Hard time focusing

Hi Guys, so i've been studying for about a month. Read Wendell Odom's book and watched CBT Nuggets. I setup a small lab at work to practice lab work on. I also purchased Trainsignal and started watching those videos but was bored with it and I even fell asleep twice watching them so figured maybe I could try the practice exams to see how I do. I did the trainsignal practice exams and got an 85 and a 90 on the other. but when I did the Boson exams I got like a 65 so obviously i am not ready. The boson exam was pretty tough, not so much tough but it seemed like a lot of the questions confused the heck out of me. So that is probably a good indication that I don't know the material.

So I thought I would start watching CBT Nuggets again but that started boring me and I just couldn't focus. So figured I would start reading the book again and same thing happened, as much as I would sit there and read my mind was just on other things. I am thinking maybe I cannot focus because i've already read or seen the materials and in the back of my head am thinking that I already know this stuff so i can't concentrate.

Anyone else having the same kind of experience? If so what did you do? I am thinking of buying the Sybex book and since it is a totally different book and I haven't read it maybe I can concentrate when i read it. Any advice anyone can give me that has been in the same situation?

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Comments

bermovick

I had the same issue when I was studying for ICND1; after doing CBTNuggets and Odom's book and scoring rather badly on a Boson exam, I grabbed Lammle's book for similar reasons; figuring the material, presented differently, would help me learn the material I clearly hadn't gotten. It didn't work though. I found myself really bored with it!

Instead I re-took boson's exam, and rather than treating it like a practice exam, I acted as if it were an actual exam. I really made an effort to try figuring out answers rather than giving up easily & having the exam engine give me the answer & explanation. Doing so let me really flex the brain muscles, and I was able to score considerably higher; enough to give me the confidence to schedule the test a week or two later and pass.

Perhaps your situation is different, but it's something to consider before forking over more cash for another book that may not help.

mtorres

I think that is real good advice. I hadn't thought about it until I read your post but the boson questions that required a lot of thought and I knew would take probably a good 5 minutes to figure out I kind of half assed them knowing nothing bad would happen if I got it wrong. So for example a question that would probably take me 5 minutes to really answer confidently, I spent about a minute on it and kind of gave it my best guess after thinking about it for a minute. Maybe I should just schedule a few hours to do the boson test as well as I can and see what I get. What score on the boson did you think was good enough for yourself to take the ccent exam?

xenodamus

mtorres wrote: »

What score on the boson did you think was good enough for yourself to take the ccent exam?

I was scoring in the 80's on the Boson test when I booked the actual exam and passed with a 950 or so.

nicklauscombs

this is the biggest reason i love to use as many sources as humanly possible. i definitely find myself going through study phases like you described above and being able to look at the material through a different author/writing style really helps me to focus once i become bored with one source.

Bokeh

Agreed on the multiple study materials. And sometimes you just need to take a break, walk away from it for a bit. As long as you aren't gone for months, you should retain most of the information. Then go back at it when you feel fresh once again.

mtorres

Hey thanks guys for all of the advice. I am glad I am not the only one incapable of reading the same thing twice. I mean I can read it but won't catch anything. I think I am going to just schedule a few hours to really hit the boson with all i've got, if I still score low I am going to buy Todd Lammle's book and since it is something I have never read before I am thinking I will be able to focus. If I can't focus on it I am going to take a few days and not do anything cisco related (other than my work). I think another problem is that I do this stuff all day long at work and was coming home and watching videos and reading until i fell asleep and maybe I just over did myself with all the cisco stuff. Thanks again, I am really glad I asked.

vinbuck

When I lose focus, I try to take a break and then "play". If you have GNS3 or a LAB then build something just for the fun of it. Take a technology that you want to learn about and build it from scratch...don't follow a workbook. The idea is to relax and enjoy playing around in a router or switch with something that you want to know more about and it doesn't necessarily have to be a CCNA topic. The advantages are many

-If you are working on something you enjoy, then you will learn it quickly and not stress
- You will learn the skills necessary to implement something there isn't a 1,2,3 roadmap for (which is about 50 - 75% of real world networking)
- You might just gain some insight into CCNA topics without actively "studying"
- Most importantly, when you build something from nothing that actually works...it's FUN

You obviously can't do this all the time but it's a great study break as opposed to watching Netflix

mtorres

Thanks. Good idea, I'll give that a shot when i decide to take a break. I am definitely the kind of guy that loves just labbing it up from the hip as opposed to following a set of instructions.

thehourman

I have that moment, too. What I do, I play some PC games to forget my frustration or read some fantasy books. Whenever, I take the Boson test, I always treat it like the real exam. Also, I always use the custom settings I put it 60 questions in 90minutes. Furthermore, I only take the practice exam once a week sometime twice. The reason is, so that I would not memorize the answers. I, myself, prefer to learn the material than passing the test. Of course, passing the test is the main goal.

To tell you the truth, I don't even know the main exam objective for ICND1 and ICND2 or any cert exam I have taken. I just study and learn them, and when I finished I give myself a couple of days to prepare myself, and if I think I am ready, I call the testing center if they have an available seat. If they say yes, I tell them that I will be there in 30 minutes. Yes, I am a walk-in dude.

mtorres

Yeah I hear ya. I am kind of the same way. For example when I did the boson exam I never looked at what I missed. i don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing but I never wanted to see what I missed for fear of memorizing the answers. But am wondering if maybe I should've gone back and looked at what I missed, because maybe there is a concept I am truly misunderstanding, but then again I'm scared I might start memorizing the answers and would have to go out and find another practice exam.

But that is a good point your guys are making about treating it like the actual exam. As simple as that sounds I had never really thought about it and always just would take the practice exam not giving it my all, just treating it as practice.

thehourman

Dude when you click the show answer, there is a link to the pdf page. What I did was, when I made a wrong answer, I always clicked that link and review it.

$125 ain't cheap, man.

bermovick

I was worried about memorizing the answers a little bit too, but I made it a point NOT to just click the answer just because I knew it. It still made it a bit easier perhaps, but I still made myself work through the problem until I arrived at that answer. I remember one question I couldn't get my work to match what I remembered the correct answer to be. It's a bit frustrating clicking an answer that you KNOW is wrong, but it kept my score for that test honest, and I'd clicked the 'show me the correct answer/explanation if answered wrongly', so I got the chance to see what I was doing wrong.

mtorres

Well, took the Boson and did about the same. So going to purchase a new book but the only book the local bookstores have are the Wendell Odom books (which I have already read and am having a lot of trouble re reading) and one called CCent study guide by Matt Walker. CCENT Cisco Certified Enterprise Technician Study Guide (Exam 640-822), Matt Walker, Book - Barnes & Noble

I searched the forum and found one guy who used it and passed and another guy that was using it but never said if he had passed or not. I found 2 reviews on the internet and they seemed good. Anyone ever used this book? I really wanted to get the Todd Lammle book but if this one is good I'll just pick it up.

bermovick

Check eBay; I got lammle's book from there for like $10. There's also Amazon or Border's. Border's marketplace is especially good; I got my CCNP pack from there for like $104 and it's normally $150-$160.

mtorres

Damn, $10? That is a deal, i'll check ebay out. Thanks.