ICND 2 this week

I am getting ready to take the test this Friday. I have
used the following materials

Odom's book.
Boson practice exam (that came with the book)
Boson practice exam (that you pay for)
Packet tracer 5.1
Executrain online ICND2 class.

I for the rest of the week I will be reviewing the trouble shooting chapters of Odom's book
Doing some more lab work and reviewing the practice exams.

I will start running through the exam topics one last time to see if there are any areas where I feel like I am missing anything.

I feel really good about the material, but as always I am nervous.

I will try to keep everyone posted on my prep. over the next three nights.

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Comments

nkirkus

I wish you the best of luck! I am trying to start a similiar adventure. I was wondering if you used any simulators to practice IOS commands and configurations? I used Boson's NetSim for CCNP.

Good luck!

haney

I used packet tracer for my simulator. I am in the process of building a physical lab. I currently have three 1720 routers. I used packet tracer for the switch labs, as well as the frame relay setup.

I saw your post as well and wish you all the luck. I feel like I am right at the edge of pass\fail, but I felt that way on ICND 1 too (I passed that with a 916).
When I first went through the purchased copy of boson exam sim I scored an average 80 on all modules. So the question is now is how well will I perform on test day.

haney

So for today on my practice exam I used the boson exam sim that came with ICND 2.
I went through chapter 8 - 17.

I scored in the 90's on all chapters except IPv6.

I then went on to review chapter 6 and memorize a few more of the key topics and IPv6 addresses.

I then completed the following labs,
Switching vlan, port security,vtp
router eigrp setup
access lists

Geetar28

haney wrote: »

When I first went through the purchased copy of boson exam sim I scored an average 80 on all modules. So the question is now is how well will I perform on test day.

That's awesome for first time through....I have read the ICND2 book (parts of it twice) and fired up the exam engine...fail, fail, fail...I read the questions and feel lost...I have a fair grasp on the concepts, certainly not ready for the test yet.

I have watched CBT Nuggets a few times and even several of the Trainsignal vids...but man that Boson exam is killing me (of course better now than on the actual test)...pretty discouraging when you can understand the concepts but when faced with the questions.... poof ya got nothing..

Hope you do well on the exam...to paraphrase Chris Bryant ..."they're not just giving the thing away..." AMEN.

haney

Geetar28 wrote: »

That's awesome for first time through....I have read the ICND2 book (parts of it twice) and fired up the exam engine...fail, fail, fail...I read the questions and feel lost...I have a fair grasp on the concepts, certainly not ready for the test yet.

I have watched CBT Nuggets a few times and even several of the Trainsignal vids...but man that Boson exam is killing me (of course better now than on the actual test)...pretty discouraging when you can understand the concepts but when faced with the questions.... poof ya got nothing..

Hope you do well on the exam...to paraphrase Chris Bryant ..."they're not just giving the thing away..." AMEN.

The exam engine that comes with the book is a great tool to learn the material. I give that the credit for helping pass ICND 1. If you look at the answer section and click on the hyper link it will show you the place in the book (pdf version) where the answer is. That really helped me fine tune alot of my knowledge.

I am a little dissapointed with the exam engine for ICND2. There are some questions where even if you answer it correctly it still wrong. As well as the wording is a little off in some places.

Over all though you can't beat it when you consider it is free. The boson exam Sim that I paid for is also really good. I just wish it had more Simlets to practice.

super22

haney wrote: »

I am getting ready to take the test this Friday. I have
used the following materials

Odom's book.
Boson practice exam (that came with the book)
Boson practice exam (that you pay for)
Packet tracer 5.1
Executrain online ICND2 class.

I for the rest of the week I will be reviewing the trouble shooting chapters of Odom's book
Doing some more lab work and reviewing the practice exams.

I will start running through the exam topics one last time to see if there are any areas where I feel like I am missing anything.

I feel really good about the material, but as always I am nervous.

I will try to keep everyone posted on my prep. over the next three nights.

Hi,

Was this the book that you bought that came with the Boson Sim and exams?

Amazon.com: CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (Exam 640-802), Third Edition (Containing ICND1 and ICND2 Second Edition Exam Certification Guides) (9781587201950): Wendell Odom: Books

Thanks:)

haney

super22 wrote: »

Hi,

Was this the book that you bought that came with the Boson Sim and exams?

Amazon.com: CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (Exam 640-802), Third Edition (Containing ICND1 and ICND2 Second Edition Exam Certification Guides) (9781587201950): Wendell Odom: Books

Thanks:)

No I only have the ICND 2 certification guide
Amazon.com: CCNA ICND2 Official Exam Certification Guide: Wendell Odom: Books

I have two boson exam sims. One came with the book. The other I bought when Boson had a sale.

super22

haney wrote: »

No I only have the ICND 2 certification guide
Amazon.com: CCNA ICND2 Official Exam Certification Guide: Wendell Odom: Books

I have two boson exam sims. One came with the book. The other I bought when Boson had a sale.

But it also came with the Boson Sim right? not just the exam files?

haney

super22 wrote: »

But it also came with the Boson Sim right? not just the exam files?

It came with an Exam Sim only. The link you provided also had a router\switch sim. This book didn't have that. I used packet tracer and
some real routers for my lab work.

super22

haney wrote: »

It came with an Exam Sim only. The link you provided also had a router\switch sim. This book didn't have that. I used packet tracer and
some real routers for my lab work.

oh ok so the exam sims are stand alone....thats sweet!

haney

Today I went through all of the modules for my other boson exam sim.

I scored 100% in all 5 modules. As I answered each question I went through all of the answers and tried to explain why I thought the incorrect answers were wrong and the correct answer were correct. While I am very happy with the results, it is still just a practice sim. As Mike Tyson once said "every one has a game plan until they get hit". So it goes with these tests. everyone feels prepared until the clock actually starts ticking on the test.

I also reviewed chapter 7 of the ICND 2 book and performed the following labs
Frame Relay, Nat, and OSPF.

At this point I am just ready to take the test and accept my results. I really hate the anticipation leading up to a test.

AD227529

It sounds like you are well-prepared for the actual exam. The best advice I can give you is watch your time. The test is tough, but it is fair. Just don't let the clock run down on you. Review subnetting before the test. It doesn't get any easier on the ICND2. Study up to the last minute. I had read Odom's book cover to cover five times before the exam and had about 10 pages of notes. Practice labs and the sims should be no problem. Good luck on the exam. There is no feeling like finally passing it and knowing you're a CCNA.

mikej412

Good Luck on Friday!!

As mentioned, watch the clock. Time management is important. If you've done enough hands on practice the SIMs should be easy -- so don't spend more than 10 minutes on a SIM, otherwise you're taking time away from the "easy questions." You do get partial credit on a SIM -- and there may be ungraded beta questions on the exam.

Make sure you read the question, ALL the answers, and then read the question again. If you just scan the question you might not understand what they are really asking for and you might jump on the right answer to the wrong question -- which means you got the exam question wrong. Reading all the answers may jog your memory and you may notice that word you missed on the first read of the question.

There are links to the Exam Tutorial/Demo and Cisco NDA in the forum CCNA FAQ. If you go online and read those now you can use that time before the exam they give you to go through the tutorial and read and accept the NDA to jot down notes (or an emergency backup brain freeze subnetting **** sheet). Or you could get the start of the exam that much quicker.

mikem2te

mikej412 wrote: »

There are links to the Exam Tutorial/Demo and Cisco NDA in the forum CCNA FAQ. If you go online and read those now you can use that time before the exam they give you to go through the tutorial and read and accept the NDA to jot down notes (or an emergency backup brain freeze subnetting **** sheet). Or you could get the start of the exam that much quicker.

I always get this written down at the start. Its the bit position, power of 2, subnetmask and wildcard mask table-

  8    7    6    5    4    3    2    1
128   64   32   16    8    4    2    1
128  192  224  240  248  252  254  255
255  127   61   31   15    7    3    1

Never needed to reference it though, I think writing it down was enough to make bring it back to the front of my mind!!

haney

mikem2te wrote: »
I always get this written down at the start. Its the bit position, power of 2, subnetmask and wildcard mask table-
  8    7    6    5    4    3    2    1
128   64   32   16    8    4    2    1
128  192  224  240  248  252  254  255
255  127   61   31   15    7    3    1
Never needed to reference it though, I think writing it down was enough to make bring it back to the front of my mind!!

I actually did something similiar for ICND 1

I wrote it like this though

128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
128 192 224 240 248 252 254 255

haney

I will look into that section of the forum so I can save some time tomorrow.

All very good ideas. I really appreciate the reminder about some questions being beta questions.

haney

Today I did small amount of review over my notes. I mentally was just wore out from studying and burning the information into my brain. I figure at this point I either have it down, or I will find out where I am lacking tomorrow. On a positive note I got the cisco press book for the new CCNP route exam 642-902. I hope tomorrow will be a passing score so I can start cracking this book open.