Passed Cisco Academy Semester 3 but...

Morning All,

Passed my final exam for semester 3 last night. I should be happy but I’m not.

The exam last night was an eye opener as to how badly I cope with exams. If I get a few questions in a row that I’m not 100% about, the concentration goes, negative mind set rears it rancid head, mind goes blank and panic sets in. Making the whole experience really ****. I know I still passed but it’s not good enough. Need to perform better under exam conditions.

The reason I’m writing this post is that the reason I panicked last night was due to tricky VLSM and summarization questions. I understand the concepts of both topics reasonably well. But anything mathematical, well… anything numerical for that matter most definitely not being my forte (to say the least)… especially under high stress conditions, I just couldn’t answer these questions. So my theory knowledge carried me through. BUT this can’t be the case in future exams… especially in the actual CCNA later this year (assuming I get there). Had I known the CCNA was so heavily mathematic/numerical I’d have done another course… but I didn't and it is… and I’m here now 1 and half years down the line and I’m determined to get the job done.

Was just wondering if anyone had any advice? Bit of a scatty, **** post so thanks if you reply.

Ta.

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Comments

malcybood

You just have to keep practicing on the subjects until they stick and when someone says how do you do this? how do you do that? on the particular subjects then you can answer them straight away!

When something is completely clear and sticks then you will have no problems under pressure or not.

On the Sem 3 exam a pass is a pass.....what % did you pass with? Over 80%? If so that's pretty good for an academy student. When I done the Academy we were given exam discounts from Cisco (through our instructor) if we passed all 4 semesters with over 80%.

Remember that once you pass the exam and are certified that all this stuff you are learning you will be able to use reference books etc to look up in the "real world".

Don't be so hard on yourself and think positive! Well done on the sem 3 pass & good luck with Sem 4 WAN!

Malc

tony0101

Where do you go matt? I know an aquantance by the name of Matt in Mrs.Douglas' class at Herndon in KC. Are you him?

This is my first year of Cisco. I say if you passed, but you are not satisfied, study until you are confident with your skillzz.

mikej412

Keep repeating -- "It's only a test. It's only a test." Don't let one question take you out of your game. Try to keep focused and and only worry about the current question.

I did fine in my Academy courses (averaged a 98.9% over the 4 courses) but still had problems with the "graphical exhibit blob of shaggy dog story text followed eventually by a question" type questions. For those I finally realized not to worry about understanding the graphic and the "story problem text".... just jump straight to the bottom of the text and see what they are asking. Then, and only then, did I worry about the graphic and the problem text. And then I'd just looked at the the part of the graphic I needed, and ignored the text that was related to the problem.... I knew the material -- I just needed to think about the "exam mechanics" and adjust my test taking skills.

In real life you may have the time to completely learn a customer topology and addressing scheme, and you may have design documents and change logs to review..... Or -- the customer network you have never seen before is down and people are screaming about how much money they are losing....

Try and figure out what got to you on this final exam.... and try to "fix it" in time for the CCNA 4 final.

The bad news: Going for the CCNA Certification Exam will be even worse than the Acadedmy Finals, Voucher Exams, or Practice CCNA exams. It took about 15 certification exams before I finally lost the "pre-test jitters" -- and I had the "during test jitters" for the CCNA exam.

The Academy is a learning experience -- both for the knowledge you need, and for your testing skills. When the topics get harder, so do the questions.... so your knowledge and testing skills both get a workout.

tony0101 wrote:

I know an aquantance by the name of Matt in Mrs.Douglas' class at Herndon in KC. Are you him?

There is a Manchester MO -- but that's in St. Louis County -- opposite end of the state. Manchester England is farther East than that.

emmajoyce

Since you havent had 4 yet, which did you find harder 3 or 2. Just curious.
For tony: you can look under the persons name to find out where they are from. This gentlemen appears to be from england.

Paul Boz

The math isn't that hard if you treat it like a pattern and not like mathematics. Subnetting just requires addition and subtraction, and a little memorization. Just drill the material until you get it.

mattipler

Hey up guys,

I'm from Manchester... ENGLAND!!!

You know... Bad weather, fish and chips, cup-of-tea, Mary Poppins...

Your right I just need to drill subnet masking, VLSM and summarization into my head. Need to work on my nerves as well before exams... I'll get there. Just going to have to know it inside out before I take the CCNA certification. Thanks for your advice.

I know I've heard the CCNA certification is ridiculously hard. I'm prepared to take it over and over until I pass it. It's got to be done seen as I'll hard put two years into the accademy and worked very, very hard as I started the academy with next to NO networking experience what-so-ever.

I got 89% in the sem 3 final. Needed 70%. Got 84% in Sem 2 final and 93% Sem 1.

What's harder... Sem 2 or 3??? Tough one. I think there's a lot more to remember in Sem 3... A LOT MORE. Routing protocol multicast address, protocol timing details etc etc etc etc etc. It's all very interesting though. I'm assuming Sem 4 teaches us more about WAN technologies which will tie the whole course together.

Thanks again for your replies! I'll keep you up to date as to how I'm progressing and no doubt mither you every now and again for advice!

Ta

Matt

Kaminsky

mattipler wrote:

Hey up guys,

Your right I just need to drill subnet masking, VLSM and summarization into my head. Need to work on my nerves as well before exams... I'll get there. Just going to have to know it inside out before I take the CCNA certification. Thanks for your advice.

Great site for drilling that sorted me out is here http://www.subnettingquestions.com/default_uk.asp and imagine you have already discovered this one. Just keep going over and over and over. When you get one wrong, work out why you got it wrong. Really helped me a lot.

PS: I was born in Salford but now live down south. No more Mary Poppins gags !