Missed it by that much - CWSP

meadIT

Took the CWSP on Friday afternoon and missed it by 3 questions. I used the official study guide. The actual exam went into a lot more detail on some areas than the study guide. At least I know exactly what I need to delve deeper into for the retake. My breakdown was:

87% - Network Attacks
47% - Security Solutions
87% - Network Monitoring
100% - Wireless LAN Discovery
88% - Security Policy

Has anyone else taken it recently and used any study materials other than the official study guide?

JDMurray

Sorry you failed the exam.

You should never use only a single source of study material for any certification exam, even if it reports to be "the official study guide." Passing a non-entry-level exam will also rely on the personal experience that the exam candidate has with the technologies covered on the exam.

I see you were lean in 802.11 security solutions. A lot of this information is freely available on the Internet (Wikipedia and Wi-Fi Planet are good). If you are planning on going for the CWSP cert anyway, buy the CWSP book and start reading it. That'll certainly cover all of the security topics you'll need for the CWNA exam.

I'm sure you'll pass the exam on your next try.

meadIT

This actually was the CWSP, not the CWNA. I'm taking it a bit out of order. I planned on taking CWNA first, but with the new study guide just coming out this month, I went ahead and started reading the CWSP guide. The guide and the practice exams from CWNP.com (was scoring in the upper 80% range) did not include the level of detail as the actual exam.

I'm going to go back and read through some of the 802.11 and 802.1x specifications and probably some NIST white papers. Will probably try to retake in 2-3 weeks.

JDMurray

Oops! Sorry, I read your post too quickly. I didn't realize that you could now take the CWSP before the CWNA.

Cisco's pages have a lot of great 802.11 security information and solutions. Check out our CCNA Wireless and CCSP forums for links.

And yes, the CWNP's online practice exams are just for learning material and are not meant to be an accurate emulation of the exams.

meadIT

JDMurray wrote: »

Oops! Sorry, I read your post too quickly. I didn't realize that you could now take the CWSP before the CWNA.

You can take the exams in any order, but I won't receive the certification until I pass the CWNA. I didn't even think to look at the Cisco Wireless material. Thanks!

veritas_libertas

The title of this thread reminds me of the old Black and white comedy series, Get Smart! Made me laugh... I am sure you will get it the next time around.