Boson Practice Environment - Difficulty level

YFZblu

Hey all--

So my ICND1 exam is scheduled for Monday morning, and I'm hitting the Boson practice exam environment pretty hard this weekend. Here's my question: Is the Boson practice environment intentionally more difficult than the actual exam?

I feel like I know the material pretty well; however the Boson exam is sort of throwing me off and making me second guess myself. I feel like the questions are worded oddly in some situations, and one question even included an EIGRP reference, which was weird. As far as I know the only routing protocol tested in any capacity on ICND1 is RIPv2.

Thoughts from people who used Boson and then took the CCENT exam?

ChickenNuggetz

YFZblu wrote: »

Hey all--

So my ICND1 exam is scheduled for Monday morning, and I'm hitting the Boson practice exam environment pretty hard this weekend. Here's my question: Is the Boson practice environment intentionally more difficult than the actual exam?

I feel like I know the material pretty well; however the Boson exam is sort of throwing me off and making me second guess myself. I feel like the questions are worded oddly in some situations, and one question even included an EIGRP reference, which was weird. As far as I know the only routing protocol tested in any capacity on ICND1 is RIPv2.

Thoughts from people who used Boson and then took the CCENT exam?

The Boson Exam Sim is pretty brutal and much more difficult than the ICND1 in my opinion. Keep hitting it hard; its probably the best thing you'll do to prepare. I also felt like I knew the material well, I took the Exam Sim and scored a whopping 65% my first time. I was crushed. I took it 3 more times that weekend and each time my score increased dramatically. The last time I took it, I had scored a near 90%.

Some of the questions did repeat for a few exams, but honestly, they use a pull of over 150 questions, so even if the questions did repeat a lot, I didnt notice and it felt like a new question each time.

The most important thing you can do though is UNDERSTAND why you got the questions wrong and UNDERSTAND why the right answers are right. This fact alone is what helped me figure out my weak areas. I hit those weak areas hard in between practice exams and I walked into my ICND1 exam feeling like a boss. Took the exam and passed with a pretty good score!

YFZblu

ChickenNuggetz wrote: »

The Boson Exam Sim is pretty brutal and much more difficult than the ICND1 in my opinion. Keep hitting it hard; its probably the best thing you'll do to prepare. I also felt like I knew the material well, I took the Exam Sim and scored a whopping 65% my first time. I was crushed. I took it 3 more times that weekend and each time my score increased dramatically. The last time I took it, I had scored a near 90%.

Some of the questions did repeat for a few exams, but honestly, they use a pull of over 150 questions, so even if the questions did repeat a lot, I didnt notice and it felt like a new question each time.

The most important thing you can do though is UNDERSTAND why you got the questions wrong and UNDERSTAND why the right answers are right. This fact alone is what helped me figure out my weak areas. I hit those weak areas hard in between practice exams and I walked into my ICND1 exam feeling like a boss. Took the exam and passed with a pretty good score!

Thanks for the reply!

Great tip about understanding why an answer is wrong instead of just looking at the right answer and moving on. I'll probably run through Boson all day today and spend tomorrow knee-deep in CLI in preparation for the simlets.

ChickenNuggetz

YFZblu wrote: »

Thanks for the reply!

Great tip about understanding why an answer is wrong instead of just looking at the right answer and moving on. I'll probably run through Boson all day today and spend tomorrow knee-deep in CLI in preparation for the simlets.

That's how you do it; get it! Good luck, let us know how the exam goes!

luberguilarte

Hi everyone , Iam new in this great side of usefull info to get us ready for the test.
I really would love someone answer this question because Iam kind of unsecure.
Iam getting on my boson practices test that I purchased direcly with them about 9000 to 1000 in all the test ( ICND1 by the way) , but I also have the book from Wendell Odom along with the Pearson IT practices test that come with the book , but in this practices test I score very low , the questions in this Pearson practices test I found them very hard , I had read the but many times and fully understand it . Shuld I ignore this and go for the exam?
Thanks guys.

JustFred

Hey Guys,

Regarding the Odom books, i have the DVDs that comes with it but i cannot find any code for the Boson software discount. How do i find it?

YFZblu

FredWatanabe wrote: »

Hey Guys,

Regarding the Odom books, i have the DVDs that comes with it but i cannot find any code for the Boson software discount. How do i find it?

IIRC, the code was on a slip of paper inside of the CD sleeve.

YFZblu

And to answer my own thread question - The Boson exam WAS harder than the real exam. That said, it was easily the most valuable part of my study time. The format is nearly identical to the actual exam.

alxx

congratulations!

YFZblu wrote: »

IIRC, the code was on a slip of paper inside of the CD sleeve.

in the back cd pocket