640-801 OUCH scored 809 today......have a few questions..

I dont post much but I have been lurking alot around these boards...

Failed today with an 809 and I feel Im kinda at a platue as far as learning goes.

The print out they gave me has this:

Implementation and Operation : 86%
Troubleshooting : 72%
Planning and Designing : 62%
Technology : 64%

I have both Cisco Press 601 library (latest ed.) and
The sybex 5th edition.

Have read the sybex and INCD book 2 times each. The into book Ive basically skimmed as the sybex book pretty much covers the basics..

I feel like sorta cheated with this score......I think I got all three simulations correct. One was real vauge as to what it was asking of me but I think I pulled it off.

Basically I could ping through as end result on all sims and Im pretty sure that is what it was asking for.

Hammered me with ACL stuff, acouple WAN questions. Alot of subnetting questions intertwned with troubleshooting.

I guess Im kinda lost at the moment on where to concentrate my studies becuase I feel pretty good with most of it, but obviously Im not certified yet so..........................

HELP!

ohh I have been using the test engine that came with the INCD book mostly, I also purchased the SEMSIM test engine and I have used the tests on this site and free-tests.com

I feel like the semsim is ok, a little on the easy side.

I also have the latest greatest BOSON v6 for CCNP which has helpled out a ton......

Ok thats it.

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Comments

sprkymrk

Wow, so close!
I guess since you seem to have all the resources, and based on your score you know your stuff pretty well, I would suggest looking at your study tactics and see if you can improve and/or modify them to hone your skills past the plateau you seem to have reached.
Suggestions:

Flash cards
Audio Training
Study Partner

Good luck to you, and don't be discouraged. You're almost there!

!30

@zero-g-smith

Have read the sybex and INCD book 2 times each

It's not all about to read it , it's about getting it.When you understand then you can read , else you got to know first.

Alot of subnetting questions

Are you good at subneting ?

( practice , knwoledge ? ) coz I spend some ( much , much ) time to understand subneting.It's a bit hard , but once you get it , yo'll never loose it .

Next , you know

zero-g-smith

If the whole test was math I would pass easily, I was actually glad for the subnetting questions.

I dunno It seems I understand the concepts and can set up anything in the sims but its the little things that are killing me.

Ive met a few people out here in California that have their CCNA certs that were from India. They were in a local community college I attended, all of them were fresh off the boat and had fresh CCNA's but didnt know jack about networking, like theory in class.

They basically said it was simple but I was a little confused at there lack of knowlege about basic stuff in class.

I have to admit I thought alot of people on this board were blowing the difficulty out of proportion.

Its a tough test that I underestimated. Its baffles me how people are pouring out of India with CCNA's and CCNP's into LA and getting jobs.

Hell that is why I decided on a slight career shift. They made it sound so easy.

Just ranting I guess. the test wasnt impossible, but they must hand ccna's out like candy in India because out of the 9 or so people I met over the summer from India that had there ccna (one girl had a ccnp but was taking a basic networking class????)
not ONE of them would have a snowballs chance in hell at passing the test I just took today.

OK RANT OFF

marlon23

Be sure you don't spend more than 10 minutes on sims, becouse if you did, you wouldn't get full score.
You cannot be hammered with ACL on exam, ACLs are important as subnetting becouse they are heavily used in other topics (NAT, interesting traffic,...)
You cannot blame guys from India getting jobs, smarter wins, CCNA is same hard on whole world, they get extra 30minutes but that is becouse english is not their native language (If you think is unfair, take CCNA in Slovak or Indy without extra time). Blaming Indy wont help you to pass

Anyway, if you know CCNA stuff good, you have to pass. If not, you wouldn't. It's that simple.

zero-g-smith

No blaming india wont get me a pass............but sending 400 bucks over there will.

Danman32

Based on your score breakdown, I doubt it was the sims that were the problem.

I don't think he was complaining about Indies getting CCNA's perse, but rather they don't seem to have a grasp of the concepts for real world applications. Hopefully they weren't dumpsters.

sprkymrk

zero-g-smith wrote:

No blaming india wont get me a pass............but sending 400 bucks over there will.

I'm sorry to get a little off topic (I stayed focused on my previous reply

) but just to give you a little insight into the India thing I thought you might find useful.

Countries like India have a high unemployment rate, therefore the Gov't tends to fund a lot of schooling for the population. So you get people that will stay in school for years, getting one degree after another and become highly "book" educated, but because the country is poor, most schools don't have labs, computers and other hands-on equipment to train the students. I know this directly from a friend from Togo (Africa) who came to the states at the age of 28 with a couple of degrees including a law degree. He had to retake all his programming classes to get his IT degree here and it was very difficult. He said in his programming classes in Togo they used a pencil and paper. No compiler, no computer, therefore no debugging or trouble shooting or actually seeing if their programs worked. All theory...

I suspect that is what you ran into with the folks from India. MCSE's and CCNA's that rarely touched a computer/router/switch, if ever.

marlon23

yeah true, but India is not a topic here

so why to speak about it anyway

Even if they have CCNA certification shop, I dont care

zero-g-smith

Danman you hit the nail on the head.

anyway the bottom line is I want the certification and I want the knowledge that comes with it. Its just at this point I think I have all the heavy subjects down pretty good but it little stuff across the spectrum of material that Im lacking confidence in.

A couple example questions that stumped me from the exam:

What two CLI commands will show MAC address's on the router?

For some reason I totally drew a blank on this.

I think I put

show interface

show arp

I think Im gonna hit the flash cards pretty hard (cisco press flashcards) and maybe read the CCNA INTRO book cover to cover.

Im personally torn on the Sybex book, defiantly easier to read but I have a feeling he leaves out alot of detail.

Im pretty sure I nailed all 3 sims on the exam. Im pretty sure I nailed all the acl quesitons. (2 drag and drop acls' alone) and I would say probably 4-6 multichoice.

Planning and Design: HOW TO STUDY FOR P and D???

thank for your help guys.

also just wanted to throw in that I dont hate indies or whatever, but yea they all seemed to just have the certifications but could not figure out how to "console" into the router the first day of class (my parter).

What is hyperterminal?
How can I telnet into this switch? (it was a hub for gods sake)

Basically Im at fault, I assumed this test was gonna be easier (except for the simulations) but I was wrong. This test has some weight to it which I do appreciate. It just kinda bums me out now that there are a bunch of people running around with this cert that are not really qualified. Ok well Im over it. Need to study. Technology and Planning and Design UGH!!

Danman32

Planning and design can cover subnetting, deciding on ACLs for a scenario, VLAN management, stuff like that. Most of the questions in this category are probably going to be scenario type questions.

The detailed stuff will get you. It is best to know all the pertenent commands cold.

tuscani

hmm.. how do you show the mac address? That is a good question.. LOL

Anyone?

Alien

"show interface" should be sufficient.

happy420golucky

he said "show two cli commands that will give you the mac address".... "show interface" adn "show arp" is another.

antonio banderas

zero-g-smith wrote:

No blaming india wont get me a pass............but sending 400 bucks over there will.

LOL

Anyways, from your posting I think you understand the material CISCO wants you to understand. Only you know the barriers surrounding your CISCO knowledge. Maybe you just got a difficult set of questions to work with?

milentheman

to be fair with you dont waste your time if you think that you have study enough just hands on experience using net sim and buy the exam cram 2 make you practice the exam cram 2 again and again until you get 100 % all the time then make sure you are good on troubleshooting that 's it man

zero-g-smith

Yea ive been absorbing as much practice test info as possible. Ive never really done networking before so Im not entirely bummed I failed. I will look into exam cram 2.

Thanks for all the advice guys.

As a side note I just looked on Amazon at reviews for ExamCram 2 and man it has some really bad reviews, I might have to pass on that.

antonio banderas

I have the Exam Cram 2 2006 ebook, but I have not looked at it. It is probably rate bad because people solely relied on one resource and hoped to pass....

So far, I'm using the Cisco Press (2004), Sybex (2005), Learn Key, Skillport, and Cisco Simesters.... Of course I will be skipping around sections, but I will make sure that I try to retain as much info as I can...

Router Simulations I use are BOSON, Netsim, and Semsim....I usually keep all 3 open...

I do not have any equipment yet, but will be getting some within the next month.....

Sybex is great for subnetting, network concepts and OSI Model Information. I only read the 1st 5 chapters of this book. This is a nice read...

Cisco Press rely has some good information in it....I think this series has moved from being boring to being a better read over the years....

I have not took the test yet, but my father took the test and scored pretty high....

I plan to take the test in November (Possibly)...

GL, you'll pass the test soon...