Passed the ICND2!
treehouse
Member Posts: 77 ■■□□□□□□□□
in CCNA & CCENT
I got an 888 (passing score was 825).
Holy crap, that was a mind twister. About halfway through the test I had resigned myself to taking it again, and started viewing it more as practice for the next one. I think that might have saved my bacon because 'knowing' that I had failed made me more relaxed.
I was surprised at how deep the questions were - they didn't want you to know X, they wanted you to know why X caused Y to happen, and what would happen if Z was configured instead.
I used:
Odom's OCG (3rd edition)
Lammle's CCNA (7th edition)
Boson exSim Max
Packet Tracer
CBT Nuggets
ICND2 notes from this forum
I also got some labbing time at work with real equipment. I probably could have gotten by with just Packet Tracer, but this was really nice just for confidence-building.
Those notes were a great resource for the last week of study. Thanks to wweboy for reposting them, and to whoever wrote them originally.
The Boson exSim was great - unlike with the ICND1, I found the actual test harder, but the practice tests put me in the right train of thought for my final studies. Up until I took them I just wasn't looking deep enough into each topic, or taking the time to really understand which show commands would show which outputs.
I'm going to take a month or two off of certifications but I'm not going to stop my networking studies. Someone (I think it was irisangel) suggested reading Network Warrior a while back, so I'm going to pick that up this weekend and go through it. I also had a script programming class last semester that gave me a good foundation on Python and BASH. I'm not sure which of those I'm going to work on, but I've been told by engineers that it is a good idea to learn at least one scripting language well enough to use during large installations.
Does anyone have any suggestions on which scripting language would be better to learn, and what resources I should pick up to learn scripting from a network engineer's perspective?
When I get back to certs (probably mid-September) I'm going to take one of the concentrations (either Voice or Security), and then move on to the CCNP if I have a network-centric job at that point.
Holy crap, that was a mind twister. About halfway through the test I had resigned myself to taking it again, and started viewing it more as practice for the next one. I think that might have saved my bacon because 'knowing' that I had failed made me more relaxed.
I was surprised at how deep the questions were - they didn't want you to know X, they wanted you to know why X caused Y to happen, and what would happen if Z was configured instead.
I used:
Odom's OCG (3rd edition)
Lammle's CCNA (7th edition)
Boson exSim Max
Packet Tracer
CBT Nuggets
ICND2 notes from this forum
I also got some labbing time at work with real equipment. I probably could have gotten by with just Packet Tracer, but this was really nice just for confidence-building.
Those notes were a great resource for the last week of study. Thanks to wweboy for reposting them, and to whoever wrote them originally.
The Boson exSim was great - unlike with the ICND1, I found the actual test harder, but the practice tests put me in the right train of thought for my final studies. Up until I took them I just wasn't looking deep enough into each topic, or taking the time to really understand which show commands would show which outputs.
I'm going to take a month or two off of certifications but I'm not going to stop my networking studies. Someone (I think it was irisangel) suggested reading Network Warrior a while back, so I'm going to pick that up this weekend and go through it. I also had a script programming class last semester that gave me a good foundation on Python and BASH. I'm not sure which of those I'm going to work on, but I've been told by engineers that it is a good idea to learn at least one scripting language well enough to use during large installations.
Does anyone have any suggestions on which scripting language would be better to learn, and what resources I should pick up to learn scripting from a network engineer's perspective?
When I get back to certs (probably mid-September) I'm going to take one of the concentrations (either Voice or Security), and then move on to the CCNP if I have a network-centric job at that point.
2015 GOALS
VCP [ ] VCP5-DT
VCP [ ] VCP5-DT
Comments
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hodgey87
Member Posts: 232
Congrats man!
I'm currently working as a network engineer and seem to be doing a lot of bash at the minute! -
networker050184
Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
Congrats!
I'm currently trying to learn some more python myself. Good luck!An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made. -
SharkDiver
Member Posts: 844
Congratulations!
I did CCNA Voice, then Security, then CCNP. That path worked for me.
Good Luck. -
coffeeluvr
Member Posts: 734 ■■■■■□□□□□
Congratulations on the pass!!"Something feels funny, I must be thinking too hard. - Pooh" -
Dakinggamer87
Member Posts: 4,016 ■■■■■■■■□□
Congrats on pass!!
Welcome to the Cisco club*Associate's of Applied Sciences degree in Information Technology-Network Systems Administration
*Bachelor's of Science: Information Technology - Security, Master's of Science: Information Technology - Management
Matthew 6:33 - "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."
Certs/Business Licenses In Progress: AWS Solutions Architect, Series 6, Series 63 -
sigsoldier
Member Posts: 136 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats! I plan on taking it in a month or so. I will definitely be glad to have this one under my belt. -
MrXpert
Member Posts: 586 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats on your pass!
By the way that man in your avator thingy looks a lot like Jean Reno? is it? or are my eyes deceiving me?I'm an Xpert at nothing apart from remembering useless information that nobody else cares about. -
snadam
Member Posts: 2,234 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats! Enjoy your time off!
As for Boson, pretty significant gap in difficulty to the real thing? That is, of course, you're able to answer that without violating anything in the NDA.
I'm doing pretty well with Boson at the moment, but I don't want to gain any false confidence.
anyway, great job!**** ARE FOR CHUMPS! Don't be a chump! Validate your material with certguard.com search engine
:study: Current 2015 Goals: JNCIP-SEC JNCIS-ENT CCNA-Security -
treehouse
Member Posts: 77 ■■□□□□□□□□
Thanks, everyone!
snadam - sorry, don't let that throw you off. Boson was an excellent form of study and I am 100% sure I would have failed if I hadn't had those practice tests somewhere in my progression. I found the specific set of questions on the actual test harder than the ones on the Boson. Since the actual test is different every time, I would imagine it is quite possible to have the opposite experience (where Boson is harder). It was definitely the same ballpark, and Boson helped me realize that I had to delve much deeper into each subject, and really understand the details of every back-end process and every show command output. That (and getting you into 'test mode') was the value of Boson for me. It's also worth noting that I scored higher on the actual test than I did on any of the Boson practice exams, so the perceived difficulty might just have been an emotional response to the pressure of the situation.
MrXpert - that is indeed Jean Reno. It's a scene from one of my favorite movies: Ronin.
I'm probably going to study up BASH and then Python. I find the syntax of BASH cumbersome, so mastering that first should make Python a breeze.2015 GOALS
VCP [ ] VCP5-DT -
silverp1
Member Posts: 124
Congrats!Certs: CCENT, CCNA:R&S
Working on: MCITP:SA
Goals: CCENT (ICND1) [Done], CCNA (ICND2) [Done], MCITP:SA -
snadam
Member Posts: 2,234 ■■■■□□□□□□
thanks for the followup treehouse. Makes more sense now, as I use practice tests in a similar fashion. I feel a bit better about my progress then.**** ARE FOR CHUMPS! Don't be a chump! Validate your material with certguard.com search engine
:study: Current 2015 Goals: JNCIP-SEC JNCIS-ENT CCNA-Security
