Failed BSCI again

Hey guys. Just got back from my exam. Failed the BSCI for a 3rd time. I admit hte first time I took this a while back and didn't really study as hard as I should but the last two times I felt really good especially today. I honestly thought I had this in the bag. I thought wrong. Got 755 out of 790 to pass. I know this is close which makes it even harder. The sim's I think are easy. what killed me before was Ipv6 and Multicast. I improved in both fields but still nothing super great. I think i got around 60% for both. ISIS which I did well on before killed me and I got around 42%. Bottom Line is I don't know my stuff and if i did i'd pass. Thing that bothers me is that I know for a fact at least 2 of the questions where something I'd never seen or herd before. I mean i have alot of study materal, Cisco press, CBT nuggets, labs, Bryant etc. and I never saw these.

My other biggest complaint which i've expressed is practice tests. All of the practice tests that are out there in my opinion is garabage compared to the real thing. I mean some tests are either too easy or are not like the real exam at all. I'm not asking for a test with similar answers but something with a good sim or two in it and soem really hard questions like the ones you will get on the exam.

I bought Transcender and I think that's garbage as well. I mean on the real exam they don't ask you all the subjects in order..you go from OSPF, to BGP, back to OSPF, IPV6. You guys know what i mean?

I guess i needed to vent and you are the only people that know what i'm talking about.

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Comments

accely

That's too bad man. I'm glad you vent here though because I have no doubt it will help others in preparing for the test.

I myself am taking the BSCI in 3 days for the first time. I've been studying for about 1.5 months and I'm cramming everything again this weekend for review. I'm also feeling pretty good about it but your experience teaches us not to be over optimistic!

I have had lots of hands on experience from my work that will really help me I think.

Good luck as u move forward.

Dan

Mrock4

Stay with it. I failed the BSCI twice. You're closer now then you have ever been realistically, you know exactly what is expected of you, now just hit those subjects harder. It seems if your scores jumped around each time, it would indicate you weren't as comfortable in those sections as you thought. Consistency is key. And lots of persistance...

accely

I just got back from my test. scored 688.
I definitely didn't expect it to be that hard. Seemed like 75% of the questions I had never seen before even after doing hundreds of questions over the past few weeks.
Good experience I suppose. It doesn't show me weak in any one particular area, just did bad across the board.

accely

kafifi13 wrote: »

My other biggest complaint which i've expressed is practice tests. All of the practice tests that are out there in my opinion is garabage compared to the real thing. I mean some tests are either too easy or are not like the real exam at all. I'm not asking for a test with similar answers but something with a good sim or two in it and soem really hard questions like the ones you will get on the exam.

I agree here. I find it kind of annoying how I can get every simulation correct in the practice exams but on the real thing they are completely different. They are definitely wayy too easy on the CD-ROM from Cisco Press BSCI 4th Edition. I'm trying to think of what I should try next.

kalebksp

accely wrote: »

I agree here. I find it kind of annoying how I can get every simulation correct in the practice exams but on the real thing they are completely different. They are definitely wayy too easy on the CD-ROM from Cisco Press BSCI 4th Edition. I'm trying to think of what I should try next.

Have you read the BSCI Self-Study Guide? It's more in depth than the exam certification guide, I used both when I was studying for BSCI.

Cherper

One of my biggest complaints about Cisco is that the practice questions in all the books are no where near what is on the test. The questions are too easy, and don't require much more than a skim of the book to answer. The questions from transcender aren't much better, though they do have some explanations.

One thing that I have found helpful is to do the written questions. They require a bit more knowledge than the multiple choice. As for the multiple choice, I like to rewrite the questions with in depth answers. It isn't ideal, but it works for me.

Mrock4

I found the best practice questions were little exercises I made on my own. A huge part of the BSCI is knowledge that you generally pick up after using the equipment. IMO the best thing you can do to prep for the BSCI is lab a lot, even if it's just using dynamips with 3 routers. Don't stick to just what the book says, try to experiment a little.

miller811

accely wrote: »

I agree here. I find it kind of annoying how I can get every simulation correct in the practice exams but on the real thing they are completely different. They are definitely wayy too easy on the CD-ROM from Cisco Press BSCI 4th Edition. I'm trying to think of what I should try next.

Did you purchase the lab guide for BSCI? In my opinion it is a must have to pass the exam. I finally passed after my third attempt. I was also caught off guard, since it was my first professional level exam.... and it made me realize that is was named correctly, professional. The practice exams in the Cisco books are more along the lines of the Associate exam, easy questions, facts and figures... But for BSCI you need to know the material inside and out, and that will come from doing it in the lab, looking at debugs etc.

Good luck,

mikej412

So what have you been using so far to study?

Cisco Press BSCI Self-Study Guide? Cisco Press BSCI Exam Certification Guide? Cisco Press BSCI Lab Portfolio? Cisco Press Quick Reference Sheets?

Have you used any of the CBTs? TrainSignal? CBT Nuggets? Don't forget that CBT Nuggets offers the "all you can watch" 1 month streaming subscription for $200.

Have you checked out the Bryant Advantage? Several people in the past have reported a successful result after using it to "get over the hump."

What about hands-on study and practice? What are you using? How much lab time are you getting? The more time you spend studying and practicing hands-on, the better you should do -- assuming you're getting quality lab time.

The Doyle books (Routing TCP/IP) could be helpful to get a fresh perspective on the BSCI Topics.

eduromer

Hey man how did you study for this exam, i personally was going to do it in 2 months after reading and studying it took me over 4 months, i got the cisco book plus the CBT nuggets and well i did every lab i could, the multicast part was awfull for me but furtunatelly i didnt get many questions about multicast, try to practice as much as you can, use GNS3 if possible, just try to take it easy and calm down. Surely you will pass it next time

Forsaken_GA

miller811 wrote: »

Did you purchase the lab guide for BSCI? In my opinion it is a must have to pass the exam. I finally passed after my third attempt. I was also caught off guard, since it was my first professional level exam.... and it made me realize that is was named correctly, professional. The practice exams in the Cisco books are more along the lines of the Associate exam, easy questions, facts and figures... But for BSCI you need to know the material inside and out, and that will come from doing it in the lab, looking at debugs etc.

Good luck,

When I took the previous BSCI, I was flat out amazed at the jump in difficulty from the CCNA. It scarred me enough that I didn't want to look at Cisco material for another year and a half. I was damn certain I'd failed it when I hit submit, and it was the greatest feeling in the world when I actually passed (albeit by like 11 points).

From everything I've been seeing about the new version of the exam, they went and made the damn thing *harder*. It's not an experience I'm looking forward to.

ITdude

Hang in there and try not to get discouraged. It is after all a professional exam so you should expect them to raise the difficulty several notches. It is however a great feeling passing BSCI, and its focus is critical to master!:)so stay tuned.....

dthomason119

In regards to passing the CCNP exams. It was much harder than the CCNA, especially the Multicast and IPv6 portions. I failed the exam once and took a new approach, I concentrated on the sections I had the most difficulty on, which was the multicast and the IPv6. I did nothing over the next couple of weeks when I filed the first composite exam (BSCI/BCMSN) other than studying those subjects. I also decided to take the long route and break the exams up into their respective section. The next time around I passed the BSCI w/ a 97 and the following month I passed the BCMSN w/ a 89. I have just completed the ISCW with an 87 and I'm taking the ONT in less than a month. What may help is to study the theory first, then apply them in a lab. I found getting the command and lab book via cisco press was very helpfull. I'm sure you guys will pass, just stay focused until you hit the submit button, you have already seen the test once, so you know what 2 expect. I will post once I'm fully certified CCNP. I will then tackle the CCIE R&S.

itsme1672

I agree with the people who complain about the real exam questions, versus test exam questions. Most test exams are a joke comparing to the real thing.

For CCNA I used Preplogic, and was happy with that. So..I decided to use Preplogic for the BSCI as well. MAN what a disaster. I have the impression this exam has been put together by an office temp with a bad attitude. No kidding, approx 20% of the questions were incorrect or incomplete. I can proof it.

So far I haven't been able to find good test exam preparations at all. If anyone can recommend me anything, I am all ears. thanks

C

EdTheLad

I never use practice questions.
I don't see the point of practice questions, you either totally understand a subject matter or you don't.There is no in between, if you need questions to access your understanding of a topic it means you are fooling yourself.
To access a topic i create scenarios and think about how a certain protocol should behave, if i'm unsure of certain behavior i lab it up and do some additional reading.

jason_lunde

Dude, no worries. I failed this guy the first time in. Like all the others have said, go back and hit your weak points. The BSCI prep is making the BCMSN studies feel easy! Theres just alot to take in on the BSCI. Look over the blueprint, and then your weak areas. I did, like Mike said, read up on my weak areas in Routing TCP/IP vol. 2. It seriously filled in the gaps. Good luck man!

Cyanic

EdTheLad wrote: »

I don't see the point of practice questions, you either totally understand a subject matter or you don't.There is no in between, if you need questions to access your understanding of a topic it means you are fooling yourself.

I agree to a certain extent; You either know something or you don't. But how do you know you are ready? It appears that many fail the exams thought they understood the subject matter. In this case, practice exams are just another study material and are useful, but it appears they fall short for these exams.

jovan88

I'm sure there are many people who know the content, but when it comes down to an EXAM, they get nervous, overthink, don't read the question properly etc. etc.

Practice exams get you ready for the test scenario, not so much actually learning the stuff.

FattyAcid

kafifi13 wrote: »

I bought Transcender and I think that's garbage as well. I mean on the real exam they don't ask you all the subjects in order..you go from OSPF, to BGP, back to OSPF, IPV6. You guys know what i mean?

I guess i needed to vent and you are the only people that know what i'm talking about.

I'm not defending its use, but I suspect *part* of the reason people turn to braindumps is the lack of good practice tests from Cisco and other vendors.

To pass BSCI, I had to use CBT Nuggets, Self-Study Guide, Official Exam Guide, the Lab Portfolio, Quick Reference Sheets, Routing TCP/IP, real equipment, GNS3--even though I had years of experience working at an ISP, a major university campus backbone, etc. After all that preparation and experience, I still barely passed.

I actually do have nightmares about BSCI--where I'm at the test center trying to take it and I suddenly forget everything I know about IPv6 and multicast and score 0% on those sections.

Hah!

paxb

EdTheLad wrote: »

I never use practice questions.
I don't see the point of practice questions, you either totally understand a subject matter or you don't.There is no in between, if you need questions to access your understanding of a topic it means you are fooling yourself.
To access a topic i create scenarios and think about how a certain protocol should behave, if i'm unsure of certain behavior i lab it up and do some additional reading.

There's often a big difference between knowing a subject inside out and being able to pass an exam on it with distinction (which is what is necessary with Cisco certs).
During the course of studying you have dissected and visualised the material in a particular way which makes sense to you. However when you come to sit an exam on it you are confronted with scenarios drawn from someone else's visualisation of the subject matter. Of course there are some people lucky enough to be able to visualise things in all sorts of ways. These people would never have much need for practice exams. But I believe most people need these practice exams to get used to the variety of ways questions could be posed.

I personally used moderated **** used to **** to practice for the CCNA exam. It was invaluable. I recommend it to anyone looking for pre-exam practice for the CCNP exams as well. I'm just about to start study on my first CCNP component (BCMSN) and I most definitely have no intention of failing any of them at any point. That is not a difficult goal if the proper exam question practice is put in in combination with the requisite study.

miller811

paxb wrote: »

There's often a big difference between knowing a subject inside out and being able to pass an exam on it with distinction (which is what is necessary with Cisco certs).
During the course of studying you have dissected and visualised the material in a particular way which makes sense to you. However when you come to sit an exam on it you are confronted with scenarios drawn from someone else's visualisation of the subject matter. Of course there are some people lucky enough to be able to visualise things in all sorts of ways. These people would never have much need for practice exams. But I believe most people need these practice exams to get used to the variety of ways questions could be posed.

I personally used moderated **** used to **** to practice for the CCNA exam. It was invaluable. I recommend it to anyone looking for pre-exam practice for the CCNP exams as well. I'm just about to start study on my first CCNP component (BCMSN) and I most definitely have no intention of failing any of them at any point. That is not a difficult goal if the proper exam question practice is put in in combination with the requisite study.

congrats you are officially a brain dumper.....

mikej412

paxb wrote: »

There's often a big difference between knowing a subject inside out and being able to pass an exam on it with distinction (which is what is necessary with Cisco certs).

There's also a BIG difference between LEARNING the topics so that you can PASS the exam and EARN the Certification -- or just CHEATING

paxb wrote: »

I personally used moderated **** used to **** to practice for the CCNA exam.

Thanks for sharing that

paxb wrote: »

I'm just about to start study on my first CCNP component (BCMSN) and I most definitely have no intention of failing any of them at any point. That is not a difficult goal if the proper exam question practice is put in in combination with the requisite study.

So you CHEATED on your CCNA and you plan to **** on the CCNP exams -- um, thanks again for sharing that too

But let me remind you that:
TechExams.Net is NOT a **** site.
TechExams.Net is NOT a **** site.
TechExams.Net is NOT a WAREZ site.

Firemarshalbill.com

It is pretty easy when interviewing someone to figure out how well they know the subject. A certification may get you in the door but most of the time that will be as far as you get if you don't truely know the subject.

I used Skillsoft provided by my employer to learn stuff. If you can get access to the Skillsoft talking heads either live or recorded and the associated Cisco materials they are fantastic. I highly recommend them. I scored a 975 of the ONT and a 911 on the BSCI exams.

and you have to get hands on to be confident

and on the SIMS 2 very important things
1. Do not forget to use the ? mark on the CLI to make sure you are doing the commands correctly

2. DO A COPY RUN STAR at the end of each device you configure you are toast if you don't

itsme1672

Don't expect to be able answer any multicast question by just watching CBTnuggest multicasting. It's a joke. They cover Multicasting in one video, no commands, no debug ip mrouting analyzing. Pathetic. SAme with IPv6, very poor coverage of CBT nuggets. There is no way to pass this exam unless you dig into this stuff by reading all the books available and practice with 4 routers in a lab environment for 6 months in a row.

iproute

itsme1672 wrote: »

Don't expect to be able answer any multicast question by just watching CBTnuggest multicasting. It's a joke. They cover Multicasting in one video, no commands, no debug ip mrouting analyzing. Pathetic. SAme with IPv6, very poor coverage of CBT nuggets. There is no way to pass this exam unless you dig into this stuff by reading all the books available and practice with 4 routers in a lab environment for 6 months in a row.

I'll agree that CBTNuggets MCast/IPv6 may not be sufficient for the needs of the exam but calling it a joke isn't accurate either. It seemed to me like a pretty decent introduction.

6 months straight just doing lab work? While it certainly wouldn't hurt (if you can devote yourself entirely to the effort), it seems excessive to me. The 4 routers comment would seem insufficient to me though. I've got a 15 router lab running in GNS3. It consists of ISIS, OSPF, EIGRP, IBGP and EBGP all internetworked. I've been working on getting this beast up and running for the past week and have been "tweaking" it with the concepts learned from study more recently.

Maybe some of the CCNPs in here could comment on this idea and offer suggestions?

mikej412

itsme1672 wrote: »

Don't expect to be able answer any multicast question by just watching CBTnuggest multicasting.

Actually, don't expect to pass the exam by just watching videos. CBTs -- for the "video people" are an additional resource that can be used to help learn the material. The videos don't replace the need to actually read the suggested/recommended books, practice the hands on skills, and actually learn the topics listed in the exam blueprint. And at the professional level, people are hopefully smart enough to be checking out the Cisco Documentation as they are studying -- and to use that (and the White Papers) to fill in any gaps between the books (and CBTs) and the exam blueprint.

networker050184

I agree with Mike. I don't think any one of the subjects is covered in enough detail to pass the exam on the CBT Nuggets alone. CBT Nuggets are great to get your feet wet on a subject, but by no means will they be a single source for mastering it.

AlexMR

itsme1672 wrote: »

Don't expect to be able answer any multicast question by just watching CBTnuggest multicasting. It's a joke. They cover Multicasting in one video, no commands, no debug ip mrouting analyzing. Pathetic. SAme with IPv6, very poor coverage of CBT nuggets. There is no way to pass this exam unless you dig into this stuff by reading all the books available and practice with 4 routers in a lab environment for 6 months in a row.

6 months? Jeez...Ive spent one month studying for this exam and Im certainly not close to being ready, but 6 months sound little way too much. I think a more reasonable metric should be hours of study. It's something that i would like to know to at least establish a reasonable goal date.

I am currently studying for this exam and I wanted to say this thread is scary. Seriously.

miller811

AlexMR wrote: »

6 months? Jeez...Ive spent one month studying for this exam and Im certainly not close to being ready, but 6 months sound little way too much. I think a more reasonable metric should be hours of study. It's something that i would like to know to at least establish a reasonable goal date.

I am currently studying for this exam and I wanted to say this thread is scary. Seriously.

I spent over 6 months on this one

... so be afraid, be very afraid

tim100

itsme1672 wrote: »

Don't expect to be able answer any multicast question by just watching CBTnuggest multicasting. It's a joke. They cover Multicasting in one video, no commands, no debug ip mrouting analyzing. Pathetic. SAme with IPv6, very poor coverage of CBT nuggets. There is no way to pass this exam unless you dig into this stuff by reading all the books available and practice with 4 routers in a lab environment for 6 months in a row.

If you want to understand multicasting thoroughly the best book in my opinion is:

Developing IP Multicast Networks, Volume I by Beau Williamson

For in depth understanding of IPv6 a good book would be:

Deploying IPv6 Networks by Ciprian Popoviciu, Eric Levy-Abegnoli, and Patrick Grossetete