Suffering Exam Anxiety

fondue · August 2004

Last week I completed the Cisco Academy courses at a local JC. When I started the classes I knew everything, after completing the classes I feel I know less. After taking roughly 40 chapter exams and 4 finals, I'm left with the sinking feeling I'm going to miss a bunch of trick\poorly written questions on the Cert exam.

I guess what I really want to know is the following:
Do you get partial credit for incomplete multiple answer question?
Are there actual router sims on the exam, instructor couldn't tell us?
If so can you use "tab" to complete and "?" for help?

Thanks,

2lazybutsmart · August 2004

Will this be your first exam? I guess it's pretty normal to be a bit scared in those situations --but that's normal. I felt wierd on my first exam.

But let's get to the point. Your instructor couldn't tell you whether there were any sims on the exam or not? I haven't taken the exam yet (dear me

), but I'm mighty sure you'll have a good deal of simulations in there. And FYI, everybody says they're the hardest thing on the exams, so make sure you do well on them.

I don't think there are any partial marks on the exam --or any other cert exam, for that matter-- so you'll have to be really sure about your answers.

Obviously, you can't be given the luxury of asking Cisco to complete the command syntax for you on an exam, so ? and tabs are a no no. So make sure you know all your commands by heart.

And finally, don't forget the famous "copy run start". You'll have it go down the drain if you don't do that.

Best of luck

2lbs.

Webmaster · August 2004

I was able to use the ? command and the tab key on the CCNA INTRO beta exam, the BSCI beta, and the BSCI 3.0 exam, which I took about a year ago. The weird thing is that I heard it from others as well that tab and ? were not available. I'm very sure they were in my case, for the BSCI exam I had to complete a sim that covered a topic I didn't even know it would be on the exam, nor the related commands. I was able to complete the sim by looking up possible commands in global and interface config mode and picking the most likely.

Unless someone who took the exam (or another Cisco exam) recently confirm otherwise, I still assume you can use tab and ? in the exam sims. The sims in the exam are not just a simpel shockwave application, it is an actual router sim. I.e. one could perform the tasks in one sim question at another sim question. The difference in sim questions is the initial configuration. The functionality of the router sim behind the question is the same for all sim questions.

The sims are there to test if you could (partially) configure an actual router not just remember commands and their syntaxes, so it is only logical that the sims simulate a fully functional router, and hence supports all commands one could use to perform the requested tasks.

It's more important to know which commands to use when and how, instead of knowing the exact complete syntax. It's not like it's possible to run a config with an incorrect syntax in it, if the syntax is incorrect the command is not accepted (or an attempt is made to resolve it to an IP address

).

Suffering Exam Anxiety

Comments