CCENT Failed

I am sad to report, my attempt for CCENT has failed yesterday. 705/804.

I spent too long on the simulators and basically rushed the last 10 questions when I saw i had 10 minutes left. Time management is def. key and of course, know your materials.

Weak spots:
Identify security threats to a network and describe general methods to mitigate...25%
Implement an IP adddressing scheme and IP services to meet network requirements...33%
Implement a small switched network...50%

I can subnet with ease but I think the problem was applying that to a simulator question which threw me off.

I will give myself another 2-3 weeks before I head back to re-take.

This forum is great BTW.

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Comments

fly351

Ouch that sucks. GL on the re-take, I am sure you will do better

anfearr

Hard Luck.... i passed Wednesday with an 890. i'm sure you will get it next time as that's a good score if you rushed a sim of all things.

Security was also my worse area with 50%, don't know why as i'm 100% on port security etc. There were several questions which I just had to read over and over and still the wording left me confused.

As you said time managment is the key, i found myself with 17 minutes left and 22 questions to go. Including one SIM

. Luckily i blitzed that and a few multiple choice questions and finished off with handy questions, basically giving myself 10 seconds a question i was able to save enough time to do the sim not that i know that at the time and finished up with about 1 minutes to go.

Once nice thing is that you can't going back, nice knowing it's final and stops you second guessing yourself...

burbankmarc

Sad to hear. If you shore up just those first 2 sections you listed I'm sure you'll pass next time.

hatch

Don't give up! I failed my first time as well. You have a good idea now whats on the test, what you need to work on. Go ahead and reschedule the test. I know you will get it next time. Good Luck!

outrunred

It really is the wording on this exam isn't it......

I got a sime that I took 25 minutes to get through...no way was I going to skip it....i took 15 minutes just figuring out what it wanted me to do...

I'm not very impressed with the way these are laid out sometimes.... I mean, sure it's supposed to be tough, but tough on the technical stuff there's no need to confuse with poor layout

saying that it could've been the pressure....still I think they are very cheeky with their wording

better luck next time....you'll nail it now you know what to expect

phantasm

outrunred wrote: »

It really is the wording on this exam isn't it......

I got a sime that I took 25 minutes to get through...no way was I going to skip it....i took 15 minutes just figuring out what it wanted me to do...

I'm not very impressed with the way these are laid out sometimes.... I mean, sure it's supposed to be tough, but tough on the technical stuff there's no need to confuse with poor layout

saying that it could've been the pressure....still I think they are very cheeky with their wording

better luck next time....you'll nail it now you know what to expect

There's nothing laid out poorly on the sim's, did you go through the tutorial in the beginning? It tells you exactly how to navigate the exam and sim. Sure the questions are tricky and tough but that's why you study the material. Honestly I wish it were harder because I'm tired of the brain dumpers devaluing my career choice.

NOTE: I am not calling you a brain dumper, just saying.

rogue2shadow

Sorry to hear that man. You will definitely rock it out next time.

I do agree about the layout of the sims. The text being as tiny as it is on top of crazy diagrams just make them even more daunting at times.

Deathgomper

Like many others I failed the CCENT on my first try too. My test percentages on ip addressing were about the same. So what I did was change the way I was labbing and come up with my own schemes varying in class and lay out my topology similar to the sims I knew I had trouble with. Basically I never did recipe labs again, I came up with my own lab goals and I learned a lot from doing this. Still do.

Security isn't that bad so a little brush up on concepts and commands and you should do fine.

Hope this helps, I'm sure you'll get it next time.

Selfmade

switching is really easy, i'd tell you to focus on that because you will need to learn it for a future job anyway and if you can't do it on the exam then you won't be very useful in the real world.

Security is pretty easy, it's only a small part of the CCNA overall, but it's really easy to remember that stuff, you should bone up on that as well

IP addressing can only happen through more reptition and you should try to do it in under 30 seconds or less so you can do those problems faster.

But now that you know what to expect you'll be fine from here on out.

mikej412

Sounds like you got it under control for the rematch -- good luck with your studies

The more hands on practice you can get on the Cisco exam topics, the easier the Cisco exams become.

zoo54924

thanks guys. I am rebuilding my lab right now as we speak. 2 switches (2950), 2 Routers ( 1720 ), with a crossover cable for the two routers via serial int to simulate my WAN. I had the equipment all along at work but only used one of each to study. You guys think thats a good start?

thenjduke

I failed the first time too by one point. I was so upset that I wanted to go back in there and just retake the test. I thought the sims were pretty well laid out. I had about 15 mins left after I finish but I did rush through. The second part of CCNA that was more fun. Test all your theory and hands on.

billscott92787

That's a good score man, brush up on the areas you were weak in, go in next time with your head held high and pass! Just remember don't spend more than 10 minutes on each sim. If you get to ten minutes, move on. When taking the questions, read the question, read the answers, re-read the question, then pick the right answer! You'll be posting back next time that you passed!

billscott92787

loxleynew wrote: »

Hey man I failed yesterday by 200 I got like a 600 lol. So don't feel bad! Strangely enough everyone says the time is a factor but i finished with 17 minutes left. The worst part for me were the sims. I had 4 I think and 3 of them were like nothing ive seen before in both the book s ive been reading and transcenders. So i'll have to go back and make my own labs I guess for those.

What books are you using?

typesh

zoo54924 wrote: »

thanks guys. I am rebuilding my lab right now as we speak. 2 switches (2950), 2 Routers ( 1720 ), with a crossover cable for the two routers via serial int to simulate my WAN. I had the equipment all along at work but only used one of each to study. You guys think thats a good start?

That will definitely help you practice.

You can even use the 1720 to act as your home router.

I just did that and it worked out nicely. Doing this will give you the opportunity to combine a lot of the material since it requires Inter-VLAN routing, ACLs, and NAT!

If you're currently using a wireless home router, you can even throw that in there such that you can have wireless access. It's pretty fun to set up!

alan2308

typesh wrote: »

You can even use the 1720 to act as your home router.

Sadly, the routers that I have are all too slow to use as my home router. According to this, I'll need at least a 3660 or an ISR.

zoo54924

billscott92787 wrote: »

That's a good score man, brush up on the areas you were weak in, go in next time with your head held high and pass! Just remember don't spend more than 10 minutes on each sim. If you get to ten minutes, move on. When taking the questions, read the question, read the answers, re-read the question, then pick the right answer! You'll be posting back next time that you passed!

I only wish i knew how many questions did I miss to get to 804. Im thinking the simulations mustve been at least minimum 30 pts each.

zoo54924

typesh wrote: »

That will definitely help you practice.

You can even use the 1720 to act as your home router.

I just did that and it worked out nicely. Doing this will give you the opportunity to combine a lot of the material since it requires Inter-VLAN routing, ACLs, and NAT!

If you're currently using a wireless home router, you can even throw that in there such that you can have wireless access. It's pretty fun to set up!

yeah. thats a great idea.

chX

Bad luck, and good luck for the re-take.

I'm sitting the CCENT exam on Friday. Hopefully it goes well. :<

2URGSE

phantasm wrote: »

There's nothing laid out poorly on the sim's, did you go through the tutorial in the beginning? It tells you exactly how to navigate the exam and sim. .

I tend to agree with the OP, the sim questions structure laid out poorly IMO.

I read through that a few times myself, and found the structure confusing. The screen is divided into too many sections and is sort of annoying.

phantasm

2URGSE wrote: »

I tend to agree with the OP, the sim questions structure laid out poorly IMO.

I read through that a few times myself, and found the structure confusing. The screen is divided into too many sections and is sort of annoying.

The sim's on my CCENT and ICND2 exam were pretty easy to understand.

zoo54924

chX wrote: »

Bad luck, and good luck for the re-take.

I'm sitting the CCENT exam on Friday. Hopefully it goes well. :<

Let us know...

zoo54924

phantasm wrote: »

The sim's on my CCENT and ICND2 exam were pretty easy to understand.

I think i just panicked when I saw the sims.

zoo54924

zoo54924 wrote: »

I think i just panicked when I saw the sims.

I passed today. 926. Thanks all for your guidance and motivation. now on to ICND2

joe48184

zoo54924 wrote: »

I passed today. 926. Thanks all for your guidance and motivation. now on to ICND2

Grats on the ICND revenge!

mikej412

zoo54924 wrote: »

I passed

More like kicked butt

Congratulations!!

zoo54924

Thanks guys.

rogue2shadow

Congrats!!!!

peanutnoggin

Congrats!!!