Boson CCNP Routing questions

MrXpert

I've been attempting a few redistribution questions from the Boson routing practice tests but finding them a bit pedantic and just plain weird

One questions asks for redistribution to be configured between rip and ospf domains. No problem I thought. First have to advertise the networks for both rip and ospf so that hellos are sent. I verified that in the case of OSPF adjaceny had formed and it had. I then redistributed the routes.
Then checked my answer and was told I was "INCORRECT"

I parsed the commands and found the only thing I had done differently was my method of advertising the OSPF networks. I had used the specific ip address and wildcard mask (all zeros)
Boson said the correct way to do it is to type 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.15 area 0 and NOT "192.168.0.1 0.0.0.0 area 0"
In no place in the question did they tell me I should be advertising it by using the specific subnet it is on. If they did i'd have done it the way they wanted it. No problem. It's not exactly difficult.
So how am I to know what method of advertising they want?

Is this a fair question? is the real Cisco CCNP routing exam like this? if so then it is tantamount to what i'd call unsportsmanlike. It's as ridiculous as saying "sorry because you forgot to put a full stop after your sentence, we are failing you" They are coming across a bit local government with that. yuck. Paper pushes.

Boson were good for the CCENT and CCNA but CCNP coming across as kinda crap to be honest.

SteveO86

Was there anything in the question hinting you to what the exact subnet was? (Such as seeing the subnet mask using a show command or interface configuration?)

If you see the exact subnet anywhere in the question keep it consistent, and advertise the exact subnet. CCNP is a bit more detailing then the CCNA

all_day

Keen to get feedback on Boson for CCNP revision as well.

The video labs from cisco that come with the revision guide suggest that to save time you can advertise eigrp/opsf interfaces by using 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 area 0. I would hope that as long as the correct interfaces were participating you would get full marks.

NetworkVeteran

MrXpert wrote: »

is the real Cisco CCNP routing exam like this?

No, it is not.

MrXpert

SteveO86 wrote: »

Was there anything in the question hinting you to what the exact subnet was? (Such as seeing the subnet mask using a show command or interface configuration?)

If you see the exact subnet anywhere in the question keep it consistent, and advertise the exact subnet. CCNP is a bit more detailing then the CCNA

One would assume this as I always like to watch out for words like "specific subnet" or "be as specific as possible and match the interface only". But no such words existed. I advertised all the interfaces as host wildcard marks(all zeros)

I'll still use their questions but going to take their answers with a pinch of salt. There's a few other questions in there where you have to also assume a lot (they don't tell you all the info) in order to get the correct answer. Assumption is the mother of all **** ups.It is a slippery slope.

It's not a bad product but i'd suggest not to take it as gospel.

I did buy Steve Bowler's labs. Thats worth a lot more in terms of labbing than other stuff out there.

MrXpert

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

No, it is not.

Well Thank Cisco Gods for that

wave

I've struck this too and now I always use masks that match exactly. There is also one sim that wants you to use tw default-metric command and it won't accept the metric in the redistribute command.

I have also found a couple of their sims to be buggy, I have entered their exact correct config from the answers and it tells me I've answered incorrectly.

I have had success logging tickets with boson. They have corrected some questions that were blatantly incorrect.

All in all however, I'm happy with the practice exams, they've really helped me a lot.