Close but no cigar, ROUTE failed again

I got hit immediately with sims and simlets that I was perfectly confident answering, but it seems like the Q/A are completely abstract, like they ask a question about a technology with the premise of the answer seeming to allude to another technology but not specifying that technology - For a random example asking about authentication, but alluding to how it works with PPPoE without mentioning PPPoE.

Am I answering a question about how the auth protocol works, or how it works with PPPoE? Thats the only thing I can pull off the top of my head, but there were just a ton of them like that, I just hate that ****.

Then the questions are mainly multiple answer, so you get 2 or 3 changes to get it completely wrong if your confident with 2 answers but again that 3rd one is a 50/50.

I missed it 720 / 790 to pass, but I am so ******* frustrated by the questions / multi-answer ****, it just completely negated me rocking (and verifying that I rocked) 3 god damn simulators.

This is going on $900 to reschedule the thing, I am considering if its worth it anymore, if SWITCH is anything like this bull **** then **** Cisco tests and those who claim these exams aren't money grabs. I could write more coherent question / answers in a drunken ******* stupor. ******* god damn it.

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pearljam

Sorry to hear. I understand I failed my first attempt a month ago. I've decided to study straight for the CCIE, I'm not going to waste money on these three exams and potentially spend a couple grand when I can just put that towards the top lvl cert.

networker050184

It seems like you're blaming the exam rather than wanting to admit you're not ready. Hit the books and get back at it. The exam is not insurmountable. Thousands of other people have faced these exams and conquered them. Preparation is key!

Good luck!

bjpeter

ande0255 wrote: »

I got hit immediately with sims and simlets that I was perfectly confident answering, but it seems like the Q/A are completely abstract, like they ask a question about a technology with the premise of the answer seeming to allude to another technology but not specifying that technology - For a random example asking about authentication, but alluding to how it works with PPPoE without mentioning PPPoE.

Am I answering a question about how the auth protocol works, or how it works with PPPoE? Thats the only thing I can pull off the top of my head, but there were just a ton of them like that, I just hate that ****.

Then the questions are mainly multiple answer, so you get 2 or 3 changes to get it completely wrong if your confident with 2 answers but again that 3rd one is a 50/50.

I missed it 720 / 790 to pass, but I am so ******* frustrated by the questions / multi-answer ****, it just completely negated me rocking (and verifying that I rocked) 3 god damn simulators.

This is going on $900 to reschedule the thing, I am considering if its worth it anymore, if SWITCH is anything like this bull **** then **** Cisco tests and those who claim these exams aren't money grabs. I could write more coherent question / answers in a drunken ******* stupor. ******* god damn it.

Maybe you should have skipped the sims and then come back to them later after you have answered all the multple-choice questions.

Welly_59

You can't skip in cisco exams

ande0255

Let me ask you, if TCP and UDP traffic are mixed, what is the problem?

2 clear answers, and your left with "starvation" or "UDP starvation"?

Starvation is caused by UDP traffic, however it's just called starvation, or is it?

My exam started with 2 sim and 2 sim lets and more sims, I cannot believe I failed this exam. $900.

$900 for 1/3 exams, and yes the Sims glitched where text was over writing itself, I'm not sure if there is some comeback from that.

I'm booking one more, and I may stop there, I am so ******* pissed about my fail today, ****.

ande0255

The fact of the matter is, the exam is designed for you to fail, and that really pisses me off.

Like I've said before Cisco multi answer questions are loaded with horse ****, they are designed to make you fail, unless you get a ******* brain ****.

I've shut myself in for 5 months solid, work experience and labbing into the night, the fact that Cisco's bull **** "multiple answer" **** for every question with weird wording in the answers is bull ****.

Its like if you don't brain ****, you don't know what they want, I want to pass this on skill but these silly ass multi answers with vague context in the question and answers makes me ******* irritated.

ande0255

I'd like to know if anyone disagrees with my point of view, or if this is just something we put up with?

To me who works eat sleeps and shits Cisco, this is insulting.

It's insulting because your not testing my knowledge of protocols, or even of reasoning because I can deduce wrong answers based on context of the question / objective, but they are throwing in "sort of" answers to their barrage of multi-answer / fail-all questions which is just ******* bull ****.

"Hey, how about instead of testing candidates knowledge of configuration and verification, we add some random nonsensical bull **** in there so they have to re-test 8 times?"

**** that bull ****.

Welly_59

In regards to udp tcp starvation I would say the answer is starvation. As what is causing it is udp dominance so I deduce that udp starvation must be incorrect.

And I agree on the test questions. It's what drives a minority of people to use exam ****

ande0255

pearljam wrote: »

Sorry to hear. I understand I failed my first attempt a month ago. I've decided to study straight for the CCIE, I'm not going to waste money on these three exams and potentially spend a couple grand when I can just put that towards the top lvl cert.

This has been a thought, if I sign up for a 3rd attempt that is $900, plus the $500+ unpaid time off from work, I thought about the CCIE and just skipping straight to that.

Can I ask, what your ROI is for a CCIE? Or how you plan to tackle it? At this point I could have bought myself a seat a Narbik boot camp, at least if I sink another $300 into another exam.

Good lord, I am so pissed. God damn it.

bjpeter

Welly_59 wrote: »

You can't skip in cisco exams

Why is that? I'm curious.

ande0255

Once you hit next after answering a question, there is no option to go back to a question.

bjpeter

ande0255 wrote: »

Let me ask you, if TCP and UDP traffic are mixed, what is the problem?

2 clear answers, and your left with "starvation" or "UDP starvation"?

Starvation is caused by UDP traffic, however it's just called starvation, or is it?

My exam started with 2 sim and 2 sim lets and more sims, I cannot believe I failed this exam. $900.

$900 for 1/3 exams, and yes the Sims glitched where text was over writing itself, I'm not sure if there is some comeback from that.

I'm booking one more, and I may stop there, I am so ******* pissed about my fail today, ****.

How long did you spend on each sim? Next time, I suggest letting the proctor know about any glitches in your exam. I don't know what he or she could do, but maybe Cisco can take that into consideration when scoring your exam.

Is it possible to get your employer to pay for the exam next time?

ande0255

Employer pays for Pass grades, and I've called in proctors on this kind of crap before, they are basically just receptionists.

I find Cisco's approach to "tricking" professionals on their exams completely ridiculous, I work on Cisco gear every day at my job, and lab it after work for hours into the morning at times if something gets me stuck.

Its a ******* crock of ****. If anyone can dispute that Cisco fucks their candidates, please I am all ears, let me know the definition of starvation vs UDP starvation. ******* bunch of bull ****, **** Cisco.

MitM

I know it can be frustrating, but hang in there. I didn't take this exam for CCNP, I took the older 642-902 exam, so I'm not sure about the questions. I've had my share of frustrating questions on both CCNA DC and CCNA Sec exams.

As far as going straight for CCIE instead, I'll say it depends. What's your end goal? When I went for my CCNP R&S, I had no plans on going for CCIE after. If you think your end goal is CCIE, then I'd probably say, you have your CCNA, you work with cisco gear all day, maybe just go for CCIE. As I look at CCNP Security, I'm thinking of going straight for CCIE Sec instead.

Recently announced, you now have the additional option of renewing your CCIE with CPE credits, instead of taking the written exam every two years. it costs more, but if your company pays for training, it doesn't matter

ande0255

Welly_59 wrote: »

In regards to udp tcp starvation I would say the answer is starvation. As what is causing it is udp dominance so I deduce that udp starvation must be incorrect.

And I agree on the test questions. It's what drives a minority of people to use exam ****

When things could be applicable in different ways, like a filter-list vs a distribute-list in OSPF LSA DB'S I can understand that, but it's ridiculous **** like starvation or UDP starvation that makes me lean toward the minority on this exam.

It's a shame we can't share an equal integrity and agreement as a candidate and a crediting vendor, if Cisco wants to play tricks and test like assholes, game on. I'll pass the next attempt, but not how I wanna.

ande0255

MitM wrote: »

I know it can be frustrating, but hang in there. I didn't take this exam for CCNP, I took the older 642-902 exam, so I'm not sure about the questions. I've had my share of frustrating questions on both CCNA DC and CCNA Sec exams.

As far as going straight for CCIE instead, I'll say it depends. What's your end goal? When I went for my CCNP R&S, I had no plans on going for CCIE after. If you think your end goal is CCIE, then I'd probably say, you have your CCNA, you work with cisco gear all day, maybe just go for CCIE. As I look at CCNP Security, I'm thinking of going straight for CCIE Sec instead.

Recently announced, you now have the additional option of renewing your CCIE with CPE credits, instead of taking the written exam every two years. it costs more, but if your company pays for training, it doesn't matter

This one is designed for you to fail, when 75% of questions are multi answer with confusing questions / answers, and a sim here and there, I mean if you can afford it spend $300 and see how you score.

No insults intended, I'm still licking my wounds from that dog **** exam.

To answer your question, I got in this neck deep to learn and work with the highest level engineers, which I am now but I keep going back to my manager with ******* fail grades.

How does that reflect upon my professionally? We trust him with 200+ customers routers but he can't pass ROUTE to save his ass? God that pisses me off. GAH.

cisco4life

Whatever you do, don't give up! I've seen too many people give up when they've put in so much effort studying and they are so close to passing the exam as you appear to be. I totally agree that Cisco (and many other certification vendors) word their questions in a way to make them have a high failure rate. Maybe it's their business model to make more money on exams, who knows? Having taken many Cisco exams (with several re-takes), the best advice I would give is as soon as you leave the exam center, write down everything you remember from the tricky questions or questions you weren't sure of and then go back to the Cisco certification books, Cisco website, etc and read up on those topics. Then make sure to reschedule the exam in a relatively short time (within 1-2 months) while the information is still fresh in your head. As crazy as the questions seem on the exams, I have always been able to find a reference in the Cisco books or Cisco website to the topic. Good luck!

cisco4life

Another thing I found that might eliminate some of the pressure/stress, is to schedule the exam without telling your employer or coworkers. That way if you don't pass initially, you don't have to deal with the stress of how they might perceive you. I have seen many people get consumed by that type of pressure. Just let them know you're studying for the exam but don't let them know you took it until you passed.

ande0255

I understand everyones view on this, if I could write down tricky ones thatd be great, but at the end of 90 minutes of critical thinking I don't know if your brain is a steel trap but Im fried as fuckin chicken.

I remembered the sims and ******* nailed them this time, and the multi answer bull **** negated it, I thought if I can nail these I got a Pass - Wrong as ****.

However I taught a more senior net engineer how route map logic works with acl's, and "match" "set" parameters, and he was like holy ****. Then we had a discussion about BGP Peering that was happening, and I blew his mind, and he is senior to me.

This test a complete mis-representation of ones skills, Cisco you disappoint me, and I hope some other network monopoly takes you down some day

ande0255

cisco4life wrote: »

Another thing I found that might eliminate some of the pressure/stress, is to schedule the exam without telling your employer or coworkers. That way if you don't pass initially, you don't have to deal with the stress of how they might perceive you. I have seen many people get consumed by that type of pressure. Just let them know you're studying for the exam but don't let them know you took it until you passed.

Oh I was cool as ice, I studied the sims and practiced them on my lab, and had them nailed. The multi answer questions that flood the exam are bull ****, plain and simple.

I was actually shocked to see a Fail grade, god what a bunch of ****, **** that exam.

ande0255

networker050184 wrote: »

It seems like you're blaming the exam rather than wanting to admit you're not ready. Hit the books and get back at it. The exam is not insurmountable. Thousands of other people have faced these exams and conquered them. Preparation is key!

Good luck!

I can admit I am not ready to take a vague explanation, and dissect it into 3 separate answers, not even the best answers but the ones Cisco wants.

I understand routing better than ever, but Cisco doesn't seem to think so, but they will happily take my money to keep proving me wrong.

That is a crock of **** dude, total bull ****.

pearljam

This has been a thought, if I sign up for a 3rd attempt that is $900, plus the $500+ unpaid time off from work, I thought about the CCIE and just skipping straight to that.

Can I ask, what your ROI is for a CCIE? Or how you plan to tackle it? At this point I could have bought myself a seat a Narbik boot camp, at least if I sink another $300 into another exam.

Good lord, I am so pissed. God damn it.

I get one free attempt to pass the test and a $5,000 incentive for passing. As for my plans to tackle it, I've read both FLG's for Route and Switch. Plan on doing some labbing to get that level of knowledge under my belt while also reading the stack of books (in the picture) and creating good notes that I can reference. Then I'm going to use the CCNP's as practice tests, take a bootcamp. and LAB LAB LAB while I eat, sleep, drink to absorb everything needed to pass both the written and Lab exams. Also, prob create a blog or something to track my progress and notes. Timeline - 1yr - 1.5yr

IMG_0790.jpg

pearljam

INE's CCIE RSv5 Expanded Blueprint

That is pretty much what I am following, I was watching the written videos the other day and Brian McGahan was talking about learn the core topics, lab the core topics, learn the advanced topics, then lab the advanced topics. So that is pretty much what I'm doing is getting a good base level knowledge and then adding on the more advanced topics such as multicast, qos, etc.

Iristheangel

It's been a few years since I took the CCNP Route exam but it took me about 6 months of study on that particular exam. I read the OCG, FLG, and CCNP Route Simplified books, went to work early at 5AM to lab until 8AM, labbed through lunch, and labbed when I got home until I got to the point where I felt like i could "own" the exam.

Granted, I haven't take the CCNP Route exam in years and I suppose I could google some bad sites just to see what the current questions are to see if they really are that crazy or not but I probably could find myself in some trouble if I did that. I did take 2 CCIE writtens lately which are 100% multiple choice and I can give you my feedback based on that:

- CCIE Security v4.1 - I failed this one in January. It was 100% my fault. I knew I would have a better shot at the v5 topics since those are what I had been studying for months but I defined to swing (and miss). These were my tweets about it at the time:
https://twitter.com/kmcnam1/status/825499226134048769
https://twitter.com/kmcnam1/status/825499283726036993
https://twitter.com/kmcnam1/status/825499890469920768
https://twitter.com/kmcnam1/status/825500151540125698

It was fair but I was not as well versed in the old stuff and I admitted it at the time and I still admit it now. I didn't know much about pre-8.3 NAT, CCP, or IPS 4200. Some of the various features and abilities of multicontext ASAs had changed since that exam had been written which confused me.

- CCIE Security v5 written - I took it in April and passed. It was a brand new exam and brand new questions but it was focused on the blueprint in which I had been studying for the last year and I passed with flying colors. Keeping it high-level, I would say that the questions are focused to make you really think about what the right answer is and not make it as simple as a process of elimination. i.e. "Here's a broken config. Please tell me what's wrong with it" <answers have 4 broken chunks of the config up and you have to pick one> or "You need to achieve X in the below config. What would you add to achieve this?" <4-8 questions with different configs and most of them will be very similar. If you haven't labbed it up and configured it many times in prep, you could easily misread or fail the question if you don't know the syntax well.>

That being said, it's always emotional to fail an exam. I think the only time I wasn't mad, frustrated, etc when I failed was the CCIE Sec v4.1 because I felt more foolish that I even tried it and I had to eat that $450 (my employer doesn't pay for written exams whether I pass or fail them). I remember that I was pretty damn pissed when I failed the CCIE lab the first time - I think I was the most frustrated because I couldn't think of what I could have done better or look back on any of the tasks and know that I felt like I did one of them wrong (outside of the Nexus 1000v part). Being frustrated is human nature and I think Cisco has had issues in the past with previous CCIE written exams where it felt a bit like factoid bingo but the CCNP has never quite been that bad. I help run a large study group where mostly everyone is studying for network certifications and seen a lot of folks get through the CCNP R&S in the last year. Some failed on the first or second go but they eventually got it. Their feedback of the exam was quite a bit different than yours but I do want to be respectful of your feelings as well here. Sometimes it's external things that cause you to fail or things that feel impossible but with that in mind, please remember this:

- Cisco's core business that makes them billions of dollars a year is in hardware/software sales, not certification exams. Given the size of Cisco, the exam revenue business is essentially like doing your laundry and finding a $1 bill stuffed in your jeans pockets that you forgot about
- Cisco actually would prefer if you pass. Why? The more comfortable you are with Cisco, the better marketing it is for them.
- While you are frustrated now after failing just recently, remember this: If you say something is someone else's fault, impossible to achieve without cheating, etc, you write yourself a self-fulfilling prophecy and take your own power to get it done away from yourself. I'm not into all the new age "The Secret" BS but I know a thing or two of setting yourself up to fail or get weak. Don't do that. You're better than that.

Anyways, my 2 cents. Go home, grab a beer, and do something fun to unwind and help you forget about this for a little bit. Reapproach the problem when you're in a better mindset.

Iristheangel

BTW, it looks like this guy broke down the part of the blueprint you were talking about pretty well: https://ethernuno.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/ccnp-route-300-101-part-1-5-describe-udp-operations/

Covers the following on the CCNP Route blueprint:
1.5 Describe UDP operations
1.5.a Starvation

Also check out this link: Enterprise QoS Solution Reference Network Design Guide - MPLS VPN QoS Design [Design Zone for IPv6] - Cisco

Mixing TCP with UDP
It is a general best practice to not mix TCP-based traffic with UDP-based traffic (especially Streaming-Video) within a single service-provider class because of the behaviors of these protocols during periods of congestion. Specifically, TCP transmitters throttle back flows when drops are detected. Although some UDP applications have application-level windowing, flow control, and retransmission capabilities, most UDP transmitters are completely oblivious to drops and, thus, never lower transmission rates because of dropping.

When TCP flows are combined with UDP flows within a single service-provider class and the class experiences congestion, TCP flows continually lower their transmission rates, potentially giving up their bandwidth to UDP flows that are oblivious to drops. This effect is called TCP starvation/UDP dominance.

TCP starvation/UDP dominance likely occurs if (TCP-based) Mission-Critical Data is assigned to the same service-provider class as (UDP-based) Streaming-Video and the class experiences sustained congestion. Even if WRED is enabled on the service-provider class, the same behavior would be observed because WRED (for the most part) manages congestion only on TCP-based flows.

Granted, it is not always possible to separate TCP-based flows from UDP-based flows, but it is beneficial to be aware of this behavior when making such application-mixing decisions within a single service-provider class.

ande0255

Yes I've always just answered the broader term of just "starvation" of the mix of traffic flows.

ande0255

Excuse that small head implosion, I remember the first time I was getting these multi answer questions that were tricky but I was confident, then the second time I nailed the sims at the beginning, so I had like 70+ minutes for Q/A's.

I was just getting hit with some of the blueprint items that are obscure in the way that video instructors don't have them in their course (because their videos were made in 2014 or so), so I used more Cisco discussion board and documentation on the parts I was getting my balls broken in.

I wasn't shocked to see the Fail again due to those answers, I'm going to give it one more try as I brought the score up a lot toward passing, so I can stop bitching about it

mj30250

I absolutely know your frustration, but if you truly nailed the sims/simlets, it's hard to believe that the remaining Q&As could trip up a genuinely prepared person to the point of failure. After sitting ROUTE, I went back into Cisco's Official Cert Guide and looked up the topics on which some of the more frustratingly-worded questions were written, and sure enough, the answers that Cisco was looking for on the exam in most cases were indeed right there in the text, so I couldn't absolve myself of blame entirely for struggling on those. Of course, there were a handful of questions on topics that the official guide didn't detail to level that the exam demanded, or that the guide didn't touch on at all, and that is indeed infuriating. Again, however, even if one had failed each of these questions, a truly prepared person should still have had enough cushion to turn in a pass.

So take a short amount of time to rage and vent, get over your blaming of Cisco, hit the books hard and focus in on those seemingly unimportant areas of text that you skimmed over before. If you've got the labbing side mastered, the hard work is already done.

scaredoftests

Welly_59 wrote: »

You can't skip in cisco exams

Which drives me crazy. Sometimes, on is unsure how t answer and want to come back. Very frustrating..

Legacy User

That sucks but On the plus side you did like 200 points better then last time so 3rd time is probably the charm.