Halloween ROUTE exam and a bit of fate

vinbuck

Oddly enough I am finally taking ROUTE and on the same day I first passed the CCNA back in 2003 - October 31st! I am definitely nervous, but i've put in a ton of study time for ROUTE and i've been in review mode for a couple of weeks. I haven't been able to review everything to the depth that I originally planned, but with a 2 year old, you never seem to be able to plan everything the way you want to I thought about rescheduling for the upteenth time, but all the studying along with being a 24/7/365 on call Network Engineer has been such a strain on my family life that I need to give ROUTE a shot and see where I stand.

In my review, I've been through BOSON EX-SIM MAX several times now as well as the entire Cisco Network Academy Lab Manual and feel very confident about most of the topics. I can go through all the BOSON questions and explain why the right answer is right and the wrong answers are wrong which seems to be a helpful tactic wehn taking Cisco tests. The two topics that I still worry about are multi-point two-way redistribution and IPv6 tunnels, because I haven't been able to review those quite as much as I had hoped. I'm going over them again today as well as doing ROUTE exam sims with the BOSON software to keep my brain in "exam" mode.

All in all, I fell pretty well prepared (I have yet to go into a Cisco exam thinking that I know everything inside and out - there is always a shadow of doubt when exam day nears: ) OSPF, BGP and Path Control are probably my strongest because I deal with them day-to-day, EIGRP is a close second because i've labbed the crap out of it.

We shall see...I hope to post a pass tomorrow (taking it at 10 am Central)

SharkDiver

Mississippi,

The Route exam was tough, but you can do it.
I studied the same stuff as you and don't have a job like yours. You should do fine.

Good luck!

vinbuck

Thanks for the vote of confidence Did you use the BOSON EX-SIM as well?

SharkDiver

Mississippi,

I read the OCG and the Chris Bryant material and used the Boson NetSim labs, the Boson Ex-Sim practice questions and the Transcender practice questions.

But, I don't have the Network Engineer experience that you do.

vinbuck

SharkDiver wrote: »

Mississippi,

I read the OCG and the Chris Bryant material and used the Boson NetSim labs, the Boson Ex-Sim practice questions and the Transcender practice questions.

But, I don't have the Network Engineer experience that you do.

Which set of practice questions do you feel was better prep after having passed the exam? Boson or the Transcender?

How did you feel about how well the OCG prepared you?

SharkDiver

I would have to say the Boson questions had more of the same type of questions as the real exam, but neither the Boson questions nor the Transcender questions asked about the same things as the real exam.

I find that studying things I think will be on the exam that Boson practice questions DON'T ask is a better strategy than studying the things they do ask about.

I would give some examples, but it would violate the NDA.

vinbuck

Well, I came, I saw and I conquered...passed ROUTE today with a 790. The timer ran out while I was finishing the last question so i guess I typed enough commands in to just make the cut...but hey I'll take it! That was seriously the hardest exam I've ever taken. whew....time to decompress

instant000

MississippiGuardsman wrote: »

Well, I came, I saw and I conquered...passed ROUTE today with a 790. The timer ran out while I was finishing the last question so i guess I typed enough commands in to just make the cut...but hey I'll take it! That was seriously the hardest exam I've ever taken. whew....time to decompress

Congrats! Please update your profile!

vinbuck

Done! Thanks...i'm just ready to put Layer 3 down for a bit and hit Layer 2 for a while.

triki

Congrats I took it a few days ago and I agree it was a tough exam

SharkDiver

Mississippi,

Congratulations!!!

I knew you could do it.

Shanman

Big congratz!!!! I knew you would pass... I am very happy for you!! Good luck on the switch

vinbuck

Thanks y'all! Already glancing into the switch FLG

*BB*

MississippiGuardsman wrote: »

Done! Thanks...i'm just ready to put Layer 3 down for a bit and hit Layer 2 for a while.

Congrats! Its been just the opposite for me lately. Work has me doing Ciscoworks and a LAN redesign project. Hard to get into the ROUTE materials after a long day of dealing with this.

vinbuck

*BB* wrote: »

Congrats! Its been just the opposite for me lately. Work has me doing Ciscoworks and a LAN redesign project. Hard to get into the ROUTE materials after a long day of dealing with this.

Man, I feel your pain. I rescheduled ROUTE several times due to projects at work. I work for a Service Provder, so all of our projects tend to be more long term and some of them are always in a state of flux. I had to come into work early for almost a year to get enough study time to pass ROUTE. It's practically the only quiet place for me with a 2 year old.