Failed CCNP Route

JD20JD20 Member Posts: 66 ■■■□□□□□□□
Failed CCNP Route 300-101. I'm pretty frustrated and discouraged. The cert wasn't what I was expecting. The materials I used to study were:

Cisco OCG Route 300-101
Chris Bryant's CCNP Route Study Guide
Chris Bryant's CCNP Route Video Boot Camp
CBT Nuggets CCNP Route 300-101 Series
Boson Practice Tests
GNS3

I studied for 3 months before taking the certfication. I would study every weeknight for about 2 hours and about 3-4 hours on the weekends. I read OCG and Chris Bryan'ts book slowly and took detailed notes. Anytime I would come up on labs in the book, I would stop and lab them myself in GNS3. I made sure that I would go through all the "show" commands when I finished labbing a topic.


A little background on myself, I have an A.A.S. degree in Computer Networking Technologies and I currently posses my CCNA. I was able to pass the ICND2 back in December and didn't want to take to much time in between. I'm currently a Tier 1 NOC technician at a telco. I'm not a provisioner so I don't get to actually configure our equipment, but I do get a lot of exposure to complex configs which I study all the time. For example, PE and agg routers. I want to achieve my CCNP so I can move up in the company.

I guess my plan now is to take a week or two off to clear my head. I'll then find some new study material and try to hit the areas I was weak on. If anybody has any good suggestions on study tips, books/videos, or practice tests please let me know.

Edit: I forgot to mention my job paid for this cert. They will pay for any passing attempt from here on out.

Comments

  • DCDDCD Member Posts: 473 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Sorry to here that you failed the exam. How do you think you did on the Sim labs and what was your score?
  • Welly_59Welly_59 Member Posts: 431
    what topics did you have which you didnt think were covered in enough detail in the official study guides?
  • joshuamurphy75joshuamurphy75 Member Posts: 162 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Sorry to hear that, the same thing happened to me. It's a crazy hard test, but I keep seeing people on here who have passed it. The only approach I know of is to over-prepare. Don't rely on the official cert guides. Read the list of topics from Cisco's website, and get a good book or two on each. I'll be posting on the forum if that approach works for me.
  • negru_tudornegru_tudor Member Posts: 473 ■■■□□□□□□□
    I know that feeling all too well unfortunately but we all have to go through it at least once .. :) Blow some steam and then back at it, don't let 1 failure get in the way of doing what you like (and getting the cert for it :D). Try adding something different to your study material.. Give INE a try..Keith Bogarth's stuff is 100% gold.. he's one of the reasons I passed SWITCH on the 1st try.
    2017-2018 goals:
    [X] CIPTV2 300-075
    [ ] SIP School SSCA
    [X] CCNP Switch 300-115 [X] CCNP Route 300-101 [X] CCNP Tshoot 300-135
    [ ] LPIC1-101 [ ] LPIC1-102 (wishful thinking)
  • JD20JD20 Member Posts: 66 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Sorry to hear that, the same thing happened to me. It's a crazy hard test, but I keep seeing people on here who have passed it. The only approach I know of is to over-prepare. Don't rely on the official cert guides. Read the list of topics from Cisco's website, and get a good book or two on each. I'll be posting on the forum if that approach works for me.
    Yeah, that's what gives me hope. That I see people on here passing it so I'm going to keep trying. I admit the OCG wasn't as thorough as I expected it to be. I thought that by supplementing it with Chris Bryant I would be able to pass it. I'm going to pick up the FLG and use that as a new source of material. I'll also keep looking for other good reading material as well. Let me know how you do!
  • JD20JD20 Member Posts: 66 ■■■□□□□□□□
    I know that feeling all too well unfortunately but we all have to go through it at least once .. :) Blow some steam and then back at it, don't let 1 failure get in the way of doing what you like (and getting the cert for it :D). Try adding something different to your study material.. Give INE a try..Keith Bogarth's stuff is 100% gold.. he's one of the reasons I passed SWITCH on the 1st try.
    Thanks for the words of encouragement. Yeah, I'm going to take some time off and not think about Cisco. In a week or two, I will get back into full study mode and try once again. I will definitely look into INE. I've heard good stuff about them as well.
  • esr0159esr0159 Member Posts: 80 ■□□□□□□□□□
    never really liked the OCG for route try looking at the FLG version and also check "How to master CCNP Route" by rene molenaar.
    CCNP R&S | Planning to hit IE R&S or JNCIA or Security path|
  • JD20JD20 Member Posts: 66 ■■■□□□□□□□
    esr0159 wrote: »
    never really liked the OCG for route try looking at the FLG version and also check "How to master CCNP Route" by rene molenaar.
    Ok, thanks for the advice. I will definitely check those out.
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