642-901 FAILED (Update: PASSED!)

marco_fera

I tried the exam today and I failed with a score of 777
I made a lot of stupid mistakes, combined with BGP and IPv6 not fully understood.
I'll try again in 10-14 days.
The failure is my fault only, but I think the Official Exam Cert Guide covers many things inadequately: any suggestion on alternative study guides or sources?
Marco

Kelkin

What about the Self-study Guide by ciscopress ? I've been hearing that both the Self-study and Exam Prep guides together are good preps for the exam..

keenon

if possible any cbts? you should review any topics that are lacking in the book .. i use the cisco website in the last few days before exam

tmlerdal

When I was working on the old version of the exam, I found amazon's reviews of the books to be really helpful. Basically the book that comes with the CCNP Prep library by Clare Gough, was less than to be desired. But the CCNP Self-Study book by Catherine Paquet and Diane Teare was excellent.

I ended up reading them both because I had a hard time getting through the BSCI test. If you read them in the right order, the one compliments the other well. My strong recommendation is to read the book by Paquet and Teare first, then follow it up with the one by Gough.

Something else I used that I don't think was totally worth the amount of money I had to spend on it was the audio trainer from PrepLogic. Had plenty of time in the car while I was preparing for the test, and gave a decent lecture on some things.

Here was another excellent resource I used for my studies:
http://ccnprecertification.com/

Also, this is another website I used and here is a link to a posting from someone with all the weblinks he used for the old CIT exam. There was a couple of links in it that were really better BGP material than what was covered in the books I think.
http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1304290&page=1

NetworkGod

Take your time and don't rush into things, make sure you take your time to understand subjects you were weak on..

marco_fera

Thanks for the tips!
I'm back on the books...

mikej412

tmlerdal wrote:

When I was working on the old version of the exam, I found amazon's reviews of the books to be really helpful. Basically the book that comes with the CCNP Prep library by Clare Gough, was less than to be desired. But the CCNP Self-Study book by Catherine Paquet and Diane Teare was excellent.

I agree with all 3 of these!

Check out the Cisco Press CCNP page to see what they'd like to sell you. I liked the reference sheets that had come with the old Cisco Press Flash Cards, so if the new ones you can buy individually now are like the old ones -- then they should be great for review before the exams.

networker050184

I'm reading them both and the exam cert guide does leave a little to be desired as far as depth into topics. My plan is to go through the study guide first. Then read the exam cert guide to do final prep for the exam. The study guide also ends the chapters with lab scenarios which is good to make the info stick.

Ferret999

I've said it a million times and I will say it again the Self Study Guide for BSCI is an absolutley brilliant book read it Also you are right as I have all the self study guides for CCNP they have published and the certification library then I can tell you that the cert guides are very light compared to the self study books you only have to look at the difference in the size of the books to see that.

Crunchyhippo

Ferret999 wrote:

I've said it a million times and I will say it again the Self Study Guide for BSCI is an absolutley brilliant book read it Also you are right as I have all the self study guides for CCNP they have published and the certification library then I can tell you that the cert guides are very light compared to the self study books you only have to look at the difference in the size of the books to see that.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the title(s) of the self-study book(s) you're referring to?

networker050184

Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI) (Authorized Self-Study Guide), Third Ed. is the current edition of the study guide for the BSCI. Liked others have stated, its a very good book. Go here http://www.ciscopress.com/markets/detail.asp?st=44734 for all the suggested reading and titles.

marco_fera

BSCI re-taken and passed with 904!
I took my revenge on BGP with a 100% sub-score.

joshgibson82

Congratulations, that is a great score.

impelse

Congrats

Raul

mikej412

Congratulations!

r_durant

Congrats marco!!

shednik

Nice Job!!

mikearama

Nicely done, bro. Keep up the good work.

romain

Well Done !

joaquin48

HI
My name is Joe (Joaquin actually), I am a network engineer for a bank, and I have JNCIA-E (Juniper), Network+ , i-net+, and CCNA.

I am working towards my CCNP's BSCI, probably I will attempt it in the next 4 to 6 week, probably less.

I am using the Lammle's Sybex book, which is pretty good, but I will get the Cisco self study guide as well.

What do you guys think? How would you compare this test with CCNA?

Thanks,
Joaquin

*******************************
JNCIA-E, network+, i-net+, CCNA

mikej412

joaquin48 wrote:

How would you compare this test with CCNA?

How Hard is the 642-901 BSCI?

Hum.... while I'm here, maybe I'll update the subject line to reflect the happy news

marco_fera wrote:

BSCI re-taken and passed with 904!