ICND2 just crushed me...

ltgenspecific

I know these posts are a dime a dozen but here goes:

I just took ICDN2 and was demolished... 610. I really believed that I was prepared for it and looking forward to ace-ing it with ease.

**I have to admit, I prepared quite a bit and was posting 850+ on the Boson Exams the day before the test. It seems to me the actual exam is much much more difficult.

Reading through there have been some informative posts here on how to focus one's studies, etc. Just in case, I thought I would ask for anyone's quick insight as to any helpful quick tips on going after it again.

Anyone have any advice on how to approach preparing for those types of questions (they seemed very very minutia oriented)?

Thanks in advance, good luck to all others prepping for this!

NotHackingYou

Sorry to hear about this. Your score report should list the areas and scores - which domains were you weak in? Which were you strong in?

ltgenspecific

(Embarassingly enough, given it's importance)

Implementing and Verifying WAN Links... ... ... 17%

I put the nose to the grind stone on NAT & Frame Relay but it seems like the questions in that arena really came out of no where and were relatively obscure...

NotHackingYou

Without looking it up, what is the default encapsulation for a Cisco serial interface?

ltgenspecific

HDLC ...but there were no questions so simple on the exam Don't get me wrong, I don't want to breeze through this, I just want to aim my studies in the correct direction.

NotHackingYou

Which study material did you use? I used Lammle's and felt well prepared for everything I encountered on the test. It's not typical to get a question that easy, but it could be a 'problem' you have to find in a sim or something.

Diggs

Was time an issue for you....did you find yourself rushing through the questions?

ltgenspecific

Odom's "Official Cert Guide"
The material provided by WGU (several hours of videos, Cisco LabSim, etc.)

I suppose I should have probably focused more on implementation and configuration that purely factual memorization and analysis?

EDIT: @Diggs - Not really, I finished with about 15mins to go but I did feel as though I failed miserably before I even saw the score. The pace seemed fine, both mine and that of the exam.

DarthVader

Honestly the only thing you can do is study some more and don't get discouraged. I know it can be a little demoralizing to fail one of these tests but just remember it's not the end of the world.

1.Keep reading
2.Get as much hands on as possible
3.Practice your subnetting

then test again, you'll get it.

ltgenspecific

Thanks Darth, I think the "hands-on" is where I really need to focus (it seems to be a theme in the advice given in other threads).

Cheers.

NotHackingYou

I would agree with above. How are you on subnetting in your head? How much lab time did you log? The CCNA is less about simple memorization and more about can you really work with the topics.

NotHackingYou

I really think with some more lab time and studying you can nail the exam

ltgenspecific

@Carl, thanks, I appreciate the input. Putting things together it seems like I need to get deeper into labbing it up. Thanks again.

NotHackingYou

If you run into issues or questions make sure to post them so you can get help. Once you know the topics inside and out the exam will be pretty straightforward. You can also PM me with questions if you want.

YFZblu

Not to worry - I recently failed the exam as well, it is extremely difficult if you're a networking noob. Labbing should clear everything up for you. Good luck!

NetworkVeteran

Anyone have any advice on how to approach preparing for those types of questions (they seemed very very minutia oriented)?

I recall very little "minutia" on it. The content tends to be quite practical.

I prepared quite a bit and was posting 850+ on the Boson Exams the day before

Hmm.. the main ways I see people go wrong with practice tests is by re-taking them--and then expecting their score to have any predictive value. Also, forgetting the real exam involves simulators.

Anyone have any advice on how to approach preparing for those types of questions?

Get experience on real devices or simulators. Folks with lots of practice tend to pass this with minimum studying. I spent about three days studying the last time I had to pass the CCNA exams.

ltgenspecific

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

Get experience on real devices or simulators. Folks with lots of practice tend to pass this with minimum studying. I spent about three days studying the last time I had to pass the CCNA exams.

This really seems to be where I have gone wrong. I appreciate the input greatly, perhaps my take on "minutia" was more that I was ill-prepared for the depth of the content when compared to ICND1. At any rate, thanks!

Diggs

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

Hmm.. the main ways I see people go wrong with practice tests is by re-taking them--and then expecting their score to have any predictive value. Also, forgetting the real exam involves simulators.

Would completely agree with this....When I see people say they are getting in the high 900's on the Boson practice tests and feel they're ready it typically means they've taken the same practice exam several times and have essentially memorized the answers. Just because they're scoring well in those exams doesn't necessarily correlate to the probability of them scoring well in the actual exam. I've done this myself in the past where I know what the answer is before I finish the first sentence of the question.

Best thing I've found with well written practice exams that have multiple question banks is once you feel you're ready to take on the real thing do the first practice exam in study mode. After clicking your answer for each question check your answer and read through the explanation trying to learn from their explanations. Don't change any answers and see how you do in the end. With the second and third exams do them in simulation mode treating each one as if it's the actual thing. After doing all three go through them again in study mode and examine all of the answers not just reading the correct answers but also reading why the wrong answers are incorrect.

I've found doing so this way gives you a better indication as to your actual readiness (instead of testing your memorization skills) and allows you to hone in and focus on your weak areas before judgment day.

silverbullet

A common issue seems to be running out of time.
Spending to long on subnetting questions can hold
you up and therefore don't get to complete.
You'll need to knock off those subnetting questions
in your head in around the 4 minute mark.

Best of luck....it's all worth it in the end...

cpartin

As for getting repeat questions on practice exams, what I did was even if I had the correct answer memorized, I would take the time to read through the question and explain to myself WHY that was the right answer and the others were incorrect instead of just clicking and moving on. Really helped to reinforce things for me.

sratakhin

4 minutes for a subnetting question? You gotta be kidding. It may be ok on the test, but no one would take seriously a network engineer or admin if one spends 4 minutes trying to figure out what subnet a particular host is on.

cb3dwa

sratakhin wrote: »

4 minutes for a subnetting question? You gotta be kidding. It may be ok on the test, but no one would take seriously a network engineer or admin if one spends 4 minutes trying to figure out what subnet a particular host is on.

really? why not?

i know plenty of v.good network engineers that use a calculator, maybe not good for the exam but in the real world there is more to networking than working out subnets in your head.

sratakhin

Well, I don't know what to say.
I have some math background, so subnetting in my head is really easy for me.

mguy

sratakhin wrote: »

Well, I don't know what to say.
I have some math background, so subnetting in my head is really easy for me.

I have BS in a mathematics oriented field, yet I had to practice subnetting for weeks to build my speed.

Has nothing to do with it.

Mrock4

As others have said, keep practicing.

Agreed that 4 minutes for a subnetting question is too long. It's not a bad thing, just means you need more practice. You've failed the test, it was fair, you were not ready. Now you will be pushed to study harder, and truly understand the concepts, and when you pass, it will be totally earned- and you'll be a better technician for it.

NetworkVeteran

cb3dwa wrote: »

i know plenty of v.good network engineers that use a calculator, maybe not good for the exam but in the real world there is more to networking than working out subnets in your head.

A network engineer who needs four minutes to solve a subnetting question is not a very good network engineer. While there's more to being a very good network engineer than subnetting, IPv4 addressing is important and a key component of a network engineer's knowledge. Now, it's possible for such a person to be a very good engineer of another sort, say wireless or sonet.

I'd aim to get your speed down to under a minute, so it doesn't eat away at your exam time, or embarass you in interviews or otherwise interacting with other technical people. Also, if you're reasonably fast, it will help you identify problems in real networks.

MrXpert

Being able to subnet in under 30 seconds should be what you aim for. I had an interview a few months ago and one of the questions that came up was a subnetting scenario and i was able to answer it in 15 seconds. I'm not boasting but you'll find that there's many people on here that are faster than me. You have to test yourself everyday, get really good at it, so much so that you can fire the answer out quickly. Subnetting plays an important part when you create your labs. It's good to do it fast for personal reasons to. The less time you spend messing around with the calcs the more time you can spend configuring the routers. For me what worked well was creating my own labs and applying the addressing to them when I did CCNA. I also would use the various subnetting question websites found online. Cisco do a binary maths game and this will help anyone wanting to improve their binary maths. If you reach level 5 on that you're doing very well.

Back to original OP, I think you could also consider using other material apart from Mr Odom if that is what you used. There's plenty to choose from but i'd always go with CBT Nuggets, Chris Bryant. Check out router alley guide too. Rene Molenaar has some very good labs also for ccna level on his website.

MrXpert

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

Also, if you're reasonably fast, it will help you identify problems in real networks.

very true because it's like John Nash, where the answers just pop out at you from all the superflous code.