Suggestion needed for taking test

krrish

Hi Everybody,

I had take the CCNA test on Thursday. I didn't did well. I failed the test. I had did good on my all the tests for classes (more then 85%) though but as soon as i started the test in testing center my mind got blanked out, All the answers looks same for each questions. I did good on simulations but not so good on theory question to pass.

So could you guys please advise what should i do to prepare my self to take the exam ? And how should i prepare my self for theory questions ?

Thanks.

Neiby

The only advice I have is to strive to understand the material. Some of this material lends itself to memorization. But if you just memorize without truly understanding it, the questions can throw you.

As you study, think about this: every thing you're studying is designed to solve a problem. My mentor always used to say, "What problem are you trying to solve?" Figure out what the problem is and then you'll understand the material.

As an example, let's say a beginner is studying the OSI model. This can be confusing to beginners if they don't understand the problems it is intended to solve.

Every layer of the OSI model solves a problem and advances data one step closer to its destination. I tend to treat the Application, Presentation and Session layers as one entity. They take care of one problem: they interface with the user (or user application or any other application that requires network access.) The package the data and hand it off to other processes to handle the rest of the communication.

What is the next problem? One device now needs to set up some sort of connection to another device. Unless we're talking about UDP, it can't just send data out without letting the other side know. So, a TCP virtual circuit needs to be setup. The Transportation layer takes care of a lot of details, but what problem does it need to have solved for it? It needs to know where to send the data, but it doesn't speak IP! The transport layer does not understand your network and it knows nothing about routing.

So, the network layer takes the Transport-layer information and will take care of the end-to-end network routing. However, in order to get out to the network, what problem does IP need to have solved for it? It needs a NIC to get the data on to the wire!

So, the datalink layer takes the IP information and gets it to the next NIC or network interface. But wait--how does the datalink layer know where to send the Ethernet frame? It needs to know a destination, and that's where ARP comes in. It solves the problem of mapping IP addresses to MAC addresses. It doesn't belong to any particular OSI layer. It's more of a subnetwork convergence protocol, but you don't need to know that. It bridges layer two and three.

And so it goes. Everything you learn in networking--EVERYTHING!--solves some problem. Make sure you understand what the problem is and you will more easily understand the solutions.

Good luck!