CCDA Tomorrow (This is my 5th time!) - PASSED

Hey guys,

I'm a bit embarassed, having difficulty passing the 640-863 exam (DESGN). I've taken it four times... tomorrow will be my fifth.

My last score was an 821, I need 825 to pass.

The first two attempts I swapped too many answers, for those of you who haven't taken the exam the question answers are very similar, precise wording must be noted for all multiple choice.

I've never had this much trouble with a CISCO exam. I've taken exams twice before but typically pass the second attempt only missing 1-3 questions...

Somehow I'm missing 10 questions and it baffles me

. Having taken it so many times I literally have the test memorized! I can't lift my voice score, it's stuck at 57%. Anyone know if the voice call calculation questions take into consideration a designer should only provision for 75% of the link bandwidth? --I don't think they do based on examples in the book and the BOSON questions.

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Comments

wat08

Good luck on your next attempt. Yeah, I'm finding that the wording based around some of the concepts is wishy washy sometimes. What is your primary study resource? The text by Teare seems to provide enough detail. Anyways, let us know how it goes and don't worry about your test count! You'll get there!

miller811

did you pass this time?
I am two weeks into studying for this one, almost completed the book, was not really worried until I read your post.

Mishra

Good luck

mamono

Hope the dude passed, I'm planning to study for this next year.

ITdude

Hopefully he did knock the exam dead this time!

However, the design exams tend to be more theoretical than the exams for say, CCNA, CCNP, etc. So, if you have more trouble wrapping your head around some of the theoretical concepts versus more hands on, then it is conceivable to have more problems with these exams versus some of the other Cisco exams.

It is a highly doable exam, just somewhat different. However, it does tend to pull a lot of things together(at least for me!)

Good luck everyone!

JeremyLeeBuck

Sorry for the delay in updating... I passed the exam 5th time with an 860.

A couple of things I learned..

1) There is a small pool of questions so it is possible you will see 3-5 new ones each time you test.

2) Work on developing your own brain **** material and question memorization skills with the exact wording so you can research the material afterwards.

3) Remember what you select and cross-reference them with your scores afterwards.

EDIT: The Diane Teare book is the best resource. The exam cert guide is not organized well and the material is too brief in sections. Also.. the BOSON questions with the cert guide are mild a best!.

I purchased the new CCDP Rough-Cuts book and have begun studying already. It looks to be rather tough... a good section on BGP. The best of all is all the Datacenter design material!

Thanks for the support guys.

-Jeremy Lee Buck

networker050184

JeremyLeeBuck wrote:

Sorry for the delay in updating... I passed the exam 5th time with an 860.

A couple of things I learned..

1) There is a small pool of questions so it is possible you will see 3-5 new ones each time you test.

2) Work on your brain ****/memorization skills on the exact wording so you can research the material afterwards.

3) Remember what you select and cross-reference them with your scores afterwards.

EDIT: The Diane Teare book is the best resource. The exam cert guide is not organized well and the material is too brief in sections. Also.. the BOSON questions with the cert guide are mild a best!.

I purchased the new CCDP Rough-Cuts book and have begun studying already. It looks to be rather tough... a good section on BGP. The best of all is all the Datacenter design material!

Thanks for the support guys.

-Jeremy Lee Buck

Using **** and it still took you five times to pass

Good to see they aren't very accurate though.......

JeremyLeeBuck

These are my OWN brain **** after the test.

I've never used any material but Cisco Press. Thanks.

dynamik

JeremyLeeBuck wrote:

These are my OWN brain **** after the test.

That's actually pretty funny. So you just sort of brute-forced the exam, eh?

Still, I guess congratulations are in order, so congrats

ITdude

JeremyLeeBuck wrote:

These are my OWN brain **** after the test.

I've never used any material but Cisco Press. Thanks.

When I saw your post I was about to jump all over you too but on closer reading I realized what you meant. Perhaps next time a more appropriate term to explain your studying technique might be better.

However, on another note you might be getting close to crossing over that grey NDA line by being a bit too specfic about the question pool (just my thoughts).

Not to forget, congratulations on passing. I think that you will enjoy ARCH too if you have that bent.

nel

dynamik wrote:

JeremyLeeBuck wrote:

These are my OWN brain **** after the test.

That's actually pretty funny. So you just sort of brute-forced the exam, eh?

Still, I guess congratulations are in order, so congrats

ha! thats funny.

Congrats on the pass too.

mikej412

Congratulations!

I still remember taking the old CCDA exam. I thought I did great -- but I probably passed by only a few questions. Still haven't figured out to this day were I went wrong.

I also remember checking for the test name/number on the screen after the first several questions to see if they had given me the CVOICE exam by mistake.

Slowhand

Congratulations on the pass, good luck with your future endeavors.

mamono

Congrats!

Good to hear more responses and feedback about the exam so that I can get hyped up for it.

networker050184

Sorry for the mix up.

Congrats on the pass!

wat08

Yes!! Congrats, man. Nice to know that the Teare guide is the way to go...

ITdude

mikej412 wrote:

I still remember taking the old CCDA exam. I thought I did great -- but I probably passed by only a few questions. Still haven't figured out to this day were I went wrong.

I also remember checking for the test name/number on the screen after the first several questions to see if they had given me the CVOICE exam by mistake.

Are you sure that you weren't using one of those "funny" supplements that day, Mike?

Paul Boz

JeremyLeeBuck wrote:

Hey guys,

I'm a bit embarassed, having difficulty passing the 640-863 exam (DESGN). I've taken it four times... tomorrow will be my fifth.

.

First of all, congratulations for passing the exam!

Second of all, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. The fact that you fought through personal adversity and kept up your motivation to see through to the end of admirable. Keep up the good work Jeremy.