Gave my ICND1 exam today and passed..!
Being my first ever Cisco test, By the time, I arrived at the exam center 30mins before schedule, I was damn nervous, cudnt even manage a smile at the Test Center. I kept telling to myself for thos 30mins.. "
Hey..its okay if you lose ur first exam"
Anticipating the worst, I started off. 40 Qns in all. Right from the beginning, I got attacked by Simlets. Drained and confused out of nervousness, I consumed 20 mins to finish the first 3 questions. All hopes lost, started tackling questions as if I already lost and expecting not to complete the test on time.
This worked!!! My nerves set. My mind got clear. Soon enough, I found rhythm..gained acceleration.. By the end of 20th question, I was left with 35 mins. The second half of the questions, were getting easy. I breezed through and completed well ahead.. 15 minutes before.
Even while the results page was loading I was expecting bad.. (some blunders and vague mindset committed in the beginning)
I did pinch myself to believe after staring at the results screen
Study tools I used:
- Nuggets videos for passive learning during those sleepy nights
- Read ICND1 - Wendell Odom cover-to-cover ("Do I Know This Already" Quiz segment was daunting though)
- CCNA Portable Command Guide as hand-reference while practising labs
- Skimmed through CCNA Todd Lammle (Relevant chapters for ICND1) and attempted Hands-On Labs at the end of chapters
I kept the "Exam Topics" listed in Cisco Learning Website as reference as to find what topics to include/exclude in preparations
Thank you all for all the help.. Now, onto Christmas break, before targeting ICND2..!!
Happy holidays
