R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Yossarian

I’m no dummy. I don’t have to study for the measly CCNA. I work with ASA’s and UCM and Unity and UCCX. When we have new sites come online, I can copy configs and just make a few minor adjustments and voila! Piece of cake. That stuff is way beyond the piddly CCNA.

First attempt: 786

Ok, Ok. So I need to freshen up on Frame Relay and routing protocols. Big wup. Besides, that was just to get my feet wet. I can take it again without paying with the second chance offer. I really wasn’t expecting to pass anyway.

Second attempt: 755

*sigh*

I’m a dummy.

Mrock4

No you're not. I underestimated the CCNA my first go-round. You'll be fine. Now you will surely take it more seriously I bet! I also underestimated the BSCI...so we're both dummies my friend.

I'd like to also add, the best tech I know at work, who is solid with anything from server stuff, to wireless, to multi-vendor networking, layer 2, 3, etc......would fail the BSCI miserably. He's a great tech though. He just hasn't studied it. Not a big deal!

empc4000xl

I've met senior engineers who have failed the test and they could whip up a network in a few minutes. Its not due to being stupid. When you have a job you kinda get isolated into speciality areas and thats all you do. At my last job all I did was OSPF/EIGRP routing for a NOC. That was over a year ago. If you had me toubleshooting that right now I would be lost since I haven't brushed up on it. So you have people who are very good at what they do and think they can just show up and pass. I'm sure you might not need that much brushing up. Read the exam objectives and make sure you can answer questions about the technologies asked.

miller811

Yossarian wrote:

I’m no dummy. I don’t have to study for the measly CCNA. I work with ASA’s and UCM and Unity and UCCX. When we have new sites come online, I can copy configs and just make a few minor adjustments and voila! Piece of cake. That stuff is way beyond the piddly CCNA.

First attempt: 786

Ok, Ok. So I need to freshen up on Frame Relay and routing protocols. Big wup. Besides, that was just to get my feet wet. I can take it again without paying with the second chance offer. I really wasn’t expecting to pass anyway.

Second attempt: 755

*sigh*

I’m a dummy.

what was the breakdown of the exam topics?
They should detail specifically what you need to work on.

What was the difference in the breakdown on the two attempts?

AlexMR

I think the exams are hard because you really need to know the difference between things like show ip int brief and show ip int. You need to know the difference between a lot of commands that give you the same information and small details differently. When you are in a production network or setting one up, those commands are there for you to use them and get the information you need, you necessarily dont memorize if they specifically say if there is an access list on them or if they tell you if the layer 2connectivity is up or down.

I think I did quite well on the simulations because I knew perfectly what they wanted me to do, and a couple times I went straight to certain commands that were not available and then proceeded with some other that would allow me to get the job done. When they ask you about the specific contents of the show ip protocols if you dont know it doesnt saymuch about how good of a technician/professional you are, it basically says if you have been studying for certification or not...IMHO.

The test, specially the ICND2, reminded me in a couple times of certain teachers in college who deliberately made the exams really hard, without making them an effective tool to measure knowledge, but a tool to measure how good you are at memorizing. Having only seen a couple test I still think they are very good, but if I had the chance to change things, I would probably involve more configurations and less questions...of course that would require a longer exam.

Mrock4

AlexMR wrote:

When they ask you about the specific contents of the show ip protocols if you dont know it doesnt mean much about how good of a technician/professional you are, it basically says if you have been studyng for certification or not...IMHO.

I'm going to respectfully disagree on the importance of certain "show" commands. Although it might not be Cisco's reasoning, I think it's important to have your "show" commands on lock in a production environment, just how it's important to know certain functions on a server, instead of having to take time to figure them out. If the network drops, and time is sensitive, you need to know how to quickly troubleshoot the issue, not spend a few minutes typing "?" to find out what command you're looking for.

That being said, I think anyone could probably make an argument for this or that question being applied..so I can see it both ways. What I'm saying is, I understand where you're coming from..

I will say back when I took the CCNA, I found some questions not very relevant, but I guess it depends on your way of looking at it. I also never took the ICND2, so maybe there's more junk on it then the version I took of the composite.