4th times the charm

Well... I finally passed, albeit on my 4th try, it's hard to get too excited about it. I'm more relieved than excited or proud. Now my 1st attempt I had no business taking it. I breezed through the CCENT, and figured I could do the same for ICND2, and boy was I wrong.

Attempt 2 I was a little more prepared, but still not ready. Attempt 3 I really thought I had it.

But... on attempt 4 I really could tell a difference. I felt good about my answers, and I had plenty of time left whereas the previous atttempts I was rushing to get done before the clock expired.

This time I passed with an 846.

I used a TON of material. At first I used the Sybex book, then I got Odom's book, but i didn't read very much of it. I also had The Bryant Advantage. After the first fail, I started using Skillport, which was pretty helpful. Then like a moron I waited until 2 failed attempts before trying LabSim. It's really a fantastic product. Then I through in some UCertify as well. I read the whole Sybex book, and I went through every bit of Skillport and LabSim. I used a lot of the practice tests from UCertify, but not all of them, but it was very helpful.

This time around I got 100% on ACL's and NAT, and I'm positive that's what put me over the top.

So... it feels good to pass finally, but it's more relief than anything.

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Comments

ChickenNuggetz

Congrats on the pass!

In your opinion, what would you say would be the topic you found most difficult? Any advice for future test takers?

Roguetadhg

Excellent!

QHalo

Way to stick it out and not let it beat you. Congrats

KPLC

Good Stuff! Perseverance wins. Are you going to continue your Cisco studies or are you on to something else?

Puffy

congrats mike, really respect your determination to pass that exam...

SharkDiver

Congratulations!

What is next?

YuckTheFankees

Good job! This exam is a beast.

nicklauscombs

congrats!

alxx

Congratulations!

Now pass ccnp first go on each exam!

seansabian

Congrats Mike-Mike! Way to go!

Mike-Mike

ChickenNuggetz wrote: »

Congrats on the pass!

In your opinion, what would you say would be the topic you found most difficult? Any advice for future test takers?

Thanks everyone...

I think the hardest part was just the volume of material. I never felt like I was totally lost, I just had a hard time remembering all the random items. It's such a wide volume of material for a test, it was just hard to get it all down.

Actual subjects I had a hard time with were ACL and NAT, and I really focused on those the last go around of studying. Like the in and out of NAT and ACL tripped me up. But when I speak of the volume of material, I mean like I know how to setup VTP and a VLAN, but what if I don't remember the default time for an OSPF hello packet, etc

That's where the practice tests came in handy. Actual studying of courses gives you the concept of the material down. But the practice tests helped me remember all the tiny details

I'm in WGU, so next for me are two CIW courses, the HTML and the JavaScript one... and I will still be taking the CCNA Security.. not sure if I'll continue on with Cisco or not after that

N2IT

Mike awesome job man. Way to battle through the rough times!

alliasneo

well done. I fell exactly the same about the ICND2 material. I really want to take the exam and just get it over with already but I can feel I'm not ready. It's hard to remember everything, like you said it's a really broad subject matter for the icnd2 exam. I spent weeks looking at frame relay and configuring it and now I haven't set it up for a about a month because I've been focusing on NAT, ACL's and routing but I'm already forgetting things.

Hopefully when I revisit the subject it will come back pretty quick but it is hard to get through all the material and retain it when you're not using it in the real world every day.

I was hoping to go for the exam early next month but I'm still not confident! I think I'm going to buy the boson practice exams this weekend and see how that goes... I've been studying for ICND2 since mid November now.....the studying continues.

NetworkingStudent

Congrats on the passs

Without breaking the Non disclose agreement, is it true that When taking a Cisco test, you can’t review , or go back and change your answers?
I have heard this, and I just always wondered if it was true..

MAC_Addy

Congrats on your pass! You should be excited! Now you have proven that you know the foundation levels of a network you can now pursue onto your security certification - though, I'd keep a close eye on the security, they're phasing out the SDM and making a new exam. I do believe it was listed on the CCNA:Sec page.

Question:You know what they call a Doctor that graduated medical school with a C?

Answer: A Doctor.

cmitchell_00

Good job on never giving up and keep trying until you finished with a pass!

veritas_libertas

Congratulations! A battle well fought

ASUSTeK

Success feels good! Congrats on not giving up.

Mike-Mike

Thanks again everyone, I appreciate it

alliasneo wrote: »

well done. I fell exactly the same about the ICND2 material. I really want to take the exam and just get it over with already but I can feel I'm not ready. It's hard to remember everything, like you said it's a really broad subject matter for the icnd2 exam. I spent weeks looking at frame relay and configuring it and now I haven't set it up for a about a month because I've been focusing on NAT, ACL's and routing but I'm already forgetting things.

Hopefully when I revisit the subject it will come back pretty quick but it is hard to get through all the material and retain it when you're not using it in the real world every day.

I was hoping to go for the exam early next month but I'm still not confident! I think I'm going to buy the boson practice exams this weekend and see how that goes... I've been studying for ICND2 since mid November now.....the studying continues.

are you a WGU student? if so like I said, I highly recommend the UCertify and LabSim. I really couldn't get into the Bosom material, almost like it was too hard, but I didn't really stick with it. The Sybex material I usually love, but I feel like it wasn't enough in this case.

and I've made fun of Skillport before, but like I said, i really like it on this. Especially being able to go and pick and choose sections to review, like VPN or Frame Relay.

ChickenNuggetz

Mike-Mike wrote: »

Thanks everyone...

I think the hardest part was just the volume of material. I never felt like I was totally lost, I just had a hard time remembering all the random items. It's such a wide volume of material for a test, it was just hard to get it all down.

Actual subjects I had a hard time with were ACL and NAT, and I really focused on those the last go around of studying. Like the in and out of NAT and ACL tripped me up. But when I speak of the volume of material, I mean like I know how to setup VTP and a VLAN, but what if I don't remember the default time for an OSPF hello packet, etc

That's where the practice tests came in handy. Actual studying of courses gives you the concept of the material down. But the practice tests helped me remember all the tiny details

I'm in WGU, so next for me are two CIW courses, the HTML and the JavaScript one... and I will still be taking the CCNA Security.. not sure if I'll continue on with Cisco or not after that

Thank you very much for your insight! I'm studying for the CCNA right now and I have to say the difference in volume (as you had mentioned) and amount of detailed content is huge when compared to that of the CCENT. I guess its good to hear (read) that I'm not the only one who feels that way!

And thanks for the heads up on ACL and NAT; I'll definitely be giving those chapters a little extra attention and love. Again, congrats on the pass, you deserve it!

whatthehell

Congratz on the pass!

break

NetworkingStudent wrote: »

Congrats on the passs

Without breaking the Non disclose agreement, is it true that When taking a Cisco test, you can’t review , or go back and change your answers?
I have heard this, and I just always wondered if it was true..

You cannot go back.

MrXpert

alliasneo wrote: »

well done. I fell exactly the same about the ICND2 material. I really want to take the exam and just get it over with already but I can feel I'm not ready. It's hard to remember everything, like you said it's a really broad subject matter for the icnd2 exam. I spent weeks looking at frame relay and configuring it and now I haven't set it up for a about a month because I've been focusing on NAT, ACL's and routing but I'm already forgetting things.

Hopefully when I revisit the subject it will come back pretty quick but it is hard to get through all the material and retain it when you're not using it in the real world every day.

I was hoping to go for the exam early next month but I'm still not confident! I think I'm going to buy the boson practice exams this weekend and see how that goes... I've been studying for ICND2 since mid November now.....the studying continues.

I found what works is creating a network in packet tracer which incorporates all what you have learnt so far. For example build a network with at least 5 routers, connected via the frame relay cloud. Use global DLCIs. Use EIGRP, add a few switches to each router. Setup etherchannel if you want. Pretend each office has a different IT manager who does things differently. For example one of the offices may have an IT guy who likes to load balance across STP on his switches, another might want to setup all his switches as Servers etc. I found that doing this everyday helps a great deal. Play it like its a computer game but you make the rules. Add ACLS and NAT. Then break the network on purpose as in change stuff. Then come back to it next week and try to fix it.

MrXpert

break wrote: »

You cannot go back.

That sounds so Kafkaesque but it is true.

djfunz

alliasneo wrote: »

well done. I fell exactly the same about the ICND2 material. I really want to take the exam and just get it over with already but I can feel I'm not ready. It's hard to remember everything, like you said it's a really broad subject matter for the icnd2 exam. I spent weeks looking at frame relay and configuring it and now I haven't set it up for a about a month because I've been focusing on NAT, ACL's and routing but I'm already forgetting things.

Hopefully when I revisit the subject it will come back pretty quick but it is hard to get through all the material and retain it when you're not using it in the real world every day.

I was hoping to go for the exam early next month but I'm still not confident! I think I'm going to buy the boson practice exams this weekend and see how that goes... I've been studying for ICND2 since mid November now.....the studying continues.

First off, congrats on the pass.

This is how I feel as well. I'm brushing up on EIGRP and OSPF right now but before I know it, NAT, ACL's and Frame Relay are slipping away. It's all about repetition for this exam I think. The ICND1 was a beast as well though. Much more theory based. Understanding how networks actually work coming from a non-networking background takes some time. Subnetting alone took some time to grasp for the ICND1, but looking back we're always saying how easy it is. It wasn't. Mike-Mike, by the time your passing all your CCNP exams, you'll be asking what was so hard about the CCNA.