Passed 640-553
hiddenknight821
Member Posts: 1,209 ■■■■■■□□□□
Passed with a score of 922! 
I did perfect in 5 domains listed in the blueprint. My two weak areas are:
- Implement AAA on Cisco routers using local router database and external ACS 67%
- Mitigate common Layer 2 attacks 50%
I figured maybe I got 2 out of 4 questions wrong in the Layer 2 area, but I don't care as long as I passed.
I started studying it back in mid-May, reading the Paquet book from cover-to-cover, but I did 90% of the labs by following the examples as I read along. After finishing reading for maybe bout three weeks, I purchased the Boson ExSim Exam and practiced all 191 questions in study mode. I got 60% the first time, but I didn't go back to it immediately since we are not suppose to memorize and pass the practice exam, but rather understand the topics and know our weak areas.
So I went back to the book and practiced my weakest area with most answers incorrects up to my least weakest area. I manually jotted down notes on my notepad (for better memory retention) and did some serious labbing for every area until I got the concept locked down. I skipped some areas either because it's either I don't have enough time, enough resources to lab, or the domain is insignificant (which can be negligible). After creating pages of note and spending several hours on lab practice, I went back to the ExSim exam, and passed with 88%. The review took me about three weeks, but I had to wait to book the exam due to WGU.
In my honest opinion, I would say the exam should be very easy if you are well-prepared for it. By the way, I should point out that there were some blur pictures in the exam question, so for those of you that are not near-sighted may suffer a little bit. Here are the following resources I used:
- Authorized Self-Study Guide: Implementing Cisco IOS Network Security (IINS) by Catherine Paquet
- Ubuntu (host OS) with GNS3 and VirtualBox installed (Windows XP as Guest OS)
- Boson ExSim Exam Environment (I paid $75 for it)
- Information on SDM and Java configuration I posted here a while ago
I did perfect in 5 domains listed in the blueprint. My two weak areas are:
- Implement AAA on Cisco routers using local router database and external ACS 67%
- Mitigate common Layer 2 attacks 50%
I figured maybe I got 2 out of 4 questions wrong in the Layer 2 area, but I don't care as long as I passed.
I started studying it back in mid-May, reading the Paquet book from cover-to-cover, but I did 90% of the labs by following the examples as I read along. After finishing reading for maybe bout three weeks, I purchased the Boson ExSim Exam and practiced all 191 questions in study mode. I got 60% the first time, but I didn't go back to it immediately since we are not suppose to memorize and pass the practice exam, but rather understand the topics and know our weak areas.
So I went back to the book and practiced my weakest area with most answers incorrects up to my least weakest area. I manually jotted down notes on my notepad (for better memory retention) and did some serious labbing for every area until I got the concept locked down. I skipped some areas either because it's either I don't have enough time, enough resources to lab, or the domain is insignificant (which can be negligible). After creating pages of note and spending several hours on lab practice, I went back to the ExSim exam, and passed with 88%. The review took me about three weeks, but I had to wait to book the exam due to WGU.
In my honest opinion, I would say the exam should be very easy if you are well-prepared for it. By the way, I should point out that there were some blur pictures in the exam question, so for those of you that are not near-sighted may suffer a little bit. Here are the following resources I used:
- Authorized Self-Study Guide: Implementing Cisco IOS Network Security (IINS) by Catherine Paquet
- Ubuntu (host OS) with GNS3 and VirtualBox installed (Windows XP as Guest OS)
- Boson ExSim Exam Environment (I paid $75 for it)
- Information on SDM and Java configuration I posted here a while ago
Comments
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AD227529
Member Posts: 82 ■■□□□□□□□□
Congratulations on the pass! That's an impressive score, too. I'm currently studying for the 640-553 and hope to take it the first week of September.CCNA, CCENT, A+, Net+, Security+ -
Somnipotent
Member Posts: 384
Congratulations on the pass! That's an impressive score, too. I'm currently studying for the 640-553 and hope to take it the first week of September.
Better get it in before that... if you miss the mark you may have to take the 554 exam.Reading: Internetworking with TCP/IP: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture (D. Comer) -
veritas_libertas
Member Posts: 5,746 ■■■■■■■■■■
Congratulations. CCNA Security is next for me after the ICND2. -
spd3432
Member Posts: 224
Congrats!----CCNP goal----
Route [ ] Studying
Switch [ ] Next
Tshoot [ ] Eventually -
hiddenknight821
Member Posts: 1,209 ■■■■■■□□□□
Thanks for the congrats, everyone.veritas_libertas wrote: »Congratulations. CCNA Security is next for me after the ICND2.
Which version do you plan to take? You only have roughly three months left to take the expiring version.
I would recommend anyone who plans to start studying after September 1st to study for the new one. -
veritas_libertas
Member Posts: 5,746 ■■■■■■■■■■
I'm not going to push it. I'll be studying for the 640-554. Learning to use an ASA will be good for me, and after finally finishing the CCNA I don't want to be in a rush.
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whatthehell
Member Posts: 920
Congratz on the pass!2017 Goals:
[ ] Security + [ ] 74-409 [ ] CEH
Future Goals:
TBD
