Done with ONT
Forsaken_GA
Member Posts: 4,024
in CCNP
Passed ONT about an hour ago, scored a 912.
Study Materials were the Cisco Exam Cert guide for 642-845, and Transcender
I'd actually felt like I overprepared for the exam, and judging by my score, I may have, but it sure didn't feel like it during the exam. My impression is that it felt harder than either ISCW or BCMSN, but of the three, BCMSN is the one I scored the lowest on (just shy of the 900's). The wording of some of the questions on the exam made me pull up short and go 'what?'. I finished with about a half hour (out of 90 minutes) left, so I was able to take my time and work through the questions I couldn't immediately answer.
Since this exam is almost entirely theory based, I had to change my study habits. I normally don't take alot of notes when studying for an exam, getting hands on practice will generally allow me to extrapolate the answer for any question thrown at me, but I took lots and lots of notes for ONT, felt like I was writing the cert guide at times.
The Cisco Press book teaches you enough, though at times I felt like it was going a little too in depth, and Chapter 7 in particular made me want to slap the author, as it felt like he was padding it out just to get the page count up and saying the same things over and over and over. While I probably could have passed on the Cert guide alone, the Transcender was a valuable tool. Those guys are almost as sneaky as Cisco, and preparing with them put me in a mindset to deal with tricks and traps, so I highly recommend it.
All in all, I think ONT was a fun exam, though I still think ISCW is the most fun I've had taking a Cisco exam. Now I just need to take the new BSCI and I can finally get the damn CCNP over and done with. I'm hoping to take and pass it within a month, month and a half at most. Last time, it was a six month prepare fest and I passed by the skin of my teeth. I'm hoping most of it comes back to me and allows me to significantly cut down on my prep time.
Study Materials were the Cisco Exam Cert guide for 642-845, and Transcender
I'd actually felt like I overprepared for the exam, and judging by my score, I may have, but it sure didn't feel like it during the exam. My impression is that it felt harder than either ISCW or BCMSN, but of the three, BCMSN is the one I scored the lowest on (just shy of the 900's). The wording of some of the questions on the exam made me pull up short and go 'what?'. I finished with about a half hour (out of 90 minutes) left, so I was able to take my time and work through the questions I couldn't immediately answer.
Since this exam is almost entirely theory based, I had to change my study habits. I normally don't take alot of notes when studying for an exam, getting hands on practice will generally allow me to extrapolate the answer for any question thrown at me, but I took lots and lots of notes for ONT, felt like I was writing the cert guide at times.
The Cisco Press book teaches you enough, though at times I felt like it was going a little too in depth, and Chapter 7 in particular made me want to slap the author, as it felt like he was padding it out just to get the page count up and saying the same things over and over and over. While I probably could have passed on the Cert guide alone, the Transcender was a valuable tool. Those guys are almost as sneaky as Cisco, and preparing with them put me in a mindset to deal with tricks and traps, so I highly recommend it.
All in all, I think ONT was a fun exam, though I still think ISCW is the most fun I've had taking a Cisco exam. Now I just need to take the new BSCI and I can finally get the damn CCNP over and done with. I'm hoping to take and pass it within a month, month and a half at most. Last time, it was a six month prepare fest and I passed by the skin of my teeth. I'm hoping most of it comes back to me and allows me to significantly cut down on my prep time.
Comments
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miller811
Member Posts: 897
I don't claim to be an expert, but I sure would like to become one someday.
Quest for 11K pages read in 2011
Page Count total to date - 1283 -
mikej412
Member Posts: 10,086 ■■■■■■■■■■
Congratulations!
:mike: Cisco Certifications -- Collect the Entire Set! -
APA
Member Posts: 959
Forsaken_GA wrote: »Passed ONT about an hour ago, scored a 912.
"but I took lots and lots of notes for ONT, felt like I was writing the cert guide at times."
Hehe I always take notes when I'm studying as well..... and you don't know how many times I've said the bit about writing the cert guide out to myself.... but it's all worthwhile!!!
Congratz! best of luck with BSCI... you should breeze through it
CCNA | CCNA:Security | CCNP | CCIP
JNCIA:JUNOS | JNCIA:EX | JNCIS:ENT | JNCIS:SEC
JNCIS:SP | JNCIP:SP -
mikearama
Member Posts: 749
Very nice... GA. Very nice indeed.
Upward and onward.There are only 10 kinds of people... those who understand binary, and those that don't.
CCIE Studies: Written passed: Jan 21/12 Lab Prep: Hours reading: 385. Hours labbing: 110
Taking a time-out to add the CCVP. Capitalizing on a current IPT pilot project. -
gorebrush
Member Posts: 2,743 ■■■■■■■□□□
Congrats... looks like you have the tough one left....
Congrats!
BSCI is the hard one, btw? -
redwarrior
Member Posts: 285
Congrats! I though the ONT was deceptively tricky given the length of the exam guide...I was glad to get past it! Good luck on the BSCI...I've heard its the most fun to study!
CCNP Progress
ONT, ISCW, BCMSN - DONE
BSCI - In Progress
http://www.redwarriornet.com/ <--My Cisco Blog -
josunin75
Member Posts: 44 ■■□□□□□□□□
congrat!=============================
on to BCMSN ^=============^
<Lab>
2 x 3550 EMI
2 x 2950
2 x 3640
1 x 2621
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Met44
Member Posts: 194
Congrats on the pass!All in all, I think ONT was a fun exam, though I still think ISCW is the most fun I've had taking a Cisco exam
With phrases like Penultimate Hop Pop, how could it not be fun? Beats CBWFQ! -
Forsaken_GA
Member Posts: 4,024
redwarrior wrote: »Congrats! I though the ONT was deceptively tricky given the length of the exam guide...I was glad to get past it! Good luck on the BSCI...I've heard its the most fun to study!
Yeah, I was surprised at how thin the exam cert guide was compared to those for the other ccnp exams. It's also why I was so surprised that it mapped so well to the actual exam, I figured there had to be something missing. But when I compared what the book covered to the exam blueprint, it seemed to do pretty well.
And yeah, there were a couple of ONT questions that made me mentally say 'Oh, you bastards!', and I had to use the erase board to work out a problem (which is rare for me), but by forcing myself to sit down and understand the core concepts, it was pretty easy to work through it all.
I think BSCI will be easier for me this time around, I didn't respect the old exam enough, but now I have some idea of what I'm in for, so that won't be a problem. And as I study for it and I go back through the configurations, I find alot of it coming back to me. The general concepts are still with me, it's just some of the specifics I forgot, like how the differences in how the IGP's propagate a default route, and some of the redistribution gotchas. I'm hoping to take and pass it by the end of April, I'd like to have it done by mid-May at the very latest. I'd like to finish out my CCNP, knock out CCDA/CCDP before the end of the second quarter, and then see what I can do towards CCIP the rest of the year.
Getting off the World of Warcrack has done wonders for my ability and drive to study
