Bad day, I just failed my CCNA exam

derek111c

This was my first attempt.
I scored an 812 out of required 849.

I am more of an installer than an IT right now, but I thought I was reasonably prepared. I spent a lot of time studying. I took classes. I took practice exams. I am not happy at all. This is embarrassment to me.

At least I now know what to expect for next time.

The beginning of this exam started with simulation questions. I had burned entirely too much time playing with those. Time hurt me on this test. I ended up having to fly through the second half of the test with less with less than 30 minute left. There were also questions on this test that I do not believe were reviewed properly by some of the study materials I had.

I will try again very soon

derek111c

I see this site has some practice questions. This is good. I will be checking those out.

rono

Don't feel sorry for that!

You got a new experience if not CCNA cert.
I'm sure you will get your cert next time!

CCNA is a hard test...

Webmaster

There's no need to be embarrassed at all. It seem most people don't make it the first time. But you are very close, after some extra work, I'm sure you'll pass it the next time. I know it's not fun to not pass the test, but passing it next time will have forced you to get the better out of yourself and walk that final mile.

Although the sims can be intimidating, those are the questions you can score with. Do you have access to Cisco equipment or a simulator? A good study guide (i.e. Cisco or Sybex)?

I see this site has some practice questions. This is good. I will be checking those out.

Also make sure to go through all the Sticky topics in this forum, including info about the actual sims and our TechNotes.

derek111c

Hey Rono and Webmaster, thankyou for the support.
I am glad to be a member here.

I just bought a Sybex guide a few weeks ago. Most of my studying was out of the Cisco CCNA companion guides. I was having trouble getting the SYbex CNNA Certsim program to work on my computer, but I will do what I can to get one working.

qsub

You didn't fail by much, for sure you'll get the past next time.

Oh yeah, and when you say simulation questions.

Is it questions like, here's a network. Fill in the blank IP address/subnet masks for XXX amount of computers?

nothing_pt

- Try to schedule a new exam as soon as possible.
- Focus on the part you did wrong.
- Think positive and don't put too much pressure on your shoulders. It's just an exam.

You will do it on the next try. Wanna bet?

elcaminoguy

Hi all, brand new here.

Just took the CCNA today and I too failed. I got an 831. I feel kinda robbed too.

I've been preparing for this thing off and on for almost 2 years because I really wanted to do it first time.

My big complaint was how tricky some of the questions were. I had one question that was one of the mini simulator types that took a minute just to figure out what they want.

I have doubts as to whether the author of the questions used english as a first lanuguage. It does make a difference and can be very distracting. I had about 10 minutes left when I finished it and felt a bit rushed but not horribly.

Whole test was kind of an endurance race though. I kept getting all these scenario questions (again written in bad grammar) that I had to sift through to figure out what the heck they wanted. I've taken a lot of Microsoft Exams and none of them were ever this bad.

My one true sim question was on the switches. I actually configured the wrong switch before I figured out what they were after. Had to fix that but it probably hurt me.

Anyway I've done everything short of the formal Cisco classes. Almost did those but the instructor was excrutiatingly slow and wasn't going to have us on routers for like 5 weeks into the class. I have two routers a 2611 and an old 1005 but no serial WIC on the 2611 so I can't really do much with serial ports. But at least I have two routers that can talk via E0 ports.

I'm going to have another whack at it in about a month. I have been way too intense on this CCNA stuff for the past 6 months. I even rescheduled the exam twice because I felt I wasn't ready.

Guess I still wasn't ready. Oh well, maybe next time.

QUIX0TIC

Not an issue... but wow... 2 years of study? Maybe you just over thought on the questions. That will happen sometimes.

elcaminoguy

It was two years but on and off. In that time I also had other responsiblilities in the way like dropping in new servers, installing Pix firewalls and VPN concentrators as well as family stuff on the personal side. I get pulled in a dozen different directions so it makes it hard to focus on any one thing for very long.

I would have done a boot camp if I could have afforded it and could get the time freed up.

I'm sure my experience is not unique.