Failed ICND2 Today

wweboy

734 / 1000 ACL was 27% and configuration / troubleshooting was 33 % WAN was 100 and everything else was low to mid 80% I had a good idea that I would probably fail or barely pass I'm having a hard time remembering all the little details. Also I hate drag and drop questions lol probably why my Config / troubleshooting one is so low.

I've used the following for studying

CBT Nuggets Videos
Official Exam guide (Amazon.com: CCNA ICND2 640-816 Official Cert Guide (3rd Edition) (9781587204357): Wendell Odom: Books)
Youtube (keith barker vids)
GNS3 Workbench labs
Packet Tracer
ICND2 notes PDF

I get how to do stuff but I'm terrible at memorizing cold facts and stuff and that is where probably didn't do well. I had a question what is protocol X's Administrative distance?" I froze even though this morning I looked up the exact values and I couldn't recall the one in question but could others.

ACLs have always kicked my butt I understand them but don't understand them. Oh well enough whining I'm out $150 which hurts but on the other hand I got to take the exam see the types of questions and get a gist of where I'm rusty. I'm thinking of purchasing the BOSON practice exams as everyone says good things about them. I've studied off and on for 7 months but for the last week studied everyday, labbing, reading etc.

pamccabe

Don't quit wweboy, if you really want it make it a passion to get it done. Looks like you used the right materials, I've heard the same about Boson and plan to use them also. Sounds like you put in enough time with the right materials. I would take as many practice exams as you can from Boson and the Cisco Press book if you used it. (not sure what official exam book is) Maybe if you are more confident with the exam layout it would help with score. As always, never give up.

catak

Sorry to hear the bad news. I'm just beginning the track your on starting with CCENT first. A few questions:

1. Aren't they changing the exam to 101-100?
2. What exam question vendor did you go through? i.e. measureup or train signal?
3. I've downloaded the CBT's for ICND1, any good?

Please share your study material please for ICND1 and what where the key points on the exam to really study for?

Thanks.

pamccabe wrote: »

Don't quit wweboy, if you really want it make it a passion to get it done. Looks like you used the right materials, I've heard the same about Boson and plan to use them also. Sounds like you put in enough time with the right materials. I would take as many practice exams as you can from Boson and the Cisco Press book if you used it. (not sure what official exam book is) Maybe if you are more confident with the exam layout it would help with score. As always, never give up.

wweboy

1. The exam changes officially in September
2. Boson has a good rep around here (Have not used it personally)
3. The CBT Nuggets ICND1 is good but you really need a book and something like GNS3 or Packet tracer to lab on

ICND1 pointers. Learn to subnet and LAB your butt off until show commands and setting up a switch and router become natural to you. No really much more to say.

shellee1983

wweboy wrote: »

1. The exam changes officially in September
2. Boson has a good rep around here (Have not used it personally)
3. The CBT Nuggets ICND1 is good but you really need a book and something like GNS3 or Packet tracer to lab on

ICND1 pointers. Learn to subnet and LAB your butt off until show commands and setting up a switch and router become natural to you. No really much more to say.

I failed the CCENT a couple weeks ago and bought the Boson stuff that day because I thought no way am I going to be unprepared again. I've yet to retake my exam (part out of fear, part out of not wanting to take a second hit to my pride) but I will say that the netsim is great and it promotes redundancy on the simple stuff so when you are faced with a sim you're more comfortable (I am anyway, which is what killed me the last exam) and the practice exams are a great deal like the actual Cisco exams. I've also gotten a hold of packet tracer and plan on doing some stuff with that. I will say I severely underestimated the difficulty of the Cisco exams.

catak

So, what would be the first material to cover? Books, practice questions and jump into the Boson labs. I want to get a feel of the test questions, would the books lead that way or the labs?

wweboy wrote: »

1. The exam changes officially in September
2. Boson has a good rep around here (Have not used it personally)
3. The CBT Nuggets ICND1 is good but you really need a book and something like GNS3 or Packet tracer to lab on

ICND1 pointers. Learn to subnet and LAB your butt off until show commands and setting up a switch and router become natural to you. No really much more to say.

wweboy

catak wrote: »

So, what would be the first material to cover? Books, practice questions and jump into the Boson labs. I want to get a feel of the test questions, would the books lead that way or the labs?

Personally I like starting with the videos, Lab along with the videos, reading / labbing then practice exams as I learn the material.

Vask3n

wweboy wrote: »

734 / 1000 ACL was 27% and configuration / troubleshooting was 33 % WAN was 100 and everything else was low to mid 80% I had a good idea that I would probably fail or barely pass I'm having a hard time remembering all the little details. Also I hate drag and drop questions lol probably why my Config / troubleshooting one is so low.

I've used the following for studying

CBT Nuggets Videos
Official Exam guide (Amazon.com: CCNA ICND2 640-816 Official Cert Guide (3rd Edition) (9781587204357): Wendell Odom: Books)
Youtube (keith barker vids)
GNS3 Workbench labs
Packet Tracer
ICND2 notes PDF

I get how to do stuff but I'm terrible at memorizing cold facts and stuff and that is where probably didn't do well. I had a question what is protocol X's Administrative distance?" I froze even though this morning I looked up the exact values and I couldn't recall the one in question but could others.

ACLs have always kicked my butt I understand them but don't understand them. Oh well enough whining I'm out $150 which hurts but on the other hand I got to take the exam see the types of questions and get a gist of where I'm rusty. I'm thinking of purchasing the BOSON practice exams as everyone says good things about them. I've studied off and on for 7 months but for the last week studied everyday, labbing, reading etc.

Hey wweboy, this exam is pretty gnarly right? I think the level of difficulty between CCENT and ICND2 is different in the sense that CCENT requires you to do a lot of quick subnetting and confirmation with show commands whereas ICND2 requires a DEEP understanding of concepts. I only really had one or two subnetting questions on ICND2 one of which was a drag and drop scenario. The rest of the questions are about OSPF, EIGRP, routing, and not just details about how they behave in general but given a situation and routing protocol x, how does x react to this situation that was just introduced? (a line going down, a new route advertisement, etc). You know that feeling you had when asked about the AD of a protocol? I had that same exact feeling when I took the ICND2 and was asked about a specific ipv6 address from a list and was like "ok who is supposed to remember that?" But when I failed it that time I went back home and memorized every multicast address (both ipv4 and ipv6) and guess what, when I took the ICND2 again and passed, I blazed through those questions.

Like I said even after passing ICND2 I think that the exam is challenging especially compared to CCENT, but I still think its a better option in general to take it as two exams rather than one due to time constraints when taking it as one. Now let's say you are recertifying 3 years down the line it is probably more cost effective to pay for one exam rather than two, assuming you haven't earned the next higher level cert by then which hopefully we all will.

Souljacker

My advice is to not focus as much on theory as practical application. I'm a big fan of Wendell Odom's books for theory- you can probably pick them up on Kindle for cheap now that his new stuff is out and this old exam is going away. Paul Browning's CCNAin60days is now dirt cheap and good for staying on track and knowing what theory to study.

Get through the theory once - and then get into playing with labs and doing questions, referring back to the theory for questions you struggle with. Familiarity with the commands and what they can do\show is what will make those sim questions "gimmes". Get your hands on every practice test you can - here, Boson, ExamCram, whatever. It's good preparation for real test taking situations. Take them with you and glance through them on your lunch break, post them on the wall behind your desk, anything to maximize general exposure. So you might look at a question about the AD of ISIS for days on end but get a question on the AD of EIGRP... You'll be able to rule out 115 even though you don't quite remember EIGRP is 90 - then it's just a matter of ruling out the other answers you know are wrong, like 0 and 1.

Test taking is all about manipulating the questions. It's a methodology, and if you can stay cool and rule out what cannot possibly be correct when you don't know the answer cold, you will still sail through every time.