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CWNA RF Math?

JBeam

How indepth should I study the RF math? Is there a pretty good focus on the CWNA (pw0-100) exam or just some basic rf math?

Thanks in advance.
JBeam

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Comments

JBeam

I just looked in the offical breakdown of the CWNA exam and i see it says that the RF math portion is in the 21% of RF technologies. Anyone know of a good study guide just to practice RF math?

JDMurray

JBeam wrote:

How indepth should I study the RF math? Is there a pretty good focus on the CWNA (pw0-100) exam or just some basic rf math?

Do you have the CWNA Study Guide 3rd edition? Chapter 3 covers the RF math topics that may be on the CWNA exam. You need to understand the relationship between watts, decibels, dBm, dBi, dBd, and RSSI. Also know how to convert between milliwatts and dB, dBm, and dBi. A calculator is not needed for the exam, and the conversions can be performed using simple rules and tables in the study guide.

JBeam

Yes I do have the CWNA Study guide 3rd ed. I will take another look at chapter 3, thanks for the reference.

SofaSurfer

When I took the exam there was only one question that was related to RF math and it was not a hard question at all.

Many of the questions are complex and will require a broad understanding of several wi-fi subjects to answer them correctly.

Reading two different study guides was a big help because one book might explain something better in a way that I could more easily understand than how it was explained and/or presented in the other book.

Also, another tip that I have used in the past was to answer the first 10 questions on an exam in my head and not mark an answer. The purpose of doing this is to get your brain in the mind set of taking a test. The problem with the CWNA is that you can not go back once you clicked "next" you might want to write down a ten question quiz of your own that you can do just before you go in to take the test. This will help put your mind in test mode...that's the theory anyway..I'm not sure if this actually helps but it can't hurt so why not give it a try.

Another thing I like to do is eat an energy bar an hour or so before the exam. Glucose is fuel for your brain and you're going to want plenty of it. A good breakfast helps too but I took my exam in the afternoon and I thought a big lunch would make me tired so I just at a delicious power bar

Also, don't let the online study guides fool you. If you're blasting through them and scoring 100% every time that's great but don't let them give you a false sense that you're ready for the exam. By all means use them but don't use them to gage your readiness.

The practice exams in the back of the Sybex book were pretty good and I do like the flashcards they include even though some of them were wrong and the practice exams are not one hundred percent error proof either but it's better than the alternative which is nothing or spending a bunch of money on Trancender or Prelogic. The other thing I liked about the Sybex book were the quiz's at the end of each chapter that not only gave you the correct answer but also explained the answer to you.

As far as the "boot camp" courses go, I don't think they are really worth the cost and the fact that I passed is proof that you can pass the exam by studying at home and just putting some effort into it.

If there is a concept your just cant grasp then you should ask for some help in the forum because someone might be able to better explain it to you in a way that you will understand.

Remember, true knowledge is not measured by how many questions you can answer about a subject but rather by how many questions you can ask about a subject (Socrates philosophy). Try to make up your own quiz's for each chapter you studied. Once your able to come up with 10-20 questions for your quiz you're probably in pretty good shape.

JDMurray

SofaSurfer wrote:

Remember, true knowledge is not measured by how many questions you can answer about a subject but rather by how many questions you can ask about a subject (Socrates philosophy). Try to make up your own quiz's for each chapter you studied. Once your able to come up with 10-20 questions for your quiz you're probably in pretty good shape.

I think this is excellent advice. People can learn a lot from material by studying it from the perspective of using it to write test questions rather than only answering exam questions. It would be very advantageous to have a set of rules for how to research and write cert exams questions for the purpose of studying cert exam material.