Taking CCNA on Monday

stuh84

It's a bit early to be saying about it, but so be it

I'm taking the 640-802 exam this coming Monday, and seriously can't wait. It's been on the cards to be doing the CCNA for a while, as I currently work in a networking environment (mainly remote monitoring, but there is the odd bit of hands on here or there), so it was a natural progression.

The materials I've used so far are: -

Cisco Press (Wendell Odom)
Great books, highly recommended, pretty sure someone could pass with these and a little bit of lab time alone

Sybex Fast Pass CCNA
I seriously don't get why anyone recommends this book. It is insanely disjointed, and it doesn't teach you networking, it teaches you how to pass the exam. The name kind of gives it away, but I just find this book an utter waste of time.

I suppose it's okay if you already know everything and need something based upon the exam to know what to expect, but as a learning tool? I found it more frustrating than useful.

Ciscohandsontraining.com
I found these podcasts (they are on iTunes if you search for Cisco) very helpful. They helped solidify a few concepts (mainly STP and VTP), and also provided another insight to look at management of routers and switches

Dynamips/Dynagen
Definitely worth learning rather than using GNS3. GNS3 is okay, but using the back end tools I find preferable. It isn't hard to use, plus it at least keeps you not using the GUI all the time and having to rely on graphical interfaces.

Obviously the lack of any switches is a detriment, hence why I used the Ciscohandsontraining.com to solidify a few concepts, but being able to use actual IOS images rather than what was put into the code is great.

Packet Tracer
I used this for practicing the switching side, although I'm a little dissapointed in that there are some things which aren't available in it. For example, none of the switches have the ability to use BPDUGuard or BPDUFilter, only Rootguard. If Dynamips had the ability to use switches I would never have loaded this up to be honest.

Various forums like this one
These forums are a great resource, I have enjoyed reading through posts, getting more information, whether about actual Cisco related material, or about job prospects (I already know the prospects here, but its nice to see a more holistic look at it rather than just my own little area of the world), and the notes/practice exams people put together are indescribably useful.


Of course all of this isn't going to mean much if I don't pass it next Monday, but I do feel quite confident, just hope I'm not raising my hopes up

dynamik

Thanks for the Cisco Hands-On Training link; that's the first time I've seen that.

Good luck with your exam!

stuh84

No worries, the guy doing them is a CCIE, and while it aint the most professional resource out there (there are many times where he'll see something happen and get confused as to why, before realising why a certain event has happened), they provide a kind of real world look at things rather than a THIS IS HOW IT ALL WORKS view of things.

Thanks for the good luck too

mikej412

Good Luck!

Don't stress out over the exam.... it's only a test -- not the end of the world (hopefully).

Usual exam advice -- time management. Keep an eye on the clock. Jot down on your dry erase note sheet the number of questions the exam tell you you're getting and the time they are giving you. Do a little time management before the exam -- figure out the current time and jot down the 1/2 way point/time. Maybe even figure out the 1/4 points and times.

There will be the Non-Disclosue to read before the exam and the Exam Demo -- links to those are in the CCNA FAQ. If you check those out now you can use that time before the exam to jot down notes and your emergency subnetting **** sheet on your dry erase sheets. Or you could just get to the EXAM that much sooner.

Make sure you read the question. Then READ ALL THE ANSWERS. Then read the question AGAIN. And then Pick the Correct Answer(s)

Under the stress of the exam you may miss a key word in the question or just have a brain cramp. That's when you my jump on the first "answer" that looks good -- but you wind up picking the right answer to the wrong question -- and that's a wrong answer on the exam.

And if you've got plenty of hands on practice, the SIMs and SIMLETs shouldn't take that long at all. I think I spent about 4 minutes on my CCNA SIMs and over 1/2 of that time was spent trying to figure out if I was missing something or if there was more to the problem than I found. Don't spend more than 10 minutes (or so) on a SIM. If you can't get it, try something/anything (since you do get partial credit on SIMs) and move on -- and also hope that it's an ungraded "beta question." You'd feel silly if you wasted a bunch of time on an ungraded question and didn't have time to answer a bunch of real questions.

And then there is the matter of celebrating after you pass the exam....

stuh84

Thanks for the comments

On the subnetting **** sheet, to be honest it rarely takes me longer than 10 seconds to do anything with subnetting (I am one of them kids who loved maths and hated English classes back in my secondary school days), I may do it but I've yet to find a subnetting question that gives me great difficulty in about the past 6 months (IPv4 anyway, IPv6 is another matter entirely)

I know exactly what you mean about the reading all the answers first. I've been doing the practice exams, and everywhere I've gone wrong, is from rushing into the question, anything I've sat and had a little think about, I've got right, so thats definitely something to force myself to do on the day

I also am one of them people that doesn't actually stress out over exams (I always go in with the mindset of, I know what I know, what I don't know, I won't, so just do my best), means I don't end up panicking and forget what I actually DO know

The sims have been my favourite part of any of the practice exams, odd that given that using and configuring these damn boxes is what I wanna be doing all day anyway.... but its another part I feel strongly on

That's nice to hear about partial grades on SIMs though, that helps out greatly, because I know theres been times where I've done exactly what the question asked, but because I haven't used the exact subnet it wanted, or advertised the correct network in OSPF, it's thrown me that its completely wrong...so glad to see the exam isn't black and white about it.

If you can't tell, I feel quite confident about this exam. I'm not going in thinking I WILL pass it, but I am going in thinking I stand a very good chance of passing, and even coming away with a good mark from it. And so what if I don't, free retry

captobvious

mikej412 wrote: »

And then there is the matter of celebrating after you pass the exam....

Yeah, this is the most important part!

Well the most important AFTER you pass.

Good luck!