Thoughts on ICND1

colebert

Passed ICND1 today with an 806 (needed 804). Just wanted to drop my opinions and observations on the exam for those yet to take it.

First, everyone who says subnetting is huge... they're right. BUT, I wasn't expecting it in the way that it was. I thought there would be entire questions about subnetting, which there were not. Subnetting was totally embedded within all the sims and examples. Very clever. Doing it this way makes subnetting a necessary condition to getting correct answers without it ever being sufficient in and of itself.

I'm MCSE and have extensive experience with MS tests. In my opinion Cisco tests (what I've seen of them) are superior to MS tests when it comes to measuring knowledge of subject material. The MS sims are much easier to fudge than Cisco sims. In other words, you can much more easily get an MS sim right on a topic you are clueless on than a Cisco sim on a topic you know nothing about. What I don't like about Cisco vs MS exams is I feel the MS testing software is better and more intuitive than the Cisco.

The MS exams are long but there is rarely a time cruch because you get practically four hours to work. Also being able to go back to previous questions (with MS) helps with time management since you can skip or mark questions and come back to them after going through the whole time. The Cisco test is brutal on time. Also, my exam (and others have reported this here) are heavily frontloaded with time consuming questions. After the first 10 questions took me nearly 45 minutes, I thought I was done for. But the next 30 were easy and straightforward, especially the last 15.

My exam experience was good. I had never used a VUE center and this one was noticeably better than my local prometric center. One problem was I was given a papertowel instead of an eraser which didn't work. I found myself spitting all over the board just to clear it which was kind of nasty to hand back in.

To study I only used CBT Nuggets for prep. I poked around on Cisco.com for some practice questions. I have three 2950G switches and a 3640 router, but I haven't even turned them on yet. I have alot of practical networking experience over the years (but never with Cisco) so that helped, especially with subnetting, NAT, and other non-Cisco related concepts.

I didn't really deserve to pass this test since my score was so low, but I will take it and just work harder on the ICND2 and hopefully compensate for my mediocre skills.

mikej412

Congratulations!

Good Luck with ICND2

You'll want to fire up the hardware for ICND2 -- the more time you spend hands-on, the better you should do on the exam. Just remember that's in addition to all the reading you'll still be doing

drew2000

Glad to hear you passed, I'm up for ICND1 on Friday.

I'm feeling pretty good that you passed without even turning on your hardware. I've booked a decent amount of my time with my gear.

I really hate the fact that they don't let you skip questions and come back to them. That is a time-tested technique for time management.

Oh well, they aren't going to change that by Friday!

Andrew

colebert

Definitely will be working with the equipment for ICND2. Not working with it and relying on watching someone else do it probably cost me at least 100 points. It would have been better if I had worked with the equipment and read some books.

Pass or fail, my main objective in taking the test was achieved. I got a good sense for how Cisco tests are and that is almost as valuable as knowing the material covered. I felt like the "shock" of the Cisco style of testing (and working in the command line for the first time!) threw me off (esp that frontloading stuff) early on but now I will be ready for it on ICND2.

Oh, and SHOW CDP NEIGHBORS & SHOW IP INTERFACE BRIEF were definitely worth knowing. Most valuable two commands.

meadIT

I actually like how Cisco does not let you mark and review questions and the time limits. I think this makes sure the test taker knows the material.

If you had four hours like MS, then you can easily poke your way around the sim question and get the answer because of the ? command. Also, if you were able to mark and review the questions, you would be able to find the answers to a lot of the multiple choice questions during the sims because Cisco does not turn a lot off in the simulated IOS. With MS, they only let you click on the items that were pertinent to the sim in question.

rwwest7

I just passed the ICND1 with a 925, and I must say the Cisco exams are much harder yet much easier. They're harder because you NEED to know the material. When you hit that "next question" button there is no going back. They're easier because the questions are much more straight forward, there is always a clear cut answer if you know the material. Every Microsoft exam I've taken was filled with intentionally ambiguous questions. Even if you knew the material, you were still just guessing on a lot of questions because two answers could be correct it just depended on which one was the "best" answer according to Microsoft.

Millettini

Man, this sounds so similar to me. I passed ICND 1 back in August with an 805 after just watching the CBTs. Did fire up my lab of a couple of 2950s, 3640, 3725, 2620, glanced at the Cisco Press book and, like you, poked around the Cisco site. You seem like you have a good grounding with your MCSE and net experience but my only advice would be get on with ICND 2 right away. I've just gotten back into studying and I am struggling big time! Forgotten almost everything I learned.

Anyway, congrats on the pass!

jscimeca715

I enjoyed the ICND1 exam, as morbid as that sounds. I passed it last Friday and when I was done I honestly felt like I knew the material and could apply it in a real-world setting. Congratulations and good luck with ICND2. I'm starting my studying on Tuesday when I get back from a small vacation!

Megadeth4168

Congrats on the pass!

I also enjoyed the ICND1, I also enjoyed the ICND2 for that matter. I like Cisco exams, They do test your knowledge far better IMO than any MS exam that I've taken.

I personally found the ICND1 to be easy, I did like that fact that the ICND2 was much harder. I think that for me, the ICND2 was a great exam to test my knowledge, I found the exam challenging at times, but I spent a lot of time studying so, I was able to pull off a decent score of 903 on the exam...

I think the best thing you can do with the ICND2 is, finish a book or 2 then spend most of your time afterward doing lab after lab after lab! I must have booked close to 100 hours of lab time in a month... Needless to say, my wife is now happy it's over and that I'm back out of study mode for the time being.