Just Scheduled My ISCW...

Having only one test is killing me. I can't sleep and can only think of finishing this stupid thing. I tried to take a few days off from studying after passing the BSCI but ended up reading through half of the Self Study Guide. Even though I don't feel 100% confident right now I figure I should be a lot better by Monday at 2pm (when it is scheduled for) at the rate I am going now. If I am still not read I can always reschedule or just go for it and if I fail use my second chance when I am ready the following week.

Any tips?

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Comments

mikej412

You can just taste that CCNP, can't you

Good Luck!!

Plazma

Good luck!

networker050184

Good luck!

gojericho0

Good Luck! Try and get some sleep this weekend too

nicklauscombs

Good luck! Hopefully we will hear about your new CCNP status soon

scheistermeister

gojericho0 wrote:

Good Luck! Try and get some sleep this weekend too

That didn't happen... Couldn't sleep at all really.

But I had my dry run today. I had not finished reading the Self Study guide or played around with the SDM yet or finished watching the CBT Nuggets and was very un-confident going in. I must also say I HATE security! My hat goes off to you Info Sec guys, it is just not my cup of tea. Anyways, on to the blood bath...

Got 766 needed 790

Teleworker Services 71%
MPLS 75%
VPN 54%
Security Strategies 87%
Device Hardening 60%
IOS Firewall 58%
IOS IPS 70%

I also got all my sims back to back, which was brutal. I did finish with about 15min left, but there are a **** ton of questions on this test. I also hate the SDM, GUIes suck. Combine that with security and you have a test I do not like at all. Oh well, I will pass it next week for sure. I knew I wasn't likely to pass it this time around, but I wanted to know where I needed improvement and sitting for it was a big help. I love having the secondchance deal.

Edit: When I got home my new CatOS switch was sitting on my porch too which made me pretty happy, but man this sucker is LOUD!

gojericho0

You were close though. So far MPLS has been my favorite part in studying for the exam. I'm not a big fan of SDM as well. Sometimes it adds a bunch of junk your don't need that you wouldn't get by configuring things with the CLI.

Do you think there is the breadth and depth of topics that the BSCI had?

networker050184

Too bad you failed, but at least the next one is free!

Good luck on the next go. Hopefully I can knock this one out pretty soon also.

scheistermeister

gojericho0 wrote:

You were close though. So far MPLS has been my favorite part in studying for the exam. I'm not a big fan of SDM as well. Sometimes it adds a bunch of junk your don't need that you wouldn't get by configuring things with the CLI.

Do you think there is the breadth and depth of topics that the BSCI had?

Yeah, MPLS and the teleworker part I really liked. And no the breadth and depth isn't anywhere near the BSCI except for on the IOS firewall (CBAC). I would say the test mainly tests you on the firewall and GUI.

On a funny side note, I just found out where this switch came from...

set ip dns domain corp.anheuser-busch.com

They should have sent me some free samples with it!

nicklauscombs

you'll get it on the next go!

no free beer samples =

dynamik

That's actually a really good score for not finishing all those resources. Sounds like you have it in the bag after a little review.

scheistermeister

dynamik wrote:

That's actually a really good score for not finishing all those resources. Sounds like you have it in the bag after a little review.

Yeah I was actually surprised by how much I remembered while I was reading. I have the Study guide in two PDFs and had only gotten through the first one while rushing. What killed me on the test were the sims.

kpjungle

scheistermeister wrote:

dynamik wrote:

That's actually a really good score for not finishing all those resources. Sounds like you have it in the bag after a little review.

Yeah I was actually surprised by how much I remembered while I was reading. I have the Study guide in two PDFs and had only gotten through the first one while rushing. What killed me on the test were the sims.

Good luck on the next go mr. meister.

telco1

it looks like you almost got it. your so close. you will pass next time.

I am in the same boat as you are though I have 3 of the four exams done and one more left. (ISCW also) but I will say this dont rush it though. take your time. im shooting for around the 25th of this month. but I dont want to watse my second chance since I will be taking CCVP exams after the NP and I know I might need that second chance on those tough voice exams. take your time and dont rush, and I know how you feel im more of a command line guy than GUI myself. but the ISCW is very important because you will run into security out in the real world. plus VPN as well.

take your time you will get it! good luck on the retake!

scheistermeister

telco1 wrote:

it looks like you almost got it. your so close. you will pass next time.

I am in the same boat as you are though I have 3 of the four exams done and one more left. (ISCW also) but I will say this dont rush it though. take your time. im shooting for around the 25th of this month. but I dont want to watse my second chance since I will be taking CCVP exams after the NP and I know I might need that second chance on those tough voice exams. take your time and dont rush, and I know how you feel im more of a command line guy than GUI myself. but the ISCW is very important because you will run into security out in the real world. plus VPN as well.

take your time you will get it! good luck on the retake!

I already scheduled it for next week, but that will be plenty of time for me to finish up studying for it.

You do know that you can use that second chance as many times as you want right?

telco1

I thought it was only good once? I know it expires in october. does that mean you can use it as many times as you want until october?

scheistermeister

telco1 wrote:

I thought it was only good once? I know it expires in october. does that mean you can use it as many times as you want until october?

Every time you pay the full price you can use it. Meaning if you pay the full price for an exam, fail you can use it. Pass that one or fail that one when you pay full price again if you fail you can use it again. All until October.

I've actually used it 3 times. Each time I was pretty much sure I wasn't read, but ended up missing them by a lot less than I thought I would. If they give me a chance to see what kind of questions are going to be on the test I am going to take it.

Forsaken_GA

scheistermeister wrote:

telco1 wrote:

I already scheduled it for next week, but that will be plenty of time for me to finish up studying for it.

You do know that you can use that second chance as many times as you want right?

I just recently got back into the swing of my CCNP studies, and I'm looking at taking ISCW on/around the 23rd (finally got a router capable of using SDM to play with).

This second chance stuff, is that through Cisco or through someone else? It freaked the hell out of me when I saw it mentioned that it was a 180 day wait on retesting after passing BCMSN (I passed BSCI back in april of 2005, didn't pass my next NP exam until April of this year... apparently some stuff has changed!)

scheistermeister

Forsaken_GA wrote:

This second chance stuff, is that through Cisco or through someone else? It freaked the hell out of me when I saw it mentioned that it was a 180 day wait on retesting after passing BCMSN (I passed BSCI back in april of 2005, didn't pass my next NP exam until April of this year... apparently some stuff has changed!)

The second chance thing is through Pearson Vue although I am pretty sure they have Cisco's consent. Here is a link:

http://www.pearsonvue.com/cisco/secondchance/

Forsaken_GA

scheistermeister wrote:

Forsaken_GA wrote:

This second chance stuff, is that through Cisco or through someone else? It freaked the hell out of me when I saw it mentioned that it was a 180 day wait on retesting after passing BCMSN (I passed BSCI back in april of 2005, didn't pass my next NP exam until April of this year... apparently some stuff has changed!)

The second chance thing is through Pearson Vue although I am pretty sure they have Cisco's consent. Here is a link:

http://www.pearsonvue.com/cisco/secondchance/

Hrm, well that might change up my plans a little bit. Last time I took BSCI, it pretty much burned me out. I'm pretty sure that since I passed it more than three years ago, it's not supposed to count towards my CCNP anymore, but the Certification Tracking Tool shows that it's still good. I was thinking about retaking it anyway, I don't remember half of what I learned for it, and I'm sure the new revision is harder. I may go ahead and put off studying for ONT and just bone up and retake BSCI so that I can take advantage of that safety net if I need it.