ICND1 - How do you know when you're ready?

I've only been studying for about 1.5 weeks, and know that I need some more lab time, but I think I'm almost ready to take the exam. I can answer all the questions from sub net ting ques tions.com in my head with a little help from a table that I'll jot down during my exam to help with CIDR to mask conversions and 2^n values. I purchased Self Test Software yesterday and am getting anywhere from 75-90% on the tests. The things that seem to be tripping me up are the more vague IOS commands, which is why I need more lab time. But the theory and such I think I have a pretty good handle on.

How did you know you were ready for the exam? At least when I did my MS tests, I had the second shot available, so wasn't too nervous about being ready.

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Comments

dynamik

I just go when I can't stand the look of the book any more

Do you have a lot of Cisco experience? 1.5 weeks seems to be a very short amount of time if starting from scratch.

jmc012

meadIT wrote: »

I've only been studying for about 1.5 weeks, and know that I need some more lab time, but I think I'm almost ready to take the exam. I can answer all the questions from sub net ting ques tions.com in my head with a little help from a table that I'll jot down during my exam to help with CIDR to mask conversions and 2^n values. I purchased Self Test Software yesterday and am getting anywhere from 75-90% on the tests. The things that seem to be tripping me up are the more vague IOS commands, which is why I need more lab time. But the theory and such I think I have a pretty good handle on.

How did you know you were ready for the exam? At least when I did my MS tests, I had the second shot available, so wasn't too nervous about being ready.

I would look on Cisco's website and make sure you know all the objectives for the test.
https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/community/certifications/ccna/icnd1?view=overview#cisco_2

Time was the biggest problem for me, if I couldn't have done everything in my head I wouldn't have finished in time. I spent about 4 months studying everyday, I knew I was ready when I couldn't stand the thought of going over the same subjects anymore. You need lots of lab work though.

meadIT

dynamik wrote: »

I just go when I can't stand the look of the book any more

Do you have a lot of Cisco experience? 1.5 weeks seems to be a very short amount of time if starting from scratch.

Yeah, that's what's weird. I don't have a lot of Cisco experience. I have set up a WLAN using three Cisco 1310s, set up an ASA 5505 for Firewall/VPN access, and configured two routers (not sure of the model) using provided configurations. Everything just sort of "clicked" while going through the Sybex CCENT book.

I think a lot of the theory (OSI, TCP/IP, etc) comes from the Network+ and my Associate's in Networking. I just got the Cisco Flash Cards and Exam Practice Pack today, so I'm going to go through that and see how it goes.

dynamik

Fair enough. ICND1 does focus a lot more on general network theory. ICND2 will take you much deeper into Cisco land.

captobvious

dynamik wrote: »

I just go when I can't stand the look of the book any more

Check my thread, that's where I'm at now. Can't stand to look at the book anymore and firing up the lab ain't doing it either, I can troubleshoot, subnet, etc.

Let's get it on!

Slowhand

meadIT wrote: »

Yeah, that's what's weird. I don't have a lot of Cisco experience. I have set up a WLAN using three Cisco 1310s, set up an ASA 5505 for Firewall/VPN access, and configured two routers (not sure of the model) using provided configurations. Everything just sort of "clicked" while going through the Sybex CCENT book.

I think a lot of the theory (OSI, TCP/IP, etc) comes from the Network+ and my Associate's in Networking. I just got the Cisco Flash Cards and Exam Practice Pack today, so I'm going to go through that and see how it goes.

Sometimes things do, in fact, "just click". Snoop around for a couple more practice tests and see if you do as well on them. If you do, it's time to hit the real thing.

meadIT

Well, I guess I'll find out if I'm ready on Friday. That is the first date I've been able to schedule due to work/school/family commitments. Wish me luck!

mikej412

meadIT wrote: »

Friday

Good Luck!

Remember your time management! Don't spend more than 10 minutes on a SIM. If you've gotten plenty of lab time you shouldn't even need that. At over 10 minutes something is wrong -- if it's a funky display or exam issue use the Comment button to complain and move on -- it could just be an ungraded beta SIM.

Make sure you read the question -- ALL the answers -- and then read the question again. If you misread a question you may jump on a good sounding answer, but you may have just selected the right answer to the wrong question.

And there's the usual advice -- use the time during the NDA and Exam Tutorial to jot down any notes or your backup subnetting chart on your dry erase note sheet(s). The links are in the CCNA FAQ so you can check them out before you go to the exam. If you check them out now and don't want to write down any notes before the exam, you can start the exam that much sooner

mamono

Good luck!

genXrcist

mikej412 wrote: »

Good Luck!

Remember your time management! Don't spend more than 10 minutes on a SIM. If you've gotten plenty of lab time you shouldn't even need that. At over 10 minutes something is wrong -- if it's a funky display or exam issue use the Comment button to complain and move on -- it could just be an ungraded beta SIM.

Really listen to Mike on this one. I took his advice when I took the 640-802 and skipped an entire sim cuz I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Spent 15 minutes on it and said forget it.

Did well on the rest of it though including the rest of the Sim's enough to just squeek by. I have no doubt though that if I had sat on the Sim any longer, not only would I have missed those points but I would have been rushed and missed a lot more that I got right.

Good luck!

meadIT

Pass! Scored a 940. I don't know if it was the fact that I was confident I knew the material or not, but I enjoyed the Cisco questions more than the MS tests. It just seemed that the questions were very practical in nature, whereas the MS test are like "do you know this one little minute detail" then "pick from thesevery similar different choices."

My section scores were 72%, 87%, then 100% on the rest.

Megadeth4168

Congrats!

I like the Cisco test format a lot better than MS also. I even like studying for Cisco exams a lot more than MS exams, I'm still entirely sure why yet.

genXrcist

Well done!!! Super Score!

mikej412

meadIT wrote: »

Pass!

Congratulations!