BCMSN done

mikearama

I know that all cisco exams are tough... but damn, this one caught me off guard.

After reading Hucaby's book twice, and buying Bryant's BCMSN guides/labs, and doing every lab I could find/think of, I thought I owned this cert.

I don't know if any of you do this, but I like to keep track of how many questions I have to make an educated guess at. Well, with slightly more than 60 questions, I had "guessed" at 18. 18!! And no less than 10 of them were voice related.

Configure support for voice 50%
Implement gateway redundancy technologies 75%
Conduct STP 80%
Describe and configure wireless client access 90%
Rest were 100%

A pass is a pass, and I'll take it. Scored an 890.

I appreciate your help, techies... had some great replies to a few questions on topics that eluded me.

So, on to Routing.

Cessation

Good job and keep it up!

MACattack

Congrats, great job for passing it is so difficult, got failed twice but this time I will as Chris said pretend you already have the title... I will not GIVE UP and I will take it.

mikej412

mikearama wrote:

this one caught me off guard

You had me worried there for a minute

Congratulations!

ITdude

Congrats....

Onwards and upwards!

Netstudent

Congrats man!

Ya with Pro level certs, you can't beat yourself up with a score like that. Thats a good score for a very difficult test. How long ago did you take the CCNA? If i'm not mistaken wasn't it like 3 or so months ago?

Netstudent

Congrats man!

Ya with Pro level certs, you can't beat yourself up with a score like that. Thats a good score for a very difficult test. How long ago did you take the CCNA? If i'm not mistaken wasn't it like 3 or so months ago?

mikearama

Thank alot, guys.

NS... yep, wrote it in July, and then went right after Switching. So two months of study and play, and it's done. Like to do the same with Routing before Christmas.

Netstudent

Must be nice. I can't wait untill I can dedicate all my time towards certs. If I wasn't in school, I would be knocking certs down like dominos.

So mike one more thing,

With Chris bryant + hucaby's cert guide, was that enough on voice? I have already been informed that it's not enough for Wireless, now I'm curious about the voice part because of all your guessing. Thanks.

ITdude

Yea, I was kinda wondering about that myself. I also heard the Chris Bryant's stuff for the BCMSN was not as good as his BSCI package.

Like NS said with the Pro certs you shouldn't beat yourself up if you don't get stellar scores. They are meant to be tough.


Wouldn't it be great to have no responsibilities and become a total cert jockey?

dtlokee

ITdude wrote:

Wouldn't it be great to have no responsibilities and become a total cert jockey?

Damn, you guessed my job title.

ITdude

Yes, I think Campbell's had you( and maybe mike) in mind when they came up with their alphabet soup!

mikearama

Netstudent wrote:

With Chris bryant + hucaby's cert guide, was that enough on voice? I have already been informed that it's not enough for Wireless, now I'm curious about the voice part because of all your guessing. Thanks.

Hucaby went into way too much detail on wattage and decibel's... none of which mattered on the exam. He entirely skipped everything to do with client configuration (ADU).

Bryant was a smoother read, but also left out so much.

The combination wasn't enough for voice, and barely enough for wireless. Throwing in all the videos on the cisco website helped for the wireless side, but again, not enough on voice.

If I could do it again, I'd have spent more time on voice (as my 50% shows).

ITdude

Did you look at the self-study guide too or just the exam cert guide by Hucaby? I bet Cisco is tweaking around with the new exams till they find the right combination of questions to cover the topics.

Perhaps later editions of the books will better reflect the exams. Of course that won't do you any good.

networker050184

Like I said do not under estimate any of the topics. This exam was a lot different than I thought it would be. Your best bet for study in my opinion is the Ciscopress books and a load of white papers. The white papers served me very well on voice and wireless.

LOkrasa

Sorry for being a douchebag but what are white papers?

networker050184

They are technical documentation, you can find them on the Cisco website. They are very helpful in my opinion. You can find information on pretty much any topic. Google usually turns these up if you google the topic and add the word cisco in there.

I would also suggest the quick reference sheets you can download from the Ciscopress website. These were a good review and had some good voice stuff that wasn't in the exam cert guide. Not much detail on wireless client configuration though. Over all a good read and only $10 to download the PDF.

Ferret999

nice one well done on the pass

mikearama

networker050184 wrote:

I would also suggest the quick reference sheets you can download from the Ciscopress website. These were a good review and had some good voice stuff that wasn't in the exam cert guide. Not much detail on wireless client configuration though. Over all a good read and only $10 to download the PDF.

This is going to sound silly, but I have an issue paying cisco for a whitepaper. Just seems... selfish of them. Having said that, in hindsight, $10 is cheap to get a better understanding of voice.

mikearama

LOkrasa wrote:

Sorry for being a douchebag but what are white papers?

*LOL* There's a lot of things that can make someone a douchebag, but asking about white papers isn't one of them.

networker050184

Like your teacher used to say "the only douchey question is the one not asked." Well, it was something like that

networker050184

This is going to sound silly, but I have an issue paying cisco for a whitepaper. Just seems... selfish of them. Having said that, in hindsight, $10 is cheap to get a better understanding of voice.

No the quick reference sheets aren't white papers. Its a short study guide in cram form. It covers the configurations and a little about each subject, but not indepth.

LOkrasa

mikearama wrote:

LOkrasa wrote:

Sorry for being a douchebag but what are white papers?

*LOL* There's a lot of things that can make someone a douchebag, but asking about white papers isn't one of them.

Thanks haha

rjbarlow

Big congrats mike, it's a greate done! Even if You did not write in my CCNA passed, I do it.
I joke. Very congrats again and good luck for the following!

Aquabat [banned]

Yes! Great Job!

sunil_vishnani

mikearama wrote:

I know that all cisco exams are tough... but damn, this one caught me off guard.

After reading Hucaby's book twice, and buying Bryant's BCMSN guides/labs, and doing every lab I could find/think of, I thought I owned this cert.

I don't know if any of you do this, but I like to keep track of how many questions I have to make an educated guess at. Well, with slightly more than 60 questions, I had "guessed" at 18. 18!! And no less than 10 of them were voice related.

Configure support for voice 50%
Implement gateway redundancy technologies 75%
Conduct STP 80%
Describe and configure wireless client access 90%
Rest were 100%

A pass is a pass, and I'll take it. Scored an 890.

I appreciate your help, techies... had some great replies to a few questions on topics that eluded me.

So, on to Routing.

Hi Mike , am planning to give the BCMSN exam can you help me out .
I will be great if you can recollect the type of question asked on voice and wireless can i dont find either of the topic in detail in Ciscopress bcmsn book

networker050184

Asking for exam questions????? You do know thats not allowed right??

mikej412

sunil_vishnani wrote:

I will be great if you can recollect the type of question asked on voice and wireless can i dont find either of the topic in detail in Ciscopress bcmsn book [/color]

It might be great for you, but Mike would then be risking his Exam/Certification since talking about what he saw on the exam would violate the Cisco Career Certifications and Confidentiality Agreement everyone agrees to when they take Cisco Exams.

You agree that the contents of the exam are confidential and that the disclosure of that information could compromise the integrity of the Program and of Certifications. Cisco makes exams available to you solely to test your knowledge of the exam subject matter for which you seek Certification. You are expressly prohibited from disclosing, publishing, reproducing, or transmitting any exam and any related information including, without limitation, questions, answers, worksheets, computations, drawings, diagrams, length or number of exam segments or questions, or any communication, including oral communication regarding or related to the exam (known collectively as “Proprietary Information”), in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, oral or written, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the prior express written permission of Cisco.

Also check out the Cisco Candidate Conduct Policy

No candidate will take any action that will compromise the integrity or confidentiality of a Cisco Certification examination or otherwise compromise the integrity of the Cisco Certification program. Such actions include but are not limited to:
• Disseminating actual exam content via web postings, discussion groups, chat rooms, study guides, etc.

The 642-812 BCMSN Exam Blueprint tells you what you should know for the exam about wireless

Describe and configure wireless client access.

    * Describe the components and operations of WLAN topologies (i.e., AP and Bridge).
    * Describe the features of Client Devices, Network Unification, and Mobility Platforms (i.e., CCX, LWAPP).
    * Configure a wireless client (i.e., ADU).

and Voice

Configure support for voice.

    * Describe the characteristics of voice in the campus network.
    * Describe the functions of Voice VLANs and trust boundaries.
    * Configure and verify basic IP Phone support (i.e. Voice VLAN, Trust and CoS options, AutoQoS for voice).

If you check out the suggested self-study resources for the BCMSN exam on the Cisco Press About CCNP page

CCNP 642-812 BCMSN Exam
Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN) (Authorized Self-Study Guide), Fourth Ed.
CCNP BCMSN Official Exam Certification Guide, Fourth Ed.
CCNP BCMSN Quick Reference Sheets
CCNP BCMSN Portable Command Guide

and compare the table of contents for the books against the exam blueprint topics you might notice the Self-Study Guide only has 2 chapters for those 2 topics. The Exam Certification Guide seems to have more information.

If you want to figure out if you've "learned enough" then get the Quick Reference Sheets after you've studied both books. Anything in the Quick Reference Sheets that you don't recognize or can't find in the two main books is probably something you'd want to search the Cisco Documentation for -- including the already mentioned white papers.

The only "single source" that has enough information to pass the exam is the official Cisco Class Student Guides you get when you take the official Cisco Training Course at a Cisco Training Partner. Usually the recommended Cisco Press books will get you close to passing, but depending on your knowledge and experience you may have to do some research on the Cisco website to complete your independent self-study.

Aquabat [banned]

what's up with indian people always asking for exam answers

networker050184

Well, I'm sure there are people from every where who ****, not just India. Maybe they don't have the same ethics as we do......

ITdude

C'mon guys give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he meant by "type" of questions was basically asking about the Cisco blueprint covering that material.


One can only hope...right?