BSCI Scheduled: Nov 26, 2008[UPDATED: Failed]

mikej412

I'd say take a break from BSCI and just do the BCMSN exam rather than the composite. You can still do some BSCI review and lab time on the weekends.

You've got all the good study material for BSCI -- but how would you rate the quality of your study time? Do you stay focused and do a chapter in one sitting? Or do you "flitter" between the study material? Do you take notes during the videos and come up with your own list of important points? Do you do the chapter exercises and questions at the end of the book chapters?

When you did the Lab Portfolio, did you get the challenge labs? While doing the regular labs did you just follow the instructions? Or did you think about what the tasks were trying to get you to learn and understand?

The good news -- it looks like if you took your top scores from each section out of all your attempts you could put together a pass. Now all you have to do (after a BCMSN break) is get your knowledge up to those levels again all at the same time.

miller811

qplayed wrote: »

Here's acomplete list:
TCP/IP Volume 1 and 2
CP Study Guide
CP Exam Ref
CP Exam Guide
CP Lab Portfolio
TS
CBT

I am adding TestOut for BSCI this week.

Take a look ar Chris Bryant CCNP package.
I purchased it after test #2, and passed on #3.
For roughly the cost of another exam, you are able to purchase his written material for all 4 CCNP exams.

You say that you have the lab guide, do you have a lab at home?

mikej412

miller811 wrote: »

Take a look ar Chris Bryant CCNP package.

Ah!! I forgot about Chris!! I'll second it -- Chris Bryant and his Study Guides are probably what you want to help get you "over the hump."

Xenz

I would also like to know how much labbing you've done. I've just started on the CCNP track, but being able to sit down and lab out everything in Dynamips is huge or on live equipment. I don't have the money or any college around here that offers post CCNA studies so I'm stuck with dynamips. It's the difference between reading and understanding or labbing and fully understanding. I'd also be concerned why your IOS/IPv6 scores are going down.

I'd take a month or two to go over everything and make sure you're not focusing on one area while you drain out the rest of the material. Have to come up with a good study outline to do this though. I think you're just looking at scores and focusing all your time on 2 parts when the others suffer at the same time.

jason_lunde

I dont know if this will help or not...but I have moved on to taking notes while reading/watching cbt's. The are not super detailed or anything. I then signed up for a blog at blogspot.com since I started my BCMSN exam, and go there every night after studying and write about what I learned. I go beyond my notes and look up cisco documents on the topic, and post more in detail as I read more things about the specific technology. It has helped immensely in my studies and preparations, plus I will have something to go back to as I progress through my career.

Also, dont give up dude. The BSCI was the first test I have ever failed...anywhere. I had to suck up my pride, hit the topics I was weak on, and go back in for more! Do yourself a favor and grab Chris Bryants material...it should push you over the edge along with some lab work. Good Luck.

qp81

mikej412 wrote: »

I'd say take a break from BSCI and just do the BCMSN exam rather than the composite.
You can still do some BSCI review and lab time on the weekends.

I just started reading BCMSN, I'll be going this route with weekend reviews of BSCI material.

mikej412 wrote: »

You've got all the good study material for BSCI -- but how would you rate the quality of your study time?
Do you stay focused and do a chapter in one sitting? Or do you "flitter" between the study material?
Do you take notes during the videos and come up with your own list of important points?
Do you do the chapter exercises and questions at the end of the book chapters?

Quality is not so great. I work 1 full time job, 1 part time/on call, and 1 consulting/on call...(dropping this end of this year)
I try to get in as much study time in between there somewhere.....
If I only have the books I can knock out a chapter in one sitting in a few hours, on a really good day.
With so little time I don't have a chance to take as much notes, I also end up writing a books when I do..
what I do have is very little, mostly BGP/OSPF. I know I am weak with those, and really focused on it,
the draw back, I lost focus on the other subjects, hence the scores.

mikej412 wrote: »

When you did the Lab Portfolio, did you get the challenge labs?
While doing the regular labs did you just follow the instructions?
Or did you think about what the tasks were trying to get you to learn and understand?

On my 2nd try I did my best to get as much out of hte labs as I could. I have my physical lab
and GNS3. With a fsckd schedule sometimes its impossible to get the amout of lab tiem I wanted.

mikej412 wrote: »

The good news -- it looks like if you took your top scores from each section out
of all your attempts you could put together a pass. Now all you have to do
(after a BCMSN break) is get your knowledge up to those levels again all at the same time.

I just added Chris's BSCI material, I'm going to use it as a filler while doing BCMSN as it isn't
a 500pg gorilla. I will be taking more notes this time around and will be using mnemosyne. I found
it helped me a lot, especially with BGP and OSPF.

I busted my ass on this and spent hours on the books, videos, and lab. I also spent a lot of time
fighting with the wife.... I will be taking everyones suggestions and do my best on the 4th try and last( I hope )

A different approach is in order, I learned a lot from the last 2 exams. I did put a lot of pressure on myself in passing
and lost sight of what was important...learning.

mikej412

qp81 wrote: »

I also spent a lot of time fighting with the wife....

Time spent fighting the wife is time you could have spent studying -- or time you could have spent relaxing or exercising, which are still important things you need to squeeze into your schedule. Heck, when you have some time and need a study break, "exercise" with the wife rather than fight....

qp81 wrote: »

lost sight of what was important...learning.

You are becoming very wise in your old age....

Don't get carried away on note taking. I still remember a lot of my Freshman classes in college after all these years.... The kids who didn't read the book before class would be scribbling frantically taking notes while the Professor lectured and scrawled on the blackboard. If they had read the book before class they would have noticed the Professor was going through the examples in the book. By preparing before class the lectures reinforced the material from the book and taking lots of notes was unnecessary.

While it could be useful to take notes on your first read through a chapter to help stay focused, a lot of what is important will also show up in any of the chapter questions or exercises.

And a lot of the topics highlights will be in the Quick Reference Sheets. Some people make the mistake thinking the Quick Reference Sheets (QRS) are a condensed Study Guide. The QRS are great for review once you've read the books and done the lab time, but if you try to learn the material from them you're missing a lot of the "back story" -- and memorization of the "highlight points" probably won't get you past the exam.

I finally went to 3x5 index cards (should have gotten a warehouse store membership years ago ). If I had more stuff than fit on one card I was either writing a book and not taking notes anymore -- or I hadn't broken the topic down into tiny study sized chunks. I'd go for a category and topic and sequence # on the top of the card and go from there. I also did separate "configuration examples" -- but the Portable Command reference (and examples in the QRS) could make those redundant. Before an exam I could also treat them like flash cards and just pull the "trouble topics" out of the stack and review those more often.

Going from "reading notes" to the exercises, labs, and "configuration notes" to "note cards" usually reduced the size and quantity of notes to a manageable level. Plus I'd wind up with one set of nicely hand printed note cards to review before the exam rather than a bunch of scrawled notes from different books I couldn't read anymore.

If you have to break up your study times into smaller chunks, try to use your longest uninterrupted time for starting a new topic and try to read the entire chapter. Then use the smaller times to do the exercises, labs, cbt videos, take notes, makes notes, clean up notes, and review.

Good Luck with BCMSN!!

qp81

mikej412 wrote: »

Time spent fighting the wife is time you could have spent studying -- or time you could have spent relaxing or exercising, which are still important things you need to squeeze into your schedule. Heck, when you have some time and need a study break, "exercise" with the wife rather than fight....

fighting was because I wanted to study.....

mklaro

Sorry to hear about you missing it again. Keep at it and im sure you will knock it out soon. Think of how good it will feel knowing you didn't throw in the towel and got it. Sometimes that feeling is great to keep one going through a tough track. I'm in the early stages of preparing for my CCNP myself. Good Luck!

qp81

Dec 10th scheduled last attempt in 09

Eddie_Jasmine

qp81 wrote: »

Dec 10th scheduled last attempt in 09

Good Luck!

iproute

wat08 wrote: »

Whole lotta money for a whole lotta nothing. Unless of course you enjoy pointless analogies and verbosity. Money is better spent on a self-study guide that gives you more than just the bare essentials for passing the exam.

I disagree. The nuggets videos I think were a good introduction on BSCI. And Jeremy has a way of cementing some key techniques in your head. Don't be fooled though, it should only be used as an introduction. If you don't want to spend a bundle of $ on an introduction, get the Cert Guide, Lab Portfolio and have at it.

qplayed

UPDATE:
Passed! omfg!
881/1000

Essendon

Congratulations. Good on ya for sticking it out.

miller811

qplayed wrote: »

UPDATE:
Passed! omfg!
881/1000

you the man.
Congrats

Bl8ckr0uter

qplayed wrote: »

UPDATE:
Passed! omfg!
881/1000

Hells yea. I have been following this thread. Good deal. So are you going straight into the next one or are you going to take a break?

mikej412

qplayed wrote: »

Passed!

Congratulations!!

seraphus

Now that's perseverance.

Congratulations!

dynamik

Rock on!

jovan88

qplayed wrote: »

UPDATE:
Passed! omfg!
881/1000

Congrats man, you really earned it.

What did you do to prepare since the last fail?

pureblue

Good job!

gorebrush

That sir, is a job very well done.

qp81

jovan88 wrote: »

Congrats man, you really earned it.

What did you do to prepare since the last fail?

In this order, starting with the weakest topic:
Chris Bryant Guide/Workbook
CP Complete Study Guide
CP Exam-Guide + CP workbook

qp81

knwminus wrote: »

Hells yea. I have been following this thread. Good deal. So are you going straight into the next one or are you going to take a break?

No break, starting on BCMSN and hoping to test in 3.5 months. I'm aiming to complete CCNP by June.

Agent6376

qp81 wrote: »

No break, starting on BCMSN and hoping to test in 3.5 months. I'm aiming to complete CCNP by June.

What an epic story qp81, congrats on your pass man. Try not to get hung up on the time it takes, and instead focus on learning the material like you had to for this exam.

Good luck in your studies!

qp81

Agent6376 wrote: »

What an epic story qp81, congrats on your pass man. Try not to get hung up on the time it takes, and instead focus on learning the material like you had to for this exam.

Good luck in your studies!

I like the pressure