ICND2 is a no-go : ran out of time.

T.Abbasi · November 2011

Hello all,

So took the ICND2 this Saturday for the first time and unfortunately came down to the wire, I had exactly a minute left and 8 questions to go. I basically guessed them all. Ended up with a 720 (825 passing). The exam is VERY, very fair, in the sense that one must know the material inside out - specially VLANs, troubleshooting, configuring, and WAN links. I felt that I knew almost all the questions posted, but my time management was horrible. There was a simple configuring question (now that I think about it), and I spent closed to 10 minutes on it, which I think was probably the root of my time going all off.

Anyhow, was frustrated for a bit yesteday, but ok now. Have a few questions, I'd like to take this exam next saturday, the testing center mentioned that I just need to show up to retake it, but dont I have to reschedule with Pearson Vue first?

Lastly, materials used for icnd2 - lammle 7th, odom 2nd, CBT w/Jeremy, Chris Bryant's ccna package guide, and packet tracer.

Thanks for reading.

/regards

JDMurray · November 2011

Nothing about that in Cisco's cert exam policy: Certification Exam Policies - IT Certification and Career Paths - Cisco Systems

Did the testing center give you a ticket for a free retake? If not, you must pay for your retake through the Pearson Vue Web site and not at the testing center.

Forsaken_GA · November 2011

JDMurray wrote: »

Did the testing center give you a ticket for a free retake? If not, you must pay for your retake through the Pearson Vue Web site and not at the testing center.

Not entirely true, the testing centers have the ability to take payment. My last four exams, I haven't scheduled through the Vue website. I called ahead to the testing center, inquired if they had an open seat at the time I wanted, and just showed up, they scheduled me for the exam and processed my payment on site. (I do this because I've had repeated issues with the Pearson web site registering me under the wrong Cisco ID or trying to set me up with a new one, and I've tried to have my accounts merged five times, and never gotten it done, so I've given up on it)

Whether or not an individual testing center allows that is probably up to them, but the Pearson scheduling software does certainly allow on-site scheduling and payment processing.

Turgon · November 2011

T.Abbasi wrote: »

Hello all,

So took the ICND2 this Saturday for the first time and unfortunately came down to the wire, I had exactly a minute left and 8 questions to go. I basically guessed them all. Ended up with a 720 (825 passing). The exam is VERY, very fair, in the sense that one must know the material inside out - specially VLANs, troubleshooting, configuring, and WAN links. I felt that I knew almost all the questions posted, but my time management was horrible. There was a simple configuring question (now that I think about it), and I spent closed to 10 minutes on it, which I think was probably the root of my time going all off.

Anyhow, was frustrated for a bit yesteday, but ok now. Have a few questions, I'd like to take this exam next saturday, the testing center mentioned that I just need to show up to retake it, but dont I have to reschedule with Pearson Vue first?

Lastly, materials used for icnd2 - lammle 7th, odom 2nd, CBT w/Jeremy, Chris Bryant's ccna package guide, and packet tracer.

Thanks for reading.

/regards

In all fairness, you probably were not ready for the exam. I would study for a couple of months before trying it out a second time. When I have struggled on time in an exam it's usually down to inadequate preparation. As for 10 minutes on a simulation question, or any question for that matter, dont do it. 5 minutes tops, after that go for an educated guess and advance to the the next question. All questions are weighted the same and there is nothing more demoralising than being up against the clock at the end of an exam with lots of questions to do. If you had time at the end to reflect you may have got more marks in there.

pham0329 · November 2011

Turgon wrote: »

As for 10 minutes on a simulation question, or any question for that matter, dont do it. 5 minutes tops, after that go for an educated guess and advance to the the next question. All questions are weighted the same and there is nothing more demoralising than being up against the clock at the end of an exam with lots of questions to do.

really? MCQ and sims are weighted the same? That doesn't seem right to me.

JDMurray · November 2011

I seem to remember reading something where Cisco admitted the sims were weighted (worth) more.

wilsonian · November 2011

Sorry to hear about you failing. I too have been there when time is against you (first time on the CCNA). The way Cisco exams work are very cheeky (points wise) and makes you wonder if spending X amount of time on a "simple" lab is worth it.

As mentioned try reading up for a few months and then retake. worse thing you can do is run back in thinking you know where you went wrong only never to see those questions again.

ICND2 is a no-go : ran out of time.

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