ISCW down, 3 more to go - hello all

kingpinofdiskskingpinofdisks Member Posts: 25 ■□□□□□□□□□
Wow, did I have an eye-opener!

I have not touched a router/switch in 8 years, and am unemployeed - good time to study up, right? I ran a small network (30 sites, 45 routers, 200 switches) for 5 years, so I am not a noob. It was a typical network - frame relay, hub/spoke, 2600 routers in the remote sites, 6509 switches with sup-III cards in the 5 main buildings, EIGRP and dual 20-mbit internet connections, 802.1Q vlans, maybe 3000 users. Not large at all, but good enough to cause me to think I know my sh1t. But I build the network without any training - I learned thru hands-on experience.

I bought the Cisco Press books, opened the biggest one (ISCW), took notes as I read it (2 weeks), then went and took the test.

Doh! Simulations? Complex questions? Not what I was prepared for... there were questions that are not covered by even one sentence in the darn book! Needless to say, got a 650.

I just took it again and passed this time. No thanks to Cisco Press though! I ended up thumbing thru the cisco website like mad, getting info on each topic.

I also am using an online rack rental company for practicing each concept. Between google, cisco website, and MODERATED, I have lots of lab scenarios to work thru. The rack rental time is key for me. 10 routers, 4 switches, a PIX, and a VPN concentrator allow me to work thru the scenarios no problem. I tested the Boson sim, and hated it big time. IMHO, there is no sim that is even close to a telent session with real equipment.

BTW - the Cisco press books - they are a good way to get basic info, but EACH CHAPTER/TOPIC needs lots of further online follow-up.

Comments

  • cisco_troopercisco_trooper Member Posts: 1,441 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Yeah, don't know what books you're reading but the ISCW is NOT the biggest......just saying'
  • mgeorgemgeorge Member Posts: 774 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Well congrats on the pass but get back out there icon_lol.gif
    There is no place like 127.0.0.1
  • redwarriorredwarrior Member Posts: 285
    ISCW is one of the skinniest books in my exam guide stack. You are right, though...I had the same shock when I took the ONT the first time...and the same disappointing result. I went back, got down with the CBT nuggets, Trainsignal videos, Cisco's website, and some lab time and passed on the second try. I guess a lot of people need to be bitten once by these exams to get a good study strategy figured out. The way I look at it now, the exam guides are just a very broad overview of the topics...and merely a starting place for studies. icon_rolleyes.gif

    CCNP Progress

    ONT, ISCW, BCMSN - DONE

    BSCI - In Progress

    http://www.redwarriornet.com/ <--My Cisco Blog
  • mikearamamikearama Member Posts: 749
    Congrats on the pass... you're on your way.

    And yep, hear ya on CiscoPress... never enough to study on alone. Shame you had to learn the hard way to venture out beyond cisco for study material.
    There are only 10 kinds of people... those who understand binary, and those that don't.

    CCIE Studies: Written passed: Jan 21/12 Lab Prep: Hours reading: 385. Hours labbing: 110

    Taking a time-out to add the CCVP. Capitalizing on a current IPT pilot project.
  • networker050184networker050184 Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
    Congrats on the pass!

    The Cisco Press books are great IMO but for the ONT and ISCW there are only exam cert guides and not study guides. The exam cert guides are more of a review rather than teaching the topics in depth. I would suggest you read both for the BSCI and BCMSN and for the ONT follow up like you did with plenty Doc reading. Good luck on the rest of the exams!
    An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made.
  • kingpinofdiskskingpinofdisks Member Posts: 25 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Yeah, don't know what books you're reading but the ISCW is NOT the biggest......just saying'

    http://www.bookpool.com/sm/158720178X

    I bought the 4-book library. Of the 4 books, the ISCW is the thickest.
  • mikej412mikej412 Member Posts: 10,086 ■■■■■■■■■■
    Between google, cisco website, and MODERATED
    You may want to run that MODERATED site through the CertSearch over at CertGuard.com and see what they say about it (hint: BrainDump).
    :mike: Cisco Certifications -- Collect the Entire Set!
  • cisco_troopercisco_trooper Member Posts: 1,441 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Yeah, don't know what books you're reading but the ISCW is NOT the biggest......just saying'

    http://www.bookpool.com/sm/158720178X

    I bought the 4-book library. Of the 4 books, the ISCW is the thickest.

    Me think you is crazy! I dunno man, I have that library in front of my although I have the ISCW book at home. I always thought of the BSCI and BCMSN books as being significantly larger than the rest. Anyway, it doesn't matter.

    Congrats on your pass man. Which one will be your next victim?
  • kingpinofdiskskingpinofdisks Member Posts: 25 ■□□□□□□□□□
    mikej412 wrote:
    Between google, cisco website, and MODERATED
    You may want to run that MODERATED site through the CertSearch over at CertGuard.com and see what they say about it (hint: BrainDump).

    http://www.certificationzone.com/

    That isn't a braindump site! The labs & tutorials are all original. I just was lazy in my typing - I didn't know there was such a thing as {moderated} until just now... cheating is for MODERATEDes...

    though I just bought the 1-mo membership to certificationzone so I could save all the lab scenarios to my laptop for future use ;) I don't have the $$ to pay for their year membership :)

    And I see a zillion cisco press books for study, but I can't afford them... I find it cheaper to use the 4 books I do have as a starting point for google searches on each subject... that way I can save my $$$ for lab rental time, which is the important part anyways..
  • kingpinofdiskskingpinofdisks Member Posts: 25 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Yeah, don't know what books you're reading but the ISCW is NOT the biggest......just saying'

    http://www.bookpool.com/sm/158720178X

    I bought the 4-book library. Of the 4 books, the ISCW is the thickest.

    Me think you is crazy! I dunno man, I have that library in front of my although I have the ISCW book at home. I always thought of the BSCI and BCMSN books as being significantly larger than the rest. Anyway, it doesn't matter.

    Congrats on your pass man. Which one will be your next victim?

    Currently working on BSCI - much easier than ISCW, but that is probably because I have experience with routing & switching, and had zero experience with the VPN, MPLS and firewall stuff.

    PS - in the real world, the Cisco PIX kinda sucks. Why? Cause it is really expensive. I use OpenBSD (with PF and CARP) to make redundant firewalls out of old desktops. I setup a manufacturing company (250 users) with redundant firewalls using 2 of their old Intel Celeron desktops (1.2ghz, 512mb RAM, 40gb HD, quad 10/100 nics) - so $50 for hardware and software. I even threw on PPTP (using poptop) & made 2 static routes so they could have Windoze 2000/XP/Vista users make a VPN connection into the network.

    The firewall would run <2% CPU under load. The load was a 6mbit internet connection and 7 VPN connections...
  • mikej412mikej412 Member Posts: 10,086 ■■■■■■■■■■
    I just was lazy in my typing - I didn't know there was such a thing as {moderated} until just now...
    You can't be lazy in your typing -- or your studies!! **** sites use all sorts of means to drive traffic to their sites, including "sound-a-like" or "similar" urls.
    cheating is for MODERATEDes...
    While my Ex may be a MODERATED, she wouldn't ****, at least not on an exam -- but I understand the sentiment. We prefer the less misogynistic and more professional sounding **** are for Chumps (as found in TechExam user snadam's signature line).

    Welcome to the forum! :D

    The best books for the BSCI and BCMSN exams are probably the Self-Study Guides -- which are best used along with the Exam Certification Guides. The ISCW and ONT exams don't have the Self-Study Guides, so we usually suggest checking the exam blueprints and then hitting up the Cisco Documentation and White Papers for anything not covered in the Exam Certification Guides (or not covered in depth when compared to the exam blueprint).

    There are suggested Cisco Documentation links in the CCNP FAQ that could be useful -- but no guarantees. Cisco can sneak in changes to the exam blueprint at any time, so always use that as your ultimate study guide for tasks and topics.
    :mike: Cisco Certifications -- Collect the Entire Set!
  • dynamikdynamik Banned Posts: 12,312 ■■■■■■■■■□
    mikej412 wrote:
    While my Ex may be a MODERATED, she wouldn't ****, at least not on an exam -- but I understand the sentiment. We prefer the less misogynistic and more professional sounding **** are for Chumps (as found in TechExam user snadam's signature line).

    Mike, I had no idea you could be so eloquent icon_lol.gif
  • _maurice_maurice Member Posts: 142
    I too just failed the ISCW exam. I got the SYN bit and ACK bit mixed up. I probably got 5-10 questions about ACLs. Needless to say, I scored very low on the Implementing IOS Firewall section.
  • kingpinofdiskskingpinofdisks Member Posts: 25 ■□□□□□□□□□
    _maurice wrote:
    I too just failed the ISCW exam. I got the SYN bit and ACK bit mixed up. I probably got 5-10 questions about ACLs. Needless to say, I scored very low on the Implementing IOS Firewall section.

    Keep at it! I just called it a practice test, and used it as my study guide for the 2nd one which I passed.
  • _maurice_maurice Member Posts: 142
    thanks dude. i also ran out of time. I was struggling on one of the sims. wont happen again icon_cool.gif
  • _maurice_maurice Member Posts: 142
  • redwarriorredwarrior Member Posts: 285
    Also keep in mind that some of us do happen to be female. ;)

    Oh and, a medical fact - "The uterus is the strongest muscle in the human body, male or female."

    RAWR!!! :D

    CCNP Progress

    ONT, ISCW, BCMSN - DONE

    BSCI - In Progress

    http://www.redwarriornet.com/ <--My Cisco Blog
  • _maurice_maurice Member Posts: 142
  • Mrock4Mrock4 Banned Posts: 2,359 ■■■■■■■■□□
    redwarrior wrote:
    Also keep in mind that some of us do happen to be female. ;)

    Oh and, a medical fact - "The uterus is the strongest muscle in the human body, male or female."

    RAWR!!! :D

    :o

    Hah. Yeah, the ISCW is going to hurt. I envy all of you who can fly by it, but those of us with plenty of routing/switching experience and very little security..well...yeah..
  • nelnel Member Posts: 2,859 ■□□□□□□□□□
    COngrats on the pass to all of you but takes mike's/snadams advice on the **** OP.

    Can i ask though how the heck did you pass the exam with 650? surely its a higher mark than that? or have i misread the whole topic? icon_scratch.gif

    EDIT: oops just re-read it. icon_redface.gif
    Xbox Live: Bring It On

    Bsc (hons) Network Computing - 1st Class
    WIP: Msc advanced networking
  • netwaynenetwayne Member Posts: 44 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Congrats to both passers!!!
  • aueddonlineaueddonline Member Posts: 611 ■■□□□□□□□□
    redwarrior wrote:
    Also keep in mind that some of us do happen to be female. ;)

    Oh and, a medical fact - "The uterus is the strongest muscle in the human body, male or female."

    RAWR!!! :D


    I didn't think there was a male uterus :D kidding
    What's another word for Thesaurus?
  • mamonomamono Member Posts: 776 ■■□□□□□□□□
    redwarrior wrote:
    Also keep in mind that some of us do happen to be female. ;)
    Oh and, a medical fact - "The uterus is the strongest muscle in the human body, male or female."
    RAWR!!! :D

    I didn't think there was a male uterus :D kidding

    Not to thread jack, but its called a "man-gina"... *cough* j/k

    Congrats to all those that passed... I can't imagine taking CCNP exams yet. Not looking forward to eating instant ramen to afford a CCNP home lab... >_<
  • redwarriorredwarrior Member Posts: 285
    I almost spurted coffee out my nose there...ok, I'm going to calm down now! :D

    CCNP Progress

    ONT, ISCW, BCMSN - DONE

    BSCI - In Progress

    http://www.redwarriornet.com/ <--My Cisco Blog
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