CCNA Security: 794 / 1000

aftereffector · February 2014

So close! Yet so far... I just scored 794 out of a possible 1000 on the 640-554 IINS exam. The passing mark was 804, so I missed it by one percentage point.

I used the Keith Barker / Scott Morris OCG as a study guide, supplemented with some Skillport online training modules (which were buggy, not particularly in-depth, and prone to typos). I ran into one or two questions on the exam which were not covered in the OCG - I just checked the index - but overall the book seemed to track along with the exam fairly well. I aced the simulations but fell short in some areas, notably Common Security Threats (duh!), Common Layer 2 Attacks (duh!), firewall technologies and IPS. I think I was overconfident in the first two domains I just listed and didn't really spend much time reviewing them... I just took CASP and CCNA R&S not long before that, so I figured I already understood security threats and VLANs. Well, I suppose not!

I have a week to cool my heels before re-attempting (and crushing!) the exam, which should be more than enough time to do a comprehensive review of the four domains on which I scored less than 80%. I underestimated this exam a little, and the $250 retest will be a reminder not to underestimate the Voice exam, which is coming up next on my programme.

Back to the books!

mistabrumley89 · February 2014

Sorry to hear that. Just smooth out your rough areas and you should be fine.

dpsmooth15 · February 2014

Next week I will be looking to read PASSED on the Forum

RouteMyPacket · February 2014

It happens but I must ask, where is your focus? You mention wanting to do CCNA Voice next? What do you work with on a day to day basis?

aftereffector · February 2014

I work as essentially the equivalent of a NOC manager in the military. We have some Cisco devices, but I don't get to work with the production stuff because if I did, I would be taking training opportunities away from the soldiers who actually need to be confident with configurations... so I am working on Packet Tracer and about to try and set up a GNS3 environment.

My long term focus is information security, so I took CASP and will be pursuing CISSP later this year, but in the meantime I feel like I need more knowledge of how the network operates at the device level in order to understand how to create and implement policies at the management level. Hence, CCNA R&S, CCNA Security, and Voice to get an introduction to unified communications. I don't plan on doing any more CCNA level tracks until I get enough experience with Cisco devices to work through the CCNP R/S track, and that will be a few years from now.