Took the ROUTE exam this morning

And scored 906/1000

. I thought I had really bombed because one of the labs was giving me problems. My stomach was in knots thinking about having to shell out $200 more to take it again then I seen "Congratulations". I just kinda sat there staring at the screen like really?

For those of you that want to know I used the Foundation Learning guide, the CBT Nuggets series, GNS3 with Labs from gns3vault and my BSCI Lab portfolio from when I was in the Network Academy. The test wasn't hard overall, there was just a TON of information to remember.

Now I guess I will start studying the SWITCH exam. Best part is I'm about to upgrade all of our remote site's switches to 2960-48P so I will have a large 3550/3560 inventory to play with

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MrBrian

Panzer919 wrote: »

Now I guess I will start studying the SWITCH exam. Best part is I'm about to upgrade all of our remote site's switches to 2960-48P so I will have a large 3550/3560 inventory to play with

Congrats on passing the ROUTE exam!! One down, two more to go.. Hey, think you can throw me a couple 3550's?? Haha

ehnde

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Panzer919

MrBrian wrote: »

Hey, think you can throw me a couple 3550's?? Haha

Depending on what my boss says I can do with them, it might be possible. I think we have 40+ that are going to be removed between this year and next so I will defiantly keep this site updated if I have a surplus.

Bl8ckr0uter

Congrats man! See you didn't even need to worry about getting CCNA:

How long did you actually study for the exam (since I know you have a ton of exp).

Panzer919

I started reading back in December but with the different projects I've been working on and a 2 month lazy break, and it took me a while to read through the FLG. I converted the CBT nuggets for my EVO and watched them on the bus ride home from downtown. It is an hour ride so it worked out well for reading and watching videos. The best part though was that I could throw a lab together on my computer and my boss wouldn't know if it was for work or play. So I would do that with my downtime.

kerx

Panzer919 wrote: »

Now I guess I will start studying the SWITCH exam. Best part is I'm about to upgrade all of our remote site's switches to 2960-48P so I will have a large 3550/3560 inventory to play with

Is it a norm to start with the ROUTE exam prior to the SWITCH? I thought it was the other way around. Did you do that for a specific reason?

Congratulations

Now go and hit the

instant000

Panzer919 wrote: »

Depending on what my boss says I can do with them, it might be possible. I think we have 40+ that are going to be removed between this year and next so I will defiantly keep this site updated if I have a surplus.

Please put me on your mailing list

EDIT: *ahem* Congrats on passing the ROUTE exam!

LOL.

Panzer919

kerx wrote: »

Is it a norm to start with the ROUTE exam prior to the SWITCH? I thought it was the other way around. Did you do that for a specific reason?

Congratulations

Now go and hit the

It's all personal preference. My choice came down to getting the biggest book out of the way first (since I don't like reading). That's also one of the reasons it took me 9 months to finish. Riding the bus to and from work came in handy though since I don't get a whole lot of time to study at home.

Panzer919

instant000 wrote: »

Please put me on your mailing list

EDIT: *ahem* Congrats on passing the ROUTE exam!

LOL.

There have been times where my boss just says "I don't care where they go I just want them gone", If that's the case I will pop up on the for sale forum or something I'm sure.

Monkerz

Congrats dude! I sit for Route next Wednesday, do you have any pointers?

jovan88

Panzer919 wrote: »

My stomach was in knots thinking about having to shell out $200 more to take it again then I seen "Congratulations".

boy i know that feeling, congrats man

Panzer919

Monkerz wrote: »

Congrats dude! I sit for Route next Wednesday, do you have any pointers?

Always remember, It is not important why the answer is correct, but why the others are wrong. If you have 5 answers and you think you know the right one, go through the others and tell yourself why the others are wrong. You may even find that what you thought was correct really was the second best answer.

Chris_

Congratulations, enjoy the success and a couple of drinks before you get your head into the switch books

nel

congrats

lrb

Great work and killer score!

down77

Great job and congrats on the pass!

Panzer919

Thanks for all the congratz everyone

lrb wrote: »

Great work and killer score!

I don't know if the lady at the testing center was being sincere or just trying to make me feel better since she knew I felt ill from nerves, but she said she doesn't usually see scores that high for the ROUTE test.

Zartanasaurus

Panzer919 wrote: »

I thought I had really bombed because one of the labs was giving me problems.

I had a similar experience with the SWITCH exam. First question out of the gate was a lab and it took me over 20 minutes to get it working. And the problem ended up being a minor config issue that I was dead certain I had configured right out of the gate. I chalked it up to a PT quirk because clearly I couldn't have made a mistake.

Panzer919

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

I had a similar experience with the SWITCH exam. First question out of the gate was a lab and it took me over 20 minutes to get it working. And the problem ended up being a minor config issue that I was dead certain I had configured right out of the gate. I chalked it up to a PT quirk because clearly I couldn't have made a mistake.

First thing I thought when all the pieces did not work as requested was what did I fat finger, so I kept looking and re-entering my config's and checking. I honestly think it was the sim and not me because I use this particular scenario in my environment so I know how to make the changes and what they accomplish but it did not work that way.

Dakinggamer87

Congrats

down77

Panzer919 wrote: »

Thanks for all the congratz everyone

I don't know if the lady at the testing center was being sincere or just trying to make me feel better since she knew I felt ill from nerves, but she said she doesn't usually see scores that high for the ROUTE test.

She was being sincere. The proctor at the test center I go to let me know that around 3/4 of the people who take this test have to come back for a 2nd attempt. Scoring 900+ on any of the professional level exams is an accomplishment!

ITdude

Panzer919 wrote: »

Always remember, It is not important why the answer is correct, but why the others are wrong. If you have 5 answers and you think you know the right one, go through the others and tell yourself why the others are wrong. You may even find that what you thought was correct really was the second best answer.

Excellent testing strategy. It is better to deduce the correct answer among the wrong ones (or not so right ones) versus just trying to find the answer directly, which can end up biting you in the butt!:)

Congrats on the accomplishment!

P.S. Always looking for a nice 3560, too.

Computer idiot

Panzer919 wrote: »

It's all personal preference. My choice came down to getting the biggest book out of the way first (since I don't like reading). That's also one of the reasons it took me 9 months to finish. Riding the bus to and from work came in handy though since I don't get a whole lot of time to study at home.

It took you nine months to finish ROUTE? You must have spread your study time out quite a bit.

Panzer919

ITdude wrote: »

Excellent testing strategy. It is better to deduce the correct answer among the wrong ones (or not so right ones) versus just trying to find the answer directly, which can end up biting you in the butt!:)

Congrats on the accomplishment!

My teacher at the Network Academy would put up module tests after everyone was done and we would take them as a class. He would make us explain why an answer was or was not correct. Then at the end if we missed one we would go back over it again and try to figure out what Cisco was looking for. Same thing can be applied to doing labs. When you do a lab and it works but your configs are different, there is usually a good reason and a lesson as to why.

Panzer919

Computer idiot wrote: »

It took you nine months to finish ROUTE? You must have spread your study time out quite a bit.

I started in late November early December and read through the first 4 chapters. I was studying with a friend of mine and then he got a job in mid January so we didn't have time to study together as much. I got kinda burned out on reading so much at one time I decided to take a break and focus on work. Before I knew it, it was March. My daughters birthday was in April, my sons is in May so there were a few interruptions for party planning. My wife was pregnant at the time also so there were plenty of days where I had to go home and take care of things since she was tired or didn't feel good. I had a very large network migration that started in April also. We started planning in April and May, June we cut over our entire(4-500 user office and data center) network that had just been thrown together and band aided over the years between an old 6509 hybrid and a 4500. We cut that over the weekend of the 24th (worked 44 hours in 2 1/2 days) plus fought various other issues the following week. July 1st I had another daughter so I was out of commission for another 2 weeks and then I hit it hard after to try to catch up.

So yeah you could say things got spread out

, somethings I retained better than others but that's to be expected. Once the NP is complete I can take my time and go back through the material again to prep for the IP or IE