Going for it....

Well, Not feeling real confident, but I have the ICND2 scheduled for tomorrow. I'm tired of pushing it back (and the wife is tired of hearing about my studying...ha ha..can't blame her). I've been quizzing like crazy, and making in the low to mid 90's on most of the quiz engines that I could get my hands on including Boson. Been going over notes etc...too.

Feeling kind of wary about the sims but what the hell...as long as I can get over the line...we'll see. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get that damn cert.

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Comments

You can do this!

Good Luck!

You can do it!

Good Luck!!

Good luck

Good Luck and let us know.

captobvious

Knock it out of the park!

tha_dub

I feel the same way before every cert I've taken.... I finally book when I'm sick of re reading and going over my study material and I've never failed one (knock on wood)

Oh and one more thing. I know I'm ready when my main study guide has at least one good coffee stain and at least one wratched corner but more is better.

Good luck!

Geetar28

tha_dub wrote: »

I feel the same way before every cert I've taken.... I finally book when I'm sick of re reading and going over my study material and I've never failed one (knock on wood)

Good luck!

I am sick of going over the study material, but unfortunately it looks like I'm gonna have too. Needed an 825 got an 821...I feel so downhearted it's crazy. I guess this is the feeling of passing in reverse...

I made a mistake and got up real early to study..about 2:30 am (I just couldn't help it...) I think my brain was suffering from tiredness. I think I'm gonna reschedule the dang thing for next week. Could one of you fill me in on how many shots you get til Cisco tells you to wait...

I was soooo damn close and to miss it like that is terrible. I had to go back into work and let a few of my co-workers know...and they wouldn't believe me.

Selfmade

Geetar28 wrote: »

I am sick of going over the study material, but unfortunately it looks like I'm gonna have too. Needed an 825 got an 821...I feel so downhearted it's crazy. I guess this is the feeling of passing in reverse...

I made a mistake and got up real early to study..about 2:30 am (I just couldn't help it...) I think my brain was suffering from tiredness. I think I'm gonna reschedule the dang thing for next week. Could one of you fill me in on how many shots you get til Cisco tells you to wait...

I was soooo damn close and to miss it like that is terrible. I had to go back into work and let a few of my co-workers know...and they wouldn't believe me.

Man don't let a 821/1000 discourage you AT ALL

when you got your summary back, what did you find yourself receiving the lowest marks for?

list em out for us and we can help suggest things to help you pass

dude don't even worry about it man 821/1000 is not bad, even if you didn't pass, it just means you only need to know a little bit more than you did going into the test. How was your time management?

peanutnoggin

Bummer man... as the previous post stated... don't let that discourage you. Review the areas you got your lower marks in, and knock it out the next time you take it. Good luck...

mikej412

Geetar28 wrote: »

Could one of you fill me in on how many shots you get til Cisco tells you to wait...

You have to wait at least 5 days after each non-pass before you can take the exam again.

You take the exam as many times as you need to pass -- or until Cisco get's suspicious why you've been taking the same exam every week for the last year and failing.....

Once you pass an exam, you can't take it again for 180 days.

chmorin

Bummer man but alot of us have been there. Don't give up, you have the advantage of knowing what you are in for now!

As Chris Bryant says "Come the day of the exam, the die is cast." Which means if there is anything you forgot or missed by the day of the exam, no amount of crunching will pop it into your head for good.

It is advisable to sleep in and relax the day before, and the day of the test. This way you are fully mentally rested and prepared for the exam. I personally like to fit in a quick run of practice tests the night before and got to sleep early, and wake up and watch my favorite relaxing shows until the test time. This seems to get my mind in a good test taking condition.

Do what works for you!

Geetar28

Selfmade wrote: »

when you got your summary back, what did you find yourself receiving the lowest marks for?

list em out for us and we can help suggest things to help you pass

Looking at my breakdown it's hard for me to see how I even got an 821...

I'm assuming that it'll be ok to post the breakdown, if not mikej412, please remove it...

Configure, verify and troubleshoot a switch with VLANs... 66%
Implement an IP addressing scheme and IP Services to meet ...100%
Configure and troubleshoot basic operation and routing ...66%
Implement, verify, and troubleshoot NAT and ACLs in a ...66%
Implement and verify WAN links. 83%

I really felt I knew the material better...guess not. It's hard for me to see from my breakdown what to concentrate on...it looks like from that I don't know jack except subnetting...It seems pretty generic to say "Configure and troubleshoot...", I mean that's ALL of it...isn't it? maybe if I hit the ACL and NAT stuff a little harder, that might put me over the line. I do ok when I'm trying to write ACL's (probably cause you can hit the ?), but for some reason when I'm given a little example and told to go through the logic, I find it rough...

I think that I just lost it after one of my sims took forever to load up...by forever I think it was only probably 2 minutes or so...but man it seemed like it wasn't working, and I started to freak. After that it was hard to get back my calm..I know I blew that sim. It says 83% on WAN stuff, and to be honest that isn't a real strong area for me. Who knows..

Thanks for the pep talk guys...got up this morning and hit the books again.

mikej412 wrote: »

You have to wait at least 5 days after each non-pass before you can take the exam again.

You take the exam as many times as you need to pass -- or until Cisco get's suspicious why you've been taking the same exam every week for the last year and failing.....

Once you pass an exam, you can't take it again for 180 days.

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna go ahead and reschedule for one week...I'm so close I can TASTE IT!!! if I don't get it then I'll wait a little longer before I sit for it again.

laidbackfreak

Geetar28 wrote: »

I made a mistake and got up real early to study..about 2:30 am (I just couldn't help it...) I think my brain was suffering from tiredness.

Take the 5 days to relax and go over your notes, with that score your well on the way to passing. I wouldn't be surprised if the early start did more harm than good.
Trust me trying to revise\study this late stage is gonna do more harm than good and with a silly am start like that your gonna be going into the exam fatigued even though the adrenalin will get you through the time your mental state won't be at its sharpest.

good luck on the resit

chmorin

It looks like you were just tired, that could explain an all around lowered result like that. Go over your note, and knock it out of the park!

alan2308

Agreed. Now you know what to expect and exactly where you need to focus. You'll get it this time!

Selfmade

Geetar28 wrote: »

Looking at my breakdown it's hard for me to see how I even got an 821...

I'm assuming that it'll be ok to post the breakdown, if not mikej412, please remove it...

Configure, verify and troubleshoot a switch with VLANs... 66%
Implement an IP addressing scheme and IP Services to meet ...100%
Configure and troubleshoot basic operation and routing ...66%
Implement, verify, and troubleshoot NAT and ACLs in a ...66%
Implement and verify WAN links. 83%

I really felt I knew the material better...guess not. It's hard for me to see from my breakdown what to concentrate on...it looks like from that I don't know jack except subnetting...It seems pretty generic to say "Configure and troubleshoot...", I mean that's ALL of it...isn't it? maybe if I hit the ACL and NAT stuff a little harder, that might put me over the line. I do ok when I'm trying to write ACL's (probably cause you can hit the ?), but for some reason when I'm given a little example and told to go through the logic, I find it rough...

I think that I just lost it after one of my sims took forever to load up...by forever I think it was only probably 2 minutes or so...but man it seemed like it wasn't working, and I started to freak. After that it was hard to get back my calm..I know I blew that sim. It says 83% on WAN stuff, and to be honest that isn't a real strong area for me. Who knows..

Thanks for the pep talk guys...got up this morning and hit the books again.

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna go ahead and reschedule for one week...I'm so close I can TASTE IT!!! if I don't get it then I'll wait a little longer before I sit for it again.

I would focus on knowing how to troubleshoot routing and switching, knowing how to troubleshoot both is really easy.

ALL IMPORTANT is the various show commands

show run
show vlan brief
show vtp status
show spanning-tree
show ip int brief
show ip ospf neighbors

remmeber when you're looking for VTP mistakes, you're usually looking for the revision number (understand well why you are lookinig at revision numbers), the domain name, and the password, the last 2 which are CASE SENSITIVE!!!!

for the routing protocols, pay attention to the ip and addressing scheme, and look at the routing tables to make sure that every network device is included in the routing table for whatever they are asking you for, that's often overlooked

if troubleshooting vlans

make sure the VLANs are the same on every switch, if VTP is enabled, make sure that the proper switches are set to the correct mode, client, server, or transparent, and pay attention to the domain names and passwords. If you do a show vlan brief and they do not have the same number of vlans, it can create a broadcast storm.

Also when troubleshooting switches, make sure that you look at each diagram carefully, and note what the interfaces are and the device types, know that if you're seeing a link between a computer and a switch, then it's going to be an switchport mode access thing and the right VLAN, if it's between a switch and a switch, or a switch and a router, it will be trunk links. The only exception to a router is if you're linking to a wireless router, then chances are you will have a VLAN dedicated to wireless, so you would put that in switchport mode access (wireless VLAN number here).

for spanning tree, make sure the priorities are set correctly if they are asking you to make a certain switch the root bridge, it's a priority of 4096.

ACL's, best I can tell you is to know the difference between a standard and an extended ACL. Standards use ONLY the source IP address (IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT to remember that) and are best placed close to the destination. Standard ACL's are 1-99 and 1300-1999.

Extended are best placed close to the SOURCE!!! they range 100-199 and 2000-2699. Extended ACLs filter IP packets based on several attributes, for example, protocol type, source and destination IP address, destination IP address, source TCP or UDP ports, destination TCP or UDP ports, and optional protocol type information for finer granularity of control.

Also know the 3 P's of ACL's, one ACL; per protocol, per direction, per interface.

for WANs, what you want to do is pay attention to what show frame-relay map tells you. Show frame-relay pvc can also be very helpful.

Understand what a DLCI is and how you identify which DLCI is the right one to use. For PPP troubleshooting, make sure both ends of the serial link use the same encapsulation type, HDLC, or CHAP. Remember that PAP sends it's passwords in clear text, and that CHAP hides the password, that's the major difference between the 2. Also remember mismatched encapsulations, serial link won't work! Also remember hostnames have to be correct on BOTH ENDS and they are CASE Sensitive!!! same thing for password.

basically i think you probably knew everything I posted, you probably didn't pay close enough attention to what they were asking and just read half the question and answered, maybe.

FWIW, I haven't taken the exam, but I've passed the CCNA NetAcademy all 4 semesters, and you really have to pay attention to those types of questions for their exams, and in the Packet Tracers, you're often asked to troubleshoot the same issues I listed above. The stuff I posted are just the common approaches to troubleshooting and figuring out the solution to a problem.

Just stuff to look for!

just take your time this time around since you won't be as nervous and get the easy questions done so you can focus a little more on the harder ones.

What I posted is just a basic guide to troubleshooting and knowing what to look for, I wish you well!

Devilsbane

Take this as a lesson. Study the weak areas and get plenty of rest before your next attempt.

wbosher

If I've learned anything from these forums, it's that a LOT of people fail CCNA the first time. Don't let it get you down, rest up and go in again.

Good luck.

tha_dub

Dont't worry about it.... You only need to get a couple more tight to pass next time.

Like selfmade said memorize the show and debug commands. If you use the right command during sims the routers and switches will basically give you the answer in plain English as to what is wrong and will likely even have portions of the command to fix it in them.

Geetar28

PASSED!!!!!!!PASSED!!!!!!!PASSED!!!!!!!

Well I wanted to let you all know that I went back in there today and PASSED!!!

I got a 931 and Damn does it feel good!!! I guess second times a charm... Thanks to those of you who were encouraging after the first attempt. My big mistake was really getting too nervous and trying to cram at the last minute....I really knew it enough to pass the first time, but by cramming at the last minute, got myself more confused and tired than anything, and that's not how you want to go in to that exam....Chmorin and Selfmade's advice is right on.

Thanks!!!

Congrats!

Congrats!

nice work!

Great to see you get it. Nice score!

mikej412

Geetar28 wrote: »

PASSED

Congratulations!!

typesh

Congrats!!!!!!!!

Selfmade

Geetar28 wrote: »

PASSED!!!!!!!PASSED!!!!!!!PASSED!!!!!!!

Well I wanted to let you all know that I went back in there today and PASSED!!!

I got a 931 and Damn does it feel good!!! I guess second times a charm... Thanks to those of you who were encouraging after the first attempt. My big mistake was really getting too nervous and trying to cram at the last minute....I really knew it enough to pass the first time, but by cramming at the last minute, got myself more confused and tired than anything, and that's not how you want to go in to that exam....Chmorin and Selfmade's advice is right on.

Thanks!!!

glad my advice helped!!!

How much of it actually helped? If you don't mind me asking?

Congratulations on the pass!!

Geetar28

Selfmade wrote: »

glad my advice helped!!!

How much of it actually helped? If you don't mind me asking?

Congratulations on the pass!!

The stuff you listed was pretty straight forward...I knew all of it, but sometimes I guess you get yourself so worked up over trying to pass that you don't focus your study time on the fundamentals. You kind of beat yourself up over the obscure things that easily get forgotten which is kinda what I did and then tried to cram all of that in...

To be honest I didn't really "study" all that much between the two week period. Actually this last weekend (Memorial Day...) I promised myself that I wasn't going to go ape **** with the studies and barely looked at a Cisco book (unless it was being used as a beer coaster..)..I went through a dozen or so labs in the 2 weeks, did a couple of quizzes (which quite frankly by that time I had memorized the answers to right and wrong ones...not on purpose)...

I guess I really just focused on not trying to freak out over the dang test, and that did more good than anything...It was kind of nice cause while taking the test, I was saying to myself "hell yeah, I know this!!"....the first time everything was a blur, I don't think I could recall even one question..I was just too damn tired.

Lesson learned (hopefully I'll remember it...ha ha) cause I plan to eventually go on to the CCNP after I finish the Wireshark book I started today. I think that I'm definitely gonna take more time for the CCNP, I want to really understand it then go in and beat the ever lovin' **** out of those exams..Maybe read the books more than twice.. Unfortunately I'm in a job that I don't get any hands on with Cisco and don't have any peers locally to bounce ideas off of, which sucks, but in KY there's not a whole lot of opportunity out in the sticks...But I can definitely lab alot of stuff up at work...and when people come into my cube they are too scared to ask what the hell I'm up too

If they did, I'd just scare them with talk of Inter-Vlan routing, Routing Protocols and BECN and FECN (watch yo' mouf..)

How 'bout THAT for an epic post..ha ha ha