I sat the SWITCH today and...

I PASSED!!!

WOOT!!! WOOT!!!

I'm glad I finally knocked this one down! I've been dreading this exam this whole month.

Now on to that TSHOOT exam!!!

Regards,
David

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Comments

genXrcist

Congratulations!!!!

down77

That's awesome! So without breaking the NDA, was it as bad as everyone has made it seem?

rogue2shadow

Congrats!!!

davidspirovalentine

Thanks people!!!

@down77

Yes it was!

There was quite a bit of topics that were'nt in the book...

But David Hucaby took care of that!!!

Ponder the Network (and other things)

My advice would be, study really hard and try to get hands on (not packet tracer because it sometimes gives really weird results and not GNS3 because a 3725 with a 16 switchport module is not a real switch).

I know I'm gonna get a lot of hate by saying the above and everyone will say "we don't have real hardware" well neither did I but if you get the chance lab lab and lab on the real hardware.

Regards,
David

mikej412

davidspirovalentine wrote: »

PASSED!!!

Congratulations!!

You had me dreading viewing the thread with that "ominous no mention of passing subject line"

down77 wrote: »

That's awesome! So without breaking the NDA, was it as bad as everyone has made it seem?

What he said!!

You got the Pass, so after an appropriate Celebration

you need to update us on what you used and what resources you found most useful -- and what resources sucked. You can't mention anything that you learned by taking the exam or any specifics about exam questions or topics -- but you can mention any Cisco White Papers or Documentation that you were glad you read/studied.

Did you read the Foundation Guide?

earweed

Congratulations!

Bl8ckr0uter

Awesome man!

davidspirovalentine

Thanks Guys,

Yes I did read the foundation guide and I believe it is the best resource for this exam! I also used CBT Nuggets BCMSN material and LABs LABs LABs...

I would like to say that the Official Switch book is a great resource, once you read the additional material the author has posted on his blog.

As for additional links, your gonna love this...

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-7628

Regards,
David

wirerat

Congrats on the pass!

DevilWAH

Congratulations on the pass, nice to know it is possible

May be I should give it one more chance.

miller811

DevilWAH wrote: »

Congratulations on the pass, nice to know it is possible May be I should give it one more chance.

You should give it one more chance..... and slay the beast.

I was in your shoes several years ago, and it took three tries to pass BSCI....

I know how you feel, but it makes it sweeter when you finally pass.

miller811

congrats David.

Job well done

peanutnoggin

CONGRATS David!!! I just booked my exam today... I originally was going to take it on Friday but I scheduled it for Wednesday!!! We'll see how it goes...

-Peanut

Netwurk

Congrats!!! Nice work.

and good luck to peanut!

davidspirovalentine

Thanks Guys!!!

@peanutnoggin - All the best, did you check out the link I gave above, definately worth a read!!!

@DevilWAH - Yeah man, you gotta give it a chance... read my signature, failure is a stepping stone to sucess (by the way I need to reword that, there is no such thing as failure there are only setbacks).

You will both pass!!! Have some faith in yourselves, I know the cost of the exams dosen't come easy but the rewards will be worth more, don't you think?

Good Luck Guys!!!

Regards,
David

/usr

Would you mind going over what resources you used to prepare?

Also, a huge congrats on the pass!

I just saw where you posted your materials. Sorry!

nicklauscombs

congrats on the pass! how long do you think you will prepare for TSHOOT?

vinbuck

Congrats!!!! Definitely a very worthy and difficult achievement. Did the supplemental material provided here come pretty close in filling in the gaps in the SWITCH exam? I'm just beginning my studies for ROUTE so I won't be getting ready for SWITCH until early next year but i'm anxious to see how everyone is doing now that some of the knowledge deficits in this exam have been identified. Again...awesome achievement!

mikej412

davidspirovalentine wrote: »

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-7628

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!

CGN_Spec

Congrats! Great Job!

davidspirovalentine

mikej412 wrote: »

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!

I know, awesome huh? I knew you would like it

@MississippiGuardsman - Oh yes, the extra material just bridged the gap for me (and bridged it well). In fact, if the official guide had those extra pieces I strongly believe that people wouldn't be hatin on it that much!

@nicklauscombs - Hmm... Good question, I plan on giving myself 3 to 4 months for the TSHOOT. Reason behind this is I don't want to take it too far away because there is alot of overlap and I don't want to take it to soon and be unprepared.

Thanks Guys,

Ask away if you have any other questions/comments

Regards,
David

mathelize

Congrats, I'm planning to write the exam before the year runs out. I've been preparing for it for some time.

lrb

Good work

You'll most certainly be a CCNP before the year is out!

creamy_stew

OH YEAH! *breaks through wall*

I was beginning to crumble in fear after all the horrifying reviews posted.

Congrats!!!

wolverene13

Congrats man! I wouldn't even sweat the TSHOOT exam. I just took it on Monday and passed with a 912. As long as you get familiar with the topology and study up on routing protocols, you should be fine. The only things I would be worried about are IPv6 (and it's routing protocols) and GRE tunnels. They don't go crazy with it on the test (I only had one question like that), but you never know when one question could be the difference between failing and passing.

davidspirovalentine

creamy_stew wrote: »

I was beginning to crumble in fear after all the horrifying reviews posted.

LOL, so was I!!!

But as mentioned above, I really believe the extra stuff that David.H put on his blog will totally pull you across the line, especially if you used the official SWITCH book. Although as mikej412 mentioned in one of his other posts, if you can use the Foundation learning guide as well as the OC you will be lethal!!!

@lrb - I hope so!!!

@wolverene13 - Thanks for the advise! I will certainly be hitting the books again (reading ROUTE,SWITCH and TSHOOT) all over again. By reading I mean skimming through as I have read them back-to-back at least twice for each book!!!

Regards,
David

DevilWAH

I think one of my problems may have been the crying baby putting me off

no just joking, but having rethought this I think I can see where I went wrong. I think while the books are good just reading them will not get you through. Because I set up most of the switch stuff on a daily basics, I never spent the time to lab up some of the more unusual setups to see what happens. I only really labs up the new stuff I had not set up before. I am almost tempted to take a week of work and hammer through some big labs to get my head around it all.

However I am not quite sure how long I can keep my lab for, so may have to do some of this on rented hardware. (if I move jobs I lose 80% of my lab equipment)

I have this nasty feeling that I missed out on the exam becasue of a single question that I got mislead by. It apears that I should have been able to do something, but becasue on the first attempt atSWITCH when my exam crashed it did not work, I made the assumption on the retake that it was something I could not do in the simulation and thought the question was misleading. So I missed out a hugh "important" chunk of the question.

That plus a few other little bits and I think this one would be in the bag. I just got in to the ROUTE though but I think its worth taking a step back and giving it one more go maybe.

Wont be for a while though. First the baby and now moving hosue in 4 weeks!! really cramping my study!!