CCNP ONT

MKRH2008

Hi all

I am sitting my CCNP ONT 642-845 in a month, has anybody passed this?, if so have you any tips?
I am currently studying from the cisco press books, are there any topics missed or not covered in enough detail. I passed my CCNA three years ago on the 14th of OCtober so i really need to pass this one. Do you have to do simulators? If so which practice ones are the best. Any help or tips will be appreciated.

Thanks

redwarrior

Hi there!

I failed my first attempt, primarily because I underestimated the ONT and studied only from the Cisco Press exam guide and online resources. There is a lot more information that is good to get before you take this one. I'm doing my retake on tuesday morning, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Having taken the exam once, I'd have to say the best study materials I've found so far that seems to cover the exam the most thoroughly are the trainsignal videos for ONT. They are a bit dry, though and you'd still want to supplement with further reading and lab practice, but they seem to cover the exam topics the most thoroughly and the practice exams to me seem closer to what I saw on my first try. I didn't feel the practice exams included with the Cisco Press book were really tough enough to be a good indicator.

I'd have to say the biggest mistake I made the first time around was thinking that since this was reported to be the easiest of the CCNP exams that this would be on a part with the CCNA exam in difficulty...if you don't underestimate it and make sure you know each exam objective thoroughly, you should do a lot better your first time out than I did.

MKRH2008

Thanks for the reply!

I didn't know that the ONT was mean't to be the easiest, just the ONT book is the thinist so I assumed it was the easiest lol!
What lab materials are you using? I have only got the cisco press book with the CD. Did you have to do any simulators on the exam and have to configure any queues policing etc? Which are the best materials for preparing for the simulators?

It's quite difficult to get your head arround some of the concepts by just reading the book such as the relationship between IP Precedence and DSCP. Also what are BA's and PHB's?
Any other tricky concepts that you have had to work out?

Thanks

mikej412

MKRH2008 wrote:

Did you have to do any simulators on the exam and have to configure any queues policing etc?

No one can answer that without violating the Cisco Career Certifications and Confidentiality Agreementand the Cisco Candidate Conduct Policy

cdad2000

Good luck buddy

MKRH2008

Are there simulators on the exam?

redwarrior

I'm not going to violate the NDR, so just suffice it to say that anything in the exam objectives is fair game. A good clue is that anything in the objectives that mentions "configure" is a likely subject for a sim.

For lab work I've been using a mixture of dynamips/GNS3 as well as a 1710 router to practice working with the MQC and the SDM interface. Unfortunately, I really haven't been able to find anything out there to simulate a wireless LAN controller or using the WLSE or WCS. For those, I've been relying on reading configuration guides on Cisco's website and the tutorials shown in the Trainsignal videos in lieu of hands-on time.

MKRH2008

Thanks for ths advice, also, what is the passing mark, i know it was 85% in my ccna, but i'm sure it was 77% for ccnp, is it still this?

networker050184

MKRH2008 wrote:

Thanks for ths advice, also, what is the passing mark, i know it was 85% in my ccna, but i'm sure it was 77% for ccnp, is it still this?

I guess you didn't read the link mikej412 posted a few lines up about the NDA.

Passing scores are not to be given out and anyone who has taken the exam would be violating the NDA they agreed to and therefore jeopardizing their certification if they were to tell you.

redwarrior

Hmmm...my acronyms are getting all screwy this week...I wonder what NDR could stand for since it's not the NDA. Probably best to avoid violating either of them.

j4s

I've been lurking on here for some time, thought i would add some thoughts about the ONT.

Passed all but the ONT on my way to CCNP stardom, but finding the ONT rather more like hard work than I had hoped.

I've read the Official Exam Cert Guide twice, done the DVD mentor, and various things on the Cisco Learning Site.

Im now on read 3 of the Cert guide and hoping this might make it stick.

Mind you it is rather busy in work and so study time is limited, but i was hoping to kick this last one into touch sooner rather than later.

Maybe someone has some advice for making it stick, brain transplant perhaps, or the answers to the questions written on the inside of my eyelids, it's all possible i think..

MKRH2008

Thanks j4s. Are there any concepts that you found difficult to understand but eventually worked them out?

Thanks

j4s

Main problem was remembering what the different qos services offered, I've spent the weekend really going through that in detail, seems to be a lot better in my memory today.

romain

Hi,

I'm currently studying it. It looks quite nice and will take the exam by the end of september.

I like this voice oriented module. Nice choice Cisco

Cheers all!