Exam Tomorrow - Wish me luck!

Rearden

So I finally think that I'm ready and I'll be taking the 640-801 tomorrow at 11:00. Any last minute advice?

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Netstudent

The best advice i can give is to stay calm. You can't think straight if your nervous and start worrying about the time. When you get nervous you start forgetting fundamental things and your brain will go into FROZEN MODE. Use the 20min. from the survey to **** facts onto the platic sheet. I requested 2 sheets. One for a CIDR table and the other for little multiplication problems and what not. Don;t try to write to small with the dryerase marker. I was also allowed to bring my own chiseltip dry-erase marker but the one they had was identical to mine.

Don;t spend more than 15 minutes on one sim. If you are stuck, make the best guess, and move on. If you are just totally lost and haven't a clue, USE PROCESS OF ELIMINATION. every question on the exam will have something that can be eliminated unless you are not prepared.

You will get credit for what you did get right.

Some questions have multiple scroll bars on the test menu, don;t forget to scroll down on each scroll bar so you don't miss any pertinent information.

AND BEST OF LUCK MAN!

gabrielbtoledo

I also read in another forum that in your last 15 min (lets say you have 15 questions left), better to take a 30 sec or 1 min break and then go back to work. Towards the end, candidates tend to slack off due to brain fatigue.

Good luck and let us know how you did.

Rearden

Thanks for the words of encouragement. By tomorrow, I meant Wednesday. I forgot that I had taken an extra day off to get in some more studying.

Netstudent

reread the frame-relay chapter, read over vlans, OSPF and EIGRP. read over the rules of rootbridge election and port states. Oh and while you are studying practice a couple standard and extended ACL's while keeping placement strategy in mind.

mikej412

Rearden wrote:

Any last minute advice?

Remember to breathe during the exam.... if you wait until the last 15 questions you might pass out before you there

Remember your time management. If you need more than 10 minutes to complete a SIM, you probably didn't do enough hands on practice. You do get partial credit, so if you've "completed" it but can't get any verification parts to work -- hope you got something right and move on. If you think you'll magically trip over the correct answer if you spend 15-20 minutes on the SIM.... you may get an number of "simple questions" wrong later just because you'll be rushing.

Read the question, and all the possible answers. Then read the question again before you select your answer or answers. Sometimes you miss a word in the questions and a wrong answer sounds good.... or you see an okay answer, but the real or better answer is further down the answer list.

Good Luck!

Netstudent

Remember to breathe during the exam.... if you wait until the last 15 questions you might pass out before you there

thats hillarious. Could you imagine how that would be if a lab proctor had to pour a bucket of water on your head because the test made you faint.

**get up there buddy, wake up, you can do it now.**

borumas

Good luck to you, take a few breaths before you start the test and remind yourself how much you have been preparing for this test- it should help build up your confidence and take away some test anxiety (it works for me a bit).

jediknight

The advice in this thread is probably the best advice you'll need for the exam. Trust me I just passed my CCNA 640-801 last week and all of it applied for me, but not without failing once. Here is my advice to you so you can pass the first time unlike me

TIME! - This is exactly why I failed the first time around. I did not pay any attention to the time and spent far too much time on the SIMs. (I'm a perfectionist and like to double and triple check myself) I got half way through the exam and only had 15 min left. Please make sure to pace yourself and like has already been mentioned don't spend more than 15 min on a SIM. It just was disappointing for me as I knew the material 100%, but was careless about the time. 90 min is enough time as long as you truly understand the concepts. Don't let this happen to you.

Know and understand the following: STP (how to find a root bridge, priority, ect...) RIP, OSPF & EIGRP (understand how they work and how to configure them) VTP , ACL's (standard and extended) how routers and switches work (yeah sounds easy, but make sure you know how they work) cablings, router statup process and POST, VLAN's and VLAN routing(really make sure you understand this like the back of your hand) NAT, Frame Relay and configuring it(understand this really well) and of course subnetting and VLSM(you will pretty much fail if you don't have a good control on these two topics and I can guarantee you they will come up in the exam) Most people will probably tell you to study and understand ISDN and DDR. Without breaking CDA I will tell you that I pretty much skipped over this stuff in my studies and my score did not suffer any as a result. You'll probably get a few INTRO questions through in as well, but mainly it's all ICND stuff.

Know your show commands! Trust me, you will need them.

All in all if you have studied the material and understand it, you will have no problem. Get some good rest and go into the exam with a clear mind and RELAX. Oh did I mention TIME.

Good Luck and I look forward to hearing about your pass the first time around.

techED

Good luck to you, stay calm, and don't think logical , think cisco

7255carl

best of luck

janmike

Good luck!

Slowhand

Rearden wrote:

Any last minute advice?

The only advice I can give: click on the correct answers for each question.

Other than that, believe in yourself and don't stress yourself out. It's only a test, you've been studying hard, and you can pass it.

mattipler

I've got mine on Thursday mate... good luck. I'm feeling the nerves rising. Just got to try and not let them get on top of me and I should be ok.

Good luck!

mattipler

One question... do you get given a ruler so you can create a chart?

networker050184

Good luck, don't worry you will do fine!

mattipler they didn't give me a ruler, I'm not sure but I don't think you can bring on with you either.

mattipler

Cheers networker050184

APA

Good Luck to all of you going for your CCNA in the next few days

.......I'm sure you will do absolutely fine!

I can't wait for my turn to smash 640-802 outta the park!!!! Played around with xmodem today and 3750 stacks..... awesome fun!!! Well xmodem is bloody time consuming but the stackwise lab was fun!!!

cyberpimp28

jediknight wrote:

The advice in this thread is probably the best advice you'll need for the exam. Trust me I just passed my CCNA 640-801 last week and all of it applied for me, but not without failing once. Here is my advice to you so you can pass the first time unlike me

TIME! - This is exactly why I failed the first time around. I did not pay any attention to the time and spent far too much time on the SIMs. (I'm a perfectionist and like to double and triple check myself) I got half way through the exam and only had 15 min left. Please make sure to pace yourself and like has already been mentioned don't spend more than 15 min on a SIM. It just was disappointing for me as I knew the material 100%, but was careless about the time. 90 min is enough time as long as you truly understand the concepts. Don't let this happen to you.

Know and understand the following: STP (how to find a root bridge, priority, ect...) RIP, OSPF & EIGRP (understand how they work and how to configure them) VTP , ACL's (standard and extended) how routers and switches work (yeah sounds easy, but make sure you know how they work) cablings, router statup process and POST, VLAN's and VLAN routing(really make sure you understand this like the back of your hand) NAT, Frame Relay and configuring it(understand this really well) and of course subnetting and VLSM(you will pretty much fail if you don't have a good control on these two topics and I can guarantee you they will come up in the exam) Most people will probably tell you to study and understand ISDN and DDR. Without breaking CDA I will tell you that I pretty much skipped over this stuff in my studies and my score did not suffer any as a result. You'll probably get a few INTRO questions through in as well, but mainly it's all ICND stuff.

Know your show commands! Trust me, you will need them.

All in all if you have studied the material and understand it, you will have no problem. Get some good rest and go into the exam with a clear mind and RELAX. Oh did I mention TIME.

Good Luck and I look forward to hearing about your pass the first time around.

Rearden,

These are good words of advise listen to this man/woman.

This is about the most encouraging response I've seen so far. Thanks for the words of wisdom. I've been putting mine off because I'm not sure I'm ready but now I feeling like I wan to book the exam and prepare like there is no tomorrow. I've been struggling with joggling the CCNA material and my work schedule but you've encouraged me.

I will get my lab kits up and running straight away as soon as I'm able to get a 2950 to practice on. Thanx

Rearden

So is it good that I can barely stand to read the books anymore because I'm just about reading the headings and saying the details in my head?? I sure hope so!

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I think the best thing that's going to help me is give myself some time tonight that is not studying. I'm getting burned out and taking some relaxation time before the exam will be a big help.

Netstudent

Thats pretty much when I knew it was time for me. When the books start getting monotonous and repetitive. When you feel like you can recite the book chapter for chapter. When I started feeling that way, I scheduled and past. simple as that!

Rearden

Passed with a 910. Not the greatest of scores, but i'll take it. Next order of business:

Netstudent

CONGRATS!!!!!!!

thats an awesome score man. You made an A!!!!!

You can't ask for beter than that. Thats when you know you did everything right!

SALU!!!!

ITdude

Congrats man! Doesn't it feel good when that screen pops up with the Congratulations message after all your hard work?

Now go relax and enjoy the moment.

Netstudent

When i took mine I was peaking through my hands when I hit the last "next"

. The closer I got to the end and more nervous I became. Then in an instant it's this wave of satisfaction that is overcoming.

ITdude

Not to mention relief!

Rearden

So it's either CCDA or CCNP next. Any suggestions? Is CCDA about to change the way CCNA is?

Netstudent

I think it the DA is changing because a new book is coming out, but I have read from others that it would be advantageous to try and knock out BCMSN before CCDA. I read that there is a lot of material on DA that is introduced in BCMSN.

You could start on NP, pass BCMSN, and then take the one test for DA. Then you would be on track for NP and pick up DA along the way.

Just a suggestion. I think those are my plans come to think of it.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24159

mikej412

Rearden wrote:

Passed

Congratulations!

jediknight

Congrats and well done on the pass! You should not be disappointed about your score as that's a great score as has been mentioned already.

The BCMSN is the best way to go first if you are going to go for the CCDA as there will be BCMSN material on the exam, then go for CCDA. Most people I hear to the BSCI first as it's rumored to be the hardest exam out of the 4 for the CCNP track. I'd be curious for other opinions on this.

Netstudent

With BGP, ISIS and IPv6 it wouldn't surprise me in the least. I will find out soon enough.