it.

MontagueVandervort

Congrats man!!!

Great job!

nisti2

Great job! I booked my CCENT exam for the 27 of April! 
So I have 70 days Challenge  
May the knowledge be with me jajaj

Jon_Cisco

I always try to lab but one issue is there never seems to be an end game with labbing. If your reading the book you know you have to get to the last chapter. If your taking a test you know you need to shoot for a passing score. If you do another lab you just move on to the next one.

It probably always feels like we could or should have done more labbing but in the end we want to pass and move on to the next challenge.

jazz_01

Congratulations on your success!  

coreyb80

Congrats!!