My CCNP Journey

kohr-ah

Ganbatte Kudasai (Good luck) <-- Rough translation?
Route was the hardest exam I ever took. A lot of the questions I remember looking at the screen and going "WTF.. really?" you will nail it officially. Heck I saw questions that I didn't even see covered in either books nor any practice labs I did.

The write config didn't affect the simulations. I tried everything I could think of and said it was not available. I even made notes on the exams. So dont worry about that (try anyway though.. tricky Cisco).

You will do fine I look forward to hearing your pass and then you won't have to worry about it again!

Danielh22185

I actually got super sick on Friday, some kind of stomach flu. I have it rescheduled for this coming friday. I guess in a way its good, gives me another week to prepare. I'll be sure to post as soon as I have the pass under my belt!

Danielh22185

Re-test day tomorrow!

Bring it on Cisco!!

Jon_Cisco

Good Luck! I have been skimming your post for a while as I hope to study CCNP after my CCNA.

darkerz

Good luck man! PM me if you'd like to get a few mock questions, I've been a little too deep in specifically OSPFv2 and v3 + redistribution labs for work recently.

I would recommend reading the Routing TCP/IP Vol 1, Second ed. book for any clarity on the topics.

tomtom1

Best of luck!

Danielh22185

darkerz wrote: »

Good luck man! PM me if you'd like to get a few mock questions, I've been a little too deep in specifically OSPFv2 and v3 + redistribution labs for work recently.

I would recommend reading the Routing TCP/IP Vol 1, Second ed. book for any clarity on the topics.

I actually 100% plan on diving deep into that book as well. The routing studies definetly will not end here.

tomtom1

And, did you pass?

Danielh22185

The Route Exam has officially become my achilles heal. I don't know what to say... I failed again...

What a disaster....

I failed too by a measly 5 POINTS!!!! My jaw literally fell to the floor when I saw my result.... I felt so confident I passed....

I can't really pinpoint an area where I went wrong. I actually improved in all aspects. I know I didn't miss a single simulation objective either. Branch Office stuff remains my weakest area but it has so little coverage in the exam I have not focused much on it. However if I would have gotten just 1 more of those questions correct I would be reporting a pass score.

My plan is actually to dive back into the Cisco Press book (FLG) and make more notes by skimming the chapters I feel the information is a bit more detailed in this book when compared to the Simplified book. I have actually already made pretty good progress with this. I have re-skimmed through EIGRP and OSPF and made about 3 more pages of notes so far. I have a couple scenarios I want to try to lab up too.

I am re-scheduling for Saturday. I am so close I can't let it go now.

tomtom1

If you want to go over some practice questions or just some chat at all, let me know. Am writing the exam on Friday!

Juliusg

I know it is devastating to fail with such a close score but it just goes to show you know the material well enough to pass. Don't give up and attack all the areas you know you need extra work. We all are rooting for you to pass man! Good luck on the next test!!!!

Danielh22185

Juliusg wrote: »

I know it is devastating to fail with such a close score but it just goes to show you know the material well enough to pass. Don't give up and attack all the areas you know you need extra work. We all are rooting for you to pass man! Good luck on the next test!!!!

Thanks! I go back tomorrow for the re-test / final test of Route. I definetly found some areas I was a bit lacking some understanding and now have a good grasp on. I am very confident at this point and ready to get this part over with.

tomtom1

Danielh22185 wrote: »

Thanks! I go back tomorrow for the re-test / final test of Route. I definetly found some areas I was a bit lacking some understanding and now have a good grasp on. I am very confident at this point and ready to get this part over with.

Best of luck, I'm sure you will succeed this time

Danielh22185

PASSED!

What a relief! Time to take some time with the wife to enjoy our weekend.

I'll be jumping into Switch this coming week as I already have the book. I'll also post my progress along the way.

Woohoo!

tomtom1

Nice! Hard work pays off!

Jon_Cisco

Great job!

joetest

congrats on pass, you have certaintly deserved it!

bharvey92

Congrats Danielh!

I've been following your posts and glad to see you have passed! Hopefully I will too!

Hardwork does pay off eh? Good luck for your Switch studies!

Danielh22185

Thanks all for the kind words.

I cracked open the switch book (OCG). It's such a refresher to see how much smaller the book is! I'm beginning Chapter 3 (chapter 1-2 are very short, read them durning lunch).

I want to get switch done as quickly as possible so that I retain most my route knowlge to be ready for TSHOOT.

One thing I've decided to do that I didn't 100% keep up with during my Route reading:
Use the chapter review questions. I plan on answering these questions on a side notebook, first by memory, if not able to answer, dig into the chapters to understand the question answers instead of finding the correct ones at the back of the book, double check those answers from the back after fully answered.

I think this will be a fun and engaging task to complete as I read, also an area I believe will help with knowledge retention.

Goals for this week:
* Finish reading Chapter 3 and 4.
* Keep up with highlighting areas to make notes later
* Handwrite notes on highlighted subjects.
* Answer knowledge questions for chapters 1-4 from memory.

I still need to finalize my lab I will create for Switch. I'm picking up more hours at work to offset some additional costs of creating a decent lab for switch. I want to get this up and running ASAP.

Juliusg

Congrat man! Knew you could do it! Now getting to the Switch exam! Keep your mind working and you'll see the benefits sooner than you think! Good luck for the next step!

Danielh22185

Juliusg wrote: »

Congrat man! Knew you could do it! Now getting to the Switch exam! Keep your mind working and you'll see the benefits sooner than you think! Good luck for the next step!

Thanks! I basically cracked right into switch with zero hesitation! I want this NP done!

DevilWAH

well done on the pass

Danielh22185

What the heck I’ll give a little update (bored at work getting ready to go home for the weekend):

I'm currently reading the switch book still (OCG). In the middle of Chapter 4 right now, basically just a lot of basic stuff for now. I am making high lights on important areas, etc. This week end will consist of getting those highlighted areas down on paper / notes.

Goals for the weekend:
* Catch up on some more CBT nuggets regarding the material I have read.
* Start bidding on some physical switches (3550s and 2960s) on ebay for to get labbing ready
* Catch up my notes
* Finish up to chapter 6. I wanted to get 1-4 done but it’s going pretty quick so far so I'll read an additional chapter, possible one more depending on time.

On a side note:
I recently went on an interview for a Level 2 NOC Operations Engineer position. I was interviewed by the SME of the company so it was pretty touch. It was a good experience if that is all I get out of it but I’ve heard thru the grapevine I did well. I really, really, really hope I land this position because it will seriously spring board my experience and network knowledge over all.

On top of my normal studies for NP I have also picked up some Engineering Standard Documents from my company to be reviewing to further build my knowledge. (This stuff was basically a Diamond in the ruff. I never knew we had such detailed network documentation. It’s good to have friends in the higher technical positions wanting to build you up

bharvey92

Good luck on the job interview man,

How'd it go? Heard back since? Sound's like your steaming through the CCNP SWITCH!

I myself am still going through the ROUTE: Simplified - I hope you can agree the Switch is a bit easier?

Iristheangel

Congratulations!!!

Danielh22185

bharvey92 wrote: »

Good luck on the job interview man,

How'd it go? Heard back since? Sound's like your steaming through the CCNP SWITCH! [IMG]file:///C:\Users\dh90369\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.gif[/IMG]

I myself am still going through the ROUTE: Simplified - I hope you can agree the Switch is a bit easier?

I feel the interview went pretty well. I am also told by some managers of the group they think I did well too. I haven't heard anything back just yet. I believe they are still getting some interviews done.

Switch is defiantly a breath of fresh air right now. I haven't gotten into the super complex stuff yet in my reading, it’s been a lot of CCNA rehash right now.

Danielh22185

Iristheangel wrote: »

Congratulations!!!

Thanks!!!

dmcneil330

I'm studying for SWITCH to and have already taken/failed the SWITCH exam. Do not take it too lightly. It's a beast of an exam. Make sure you understand why things work the way they do as well as how to configure them.

The questions seem much more vague if you don't command absolute understanding.

darkerz

I've met guys who are CCNP 1,2,3 and can't tell me the IP Route & Forwarding process detail by detail.

Don't be that guy! Enjoy your switching.

snadam

congrats on the pass and good luck on the rest!