Am I going to be first? 642-901

toastyhamster

hello all,

I'm just starting day 4 of the BSCI course and I have the 901 exam booked for Tuesday - will I be the first?

Apart from IS-IS which I don't get at all, it's not too bad. I don't have any other revision material as I figure a lot of it is now out of date, although I'm tempted to buy a Boson exam. I've also got a couple of routers and a switch, so I can do a fair bit of lab practise.

I have no hands on Cisco experience, as my day to day job is Checkpoint Firewall-1, Pix and Alteon work. So we'll see how it goes.... Luckily work pay for 2 exams, 1 failure and 1 pass, so with a bit of luck I won't be forking out too much from my own pocket

mikej412

It's looking like it.... Good Luck!

Since you won't be able to compare and contrast old exam to new.... I guess you'll just have to pass it so that everyone else doesn't get scared off by the new exam (and decide to become MCSEs instead).

I guess the best thing you could tell everyone after the exam (without violating the NDA) -- how accurate was the new exam blueprint?

MrD

1 of my instructor's is going to take it in the next month, supposedly...he's already CCNP, so I'll let everyone know what he thinks comparison-wise.

toastyhamster

Well I failed - 688.

There were *lots* of questions on the new bits in the course, and this is where I lost most marks.

I also got hit with a lot of the testlet questions which ate up a lot of time, and although I just finished on time I rushed a few in the middle section.

Probably retake it next week, and if I fail then, I dunno, I suppose I'll have to concede that I actually do need some hands on time through work before this is feasible for me.

mikej412

Ouch!

Did that class use the old courseware or the new courseware?

Good luck on your next attempt!

Grigsby

I also would be interested to know more about the curriculum. I just picked up the Cisco BSCI self-study book and need to eventually firgure out where this book stops and where I will need to pick up with something different. I am also curious when we will start to see text with the updated material.

toastyhamster

Multicast and IPv6 are the big additions (although I believe the DHCP stuff is new as well).

Multicast is quite a large section and there's lots about the differences between the IGMP groups and the different PIM modes. IPv6 I found quite easy to follow as all you have to do is get your head around the address structure and then understand the ways that IPv4 and IPv6 can co-exist.

The course was very rushed and the instructor admitted that there was too much to fit comfortably in a week, if you did the CCNA course and thought it was squeezed into a week, then this is even worse.

No idea when the books will be updated, I bought a BOSON exam to help me through and was very very disappointed, I don't think it had been updated in years. **** seem to have a newer version but it's not 642-901.

forbesl

toastyhamster wrote:

Multicast and IPv6 are the big additions (although I believe the DHCP stuff is new as well).

Multicast is quite a large section and there's lots about the differences between the IGMP groups and the different PIM modes. IPv6 I found quite easy to follow as all you have to do is get your head around the address structure and then understand the ways that IPv4 and IPv6 can co-exist.

The course was very rushed and the instructor admitted that there was too much to fit comfortably in a week, if you did the CCNA course and thought it was squeezed into a week, then this is even worse.

No idea when the books will be updated, I bought a BOSON exam to help me through and was very very disappointed, I don't think it had been updated in years. xxxxxxxxxx seem to have a newer version but it's not 642-901.

That's what happens when you use xxxxxxxxxx !!!!

NetworkGod

how're you supossed to pass with no study material for new exam..
i keep looking for new books, hopeless.. kind of wanted to pass older one before new year but now i'm thinking i'll stick with the newer version, maybe pick up on some new material and whatnot..

toastyhamster

Failed again, wouldn't have minded, but 788 when you need 790 is pretty gutting.

I have absolutely no idea how you're supposed to pick 3 routes from an EIGRP topology table to put into a routing table when there are only 2 destinations, that's me off to read about EIGRP for the next week.

Apart from EIGRP and Multicast (both 50%) everything else was over 80%, so pretty gutted to have missed it.


Hmmmm "xxxxxxxxxx", I've been censored!

MrD

load balancing

keenon

so what would make u think its a good idea to take 2 tests combined without a lick of experience.. at this point i can see why to beat the clock


otherwise good luck and skip using XXXXXXXXXX ( i just typed the X) just learn the stuff and try to get some hands on

toastyhamster

MrD, it wasn't a load balancing question variance wasn't mentioned, and the distances were different.

I've just printed off a load of stuff on ip routing (good old google) so no doubt I'll find out why.

steve-o87

toastyhamster wrote:

I have absolutely no idea how you're supposed to pick 3 routes from an EIGRP topology table to put into a routing table when there are only 2 destinations, that's me off to read about EIGRP for the next week.

Yeah, I got something similar in my BSCI exam, you have to know how feasible successor are elected and how to spot one. Also being able to spot if a path is automatically load-balanced over etc. Know EIGRP inside out