Gonna do it.. ROUTE

Daniel333

It’s scheduled. Nervous about this one big time, so I am posting it’s scheduled so I don’t chicken out.

Nearly 2 years of a procrastination, excuses and distractions and I am going for Route on the 7th of next month.

I don’t have a lot of real world routing experience so I have been supplementing in the lab for some time now. So I probably spent a lot more time in prep than most. I am guessing switch will go quicker since I often setup layer 3 switches.

Here is how I have prepared
1) 4 month community college class covering BSCI and the old switch exam
2) Official CCNP academy learning
3) Read BSCI foundations guide
4) Read BSCI Prep book
5) Trancenders testing for BSCI
6) BSCI lab book at least 4 times through
7) Deployed EIGRP and OSPF a couple of times now in production for smallish businesses
Worked through every example from Cbtnuggets BSCI

Then essentially I was consistently failing pretests and still just felt dumb. So I opted to delay until the current version of CCNP released. Since then…

1) Worked through every chapter of Network warrior
2) The new Route learning guide
3) Read the new Exam prep book, worked though everything a few times
4) Worked out some pretty complex GNS3 networks spanning multiple comps
5) Ran a project to re-IP a company and summarize them
6) Dual stacked and tunneled IPv6 for my company and one of our clients
7) Redid all the labs in BSCI lab book and started connecting the different protocols
Worked through every example in Cbtnuggets Route
9) Worked though every example in Video Mentor
10) Have every flash card down from the official flashcard set
11) I am getting 100% from every Q&A resources I can get (I sadly have them memorized at this point)

I still have to say I am feeling weak in BGP. I have never worked with it in the real world. I don’t even have a client I can look at, in terms of their docs. Or fooling around in the routers. So I am going completely off the materials above. I realize I have been at this on and off for nearly two years but I am still finding holes in my knowledge. I am just not sure what to do about it. Generally I think I should take the test and not worry about it.
Anyhow test is set for the 7th and I am seriously wondering what is the best way to prepare.

My plan is
1) Dedicate a day to each area of review
2) Hit my flashcard stack.
3) Work though BGP labs again
4) Work through distribution labs again
5) Read the Quick Ref guide the night before the exam
6) Watch the CBTnuggets videos on the train to and from work again. If I power through I can probably finish them in a week

Any other areas I should be considering?

tearofs

My suggestion: redistribution & policy routing

Daniel333

PBR on the list, check!

creamy_stew

It seem to me like the first paragraph should have you covered. I havent taken ROUTE, though.

What are those pretests you're speaking of?

edit: You've already done the Transcenders for the old track. Get the Bosons for the ROUTE.
Don't start the Bosons until you've mastered the Transcenders, though. MAke sure you read every question explanation - that's what you pay for!

Daniel333

I have the tests from Sybex and the CD that came with the Cisco press book. Had an old version of Trancender.

gregorio323

Good luck. Don't even think about the exam just go and learn the concepts and have fun with the labs and I'm sure you'll get that desired passing score you want.

Netwurk

I would say go for it!

Let us know how you do. You sound ready to me.

Daniel333

Well, went through BGP cbt nuggets, BGP Video Mentor and worked through BGP labs. Hit up every valid BGP question I could get my hands on.

Today (home sick from work) went through CBTNuggets EIGRP, Video mentor EIGRP and worked through every EIGRP labs I had. Started doing the questions but wasn't getting anything from them.

I have a stack of Q&A from Cisco Kits for the previous CCNP exams I was thinking of going through also. Just drop IGRP/ISIS/etc

Tomorrow onto OSPF.

Daniel333

Welp, officially hit the 12 hour mark in review/study today. Couple that from my 8 the other day and casual reading too. So 20+ hours of review so far with a couple weeks to go. Shoot, I know people who studied less for the whole exam. But since I am still learning a great deal I can't get complacent.

I had completely forgot the IPv6 neighbor discovery process as it related to arp. Seriously forgot about it! Ugh.

Daniel333

Alright, bad news.

Job won't let me have the 7th off. But offered the 5th. i just lost 2 days of studying!!!! Gonna be working hard at not drinking this weekend.

mzinz

Daniel333 wrote: »

Alright, bad news.

Job won't let me have the 7th off. But offered the 5th. i just lost 2 days of studying!!!! Gonna be working hard at not drinking this weekend.

I'll be interested to hear how you do using mostly BSCI material, let me know!

What have you dedicated the most time to? Where are you having the most trouble?

Daniel333

I am using the Foundations and Certification guides from 640-902, in theory that alone should be enough. But in practice there is always a disconnect in the materials and tests.

Daniel333

Put in 4 hours yesterday and 8 hours today.

Daniel333

Solid 6 hours last night. I have gone through over 2000 flashcards I generated. Reread the entire learning guide paying special attention to my massive amounts of highlighting

Then I just burned an hour messing around with PBR for fun.

Netwurk

I admire your dedication D333

But you really need to just take the test already man



So is PBR Pabst Blue Ribbon or have I missed a new IT acronym?

JaCkNiFe

Daniel333 wrote: »

Alright, bad news.

Job won't let me have the 7th off. But offered the 5th. i just lost 2 days of studying!!!! Gonna be working hard at not drinking this weekend.

Good luck!!

phantasm

Best of luck. I need to buckle down and knock out the CCNP Route as well. It's been crazy lately but I need to do it. Good luck, I'll be waiting to see how you did.

Daniel333

Pbr = policy based routing. Fun stuff!

But ill take the beer too.

2 hours review last night AND got some OT at work fixing an eigrp issue! Time and a half for studing, w007!

Reviewing all tonight and going in bright and early for the test.

networker050184

Good luck man!

tomaifauchai

I feel you're ready. Never i have done much studying like you exept for my CCNA and i'm pretty confident on the exam this friday after only reading the official guide, watching nuggets, practicing and practicing in gns3.

I'm sure you'll crack the 900 mark today Good luck

mikej412

Good Luck!!

bertieb

Good luck

notun1

Best of Luck...

Monkerz

Well? Good news??

Daniel333

Woot! Passed! Glad to get to move onto some other material for a while.

Panzer919

Congratz! now you can start SWITCH

Daniel333

Interestingly enough I finished a class on advanced switching already. And I install switches all the time so I am really hoping this goes a lot faster than Route did.

Oh! And I need to get "HDI" and "Server+" certified before switch sadly. Job requirement! Just interruptions. I dont't feel the urge in anyway to go through a 12 hour server+ class then a 2 day class on customer service.

Netwurk

Daniel333 wrote: »

Woot! Passed! Glad to get to move onto some other material for a while.

Congrats!!!

From your posts I knew you would pass, you remind me of my shop's young intern who was afraid to take the CCNA (this is way back when, the CCNA is harder now) - we practically had to drag him to the test center and of course he passed!

Congrats my friend - you are now way ahead of me as all I have cert-wise is the switch exam under my belt.

guebo

Congrats man...!
I will getting the exam on the 25th of January..
How were the labs? I need to practice some ipv6.
Does the exam have ipv6 sims?

regards

Daniel333

Hey dude,

The labs were actually very fair. Grab yourself the lab book and run through them. Combine them all. And you are good.

bertieb

Awesome. A very well deserved pass based on your solid preparations. Congrats!