Hello and passed 642-813

Hey all.. thought I would say hello to everyone on the forum. I have been to this site quite a few times but never registered until today.

My thread was removed last time so I'm assuming I may have been a bit too descriptive about my SWITCH exam earlier today. Sorry!

Anyway, passed the SWITCH exam today by the smallest of margins (7 points) today. The exam I felt wasn't overly difficult but the Cisco Press material I purchased definately didn't prepare me enough for some of the 'Prepare, Plan...' questions. I used the Official Exam Cert guide and the quick reference sheets. I also used a mate's copy of the BCMSN CBT nuggets.

Heres a good read if you want to brush up on those non-tech questions a bit better:
The PPDIOO network lifecycle | CiscoZine

I had an assortment of switches (3550's and 2950's) and a 2801 router to lab on.

Good luck to anyone going for this one.

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Comments

peanutnoggin

CONGRATS on the pass!!! What are your plans for the ROUTE exam?

-Peanut

lrb

Thanks! I ordered the CCNP Foundation Learning pack earlier today so once the books come in (hopefully next week) I will start going through the ROUTE book

Can't wait!

In the mean time I might polish off the CCNA Voice study I was doing before I started on the SWITCH.

peanutnoggin

Sounds like a plan... I'm actually doing the same thing! I started voice primarily because of a project I had going on at work. After I'm done with my SWITCH (maybe October), I'll get back into the voice to finish out the year. We'll see... Good luck to you

-Peanut

Netwurk

Congrats!!!

Glad to hear about a SWITCH pass now that the BCMSN is retired

Good luck with the ROUTE test!

fly351

congrats!

mikej412

Congratulations on the pass

Remember that the Foundation Guide (hopefully) covers the material on the topics you need to learn for the exam (and any background material to help you understand it).

The Exam Certification Guide is the review for the exam and usually won't have all the background material, so things you decide aren't important from the Cert Guide may have been worked to death in the Foundation book.

Usually you will use both those books -- and then add additional study material like CBT Nuggets and/or TrainSignal Videos, the Quick Reference Sheets, the Portable Command Guides, the Chris Bryant Ultimate Study Guide, any available flashcards, etc, as needed.

At the CCNP level, a bunch of people will fail an exam because they used only 1/2 of the books -- and skipped the one that might have covered the most topics in enough depth to give them a fighting chance of passing.

wirerat

Congrats on the pass!

EliZ_

I can't agree more when in comes to the topics not covered in the official cert guide, when I failed my first try on SWITCH I hadn't read the foundation book.

Now im reading the ROUTE foundation book, and let me tell you, this thing is heavy as a brick, 900 pages.

earweed

Congrats on the pass!

lrb

Thanks guys

I decided I will (tentatively) try and take the ROUTE exam early December, which gives me a little over 3 months to study for it. I work at an ISP here in Australia so I have a fair bit of exposure to routing protocols and VPNs, so I'm hoping that gives me a decent headstart on the study.

If pass the exam in December, I will try to take the TSHOOT a couple of weeks later while the material is still fresh in my mind.

Fingers crossed!