Failed ICND2 - twice.

Node Man

Hi Everyone,
I failed ICND2 today, the old version, on the last day available. The testing facility was a mad house and overbooked. My test started over an hour late. But thats not why i failed. I got a 760. Needed 825. Back in May I failed badly, 600.

So i showed a lot of improvement, but needed to do better. I still found myself fighting the clock. Not about thinking through questions, but by reading the scenarios and stories too slowly. Not sure what to do about being a ponderous reader.

I only took the test today because we ran out of days. But I dont think that more time would have helped. I need to improve my confidence and test taking skills. Not sure that is cisco related.

So that leads us to now. The materials are changing and i basically feel back to square one. Does anyone know how long the new material will be kept?

Soo... here we are. Square one. Can anyone recommend some training materials, free or paid?

Thanks,

TechGuru80

If I am not mistaken the last time ICND2 was changed was like 2011 or 2009. That is quite a while. Also from what I hear ICND2 now covers less than the old version but you now have IPv6. I like the official Cisco book, CBT Nuggets is always recommended by people, Train Signal just to name a few.

Raywire86

Don't let it get to you. Take a week to feel bad or whatever, but get right back into it. Look at it this way, with your score you were 92% of the way to reaching your objective.

I failed 2 times and succeeded on the 3rd with similar scores as you. Let the disappointment drive you. The way I took it out was targeted the areas I scored lowest on (my first go I did awful at ACLs, my last attempt I did great on ACLs) by re-reading those chapters from different books.

What did the trick for me was picking up another CCNA book and starting from scratch. This may seem boring, but trust me you'll have the material down. It's better to know this stuff well then to "get lucky" the next time you take it.Since the exam changed - don't let that hang you up. There are a ton of new books out there to choose from. Get the best (make sure it's not from the author of the book you previously studied from) and just start over. You'll get through it faster than you think and you WILL succeed.

Heck, and if it's about money, just put those thoughts out of your head. The price I paid for taking ICND1 and ICND2 (x3) is NOTHING compared to the amount of salary increases I've gotten due to holding CCNA:R/S.

Serpente

It's not as bad as you make it out to be. Then new exam isn't a whole new curriculum that negates everything you have learned. Some topics from ICND2 have been moved to ICND1 and a few new topics have been added to ICND2. CBT Nuggets is always a great video resource. The CBT Nugget DVD for the new course actually explains what is changed and what is new in the new exam. Video instructionals aren't enough though so the new Cisco press book by Odom would be my recommendation. If you had the old material down then you could study just the new topics, but I think you would benefit from going over everything as it seems you still need some work.

You need to practice implementing what you know. You're a slow reader because you are not confident in your ability to asses what the question is asking. Try doing some practice exam questions so you can learn to interpret a question and quickly assess what it is that is being asked and what piece of knowledge you need to use to answer it.

The process should be like this:
1. You see the question pop up.
2. Within 1-2 seconds you establish what topic it deals with such as STP.
3. You establish what you need to do such as figure out the root bridge.
4. You apply your knowledge about STP and root bridges to answer the question.

If you take a long time to figure out what is needed to answer the question then you need to really practice interpreting questions. If you get hung up on how to answer it then you need to know the material better.

Node Man

Thanks guys for the good advice.

I just ordered the new ICDN odom book on amazon. (just $21.99) I'll get back to studying when it comes in.