two days til CCENT

Deathmage

Any pointers gents?

Using flash cards atm and the Exam Cram tear-out-sheet as my refresher till Thursday.

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Deathmage

Mother of brown-stuff from a pigeon covering the Cisco ceo's M5 beamer with acid!!!...., bleeping bleep bleep!

801!!!!!

This Exam just doesn't want to come my way. My score two weeks ago was 762 so it's better but 3 ******* points, sorry my french.

Means I need to muster more dedication for two more weeks and do it again. So pissed off!

My luck I got all Class A addresses and had to guess half the time. I suck with those high ass numbers..

Now my scores are all over the place....

So beside myself now

Breakdown:

67% - Operations
64% - LAN Technology
83% - IP subnetting
71% - IP routing
100% - IP Services
75% - Network Security
57% - Troubleshooting

Fulcrum45

Stay the course! You're too close to stop now. Work through the anger, shake it off and get back at it.

Stevecb06

Damn, this exam is really testing your perseverance. Hoping to see you not give up and bounce back.

JoJoCal19

Ugh. Devastated for you man.

Deathmage

Is this a perseverance check for me it sure is, is it testing my learning disability and struggle to anticipate what Cisco will ask me in my mad-man studies um yes is it...is this testing my dyslexic issues with words being flipped yup it sure is.

I swear half of those questions I've never seen before or asked in that matter and then some questions with picture diagrams I have NEVER ever seen before even in labbing or in a real production network.

Like one that I swear I have no clue how to reproduce is the one with a DCE/DTE and it gives this buffer question on a serial link, like who deals with Serial Buffers!!!!!! ... I don't recall any of my study content having that question covered in it at all.

But I'm getting back onto the band wagon, doing a Boson practise exam atm, but my brain is so mentally shot right now. I'm up to any suggestions on new content or changes in my studying.

I'm really struggling to figure out what I'm doing wrong with my studying.

On a side note I finished with 19 minutes to go, I trusted my gut and went with my 1st answer on all questions this time.

11175038_10206119912410709_525948521047614758_n.jpg

alias454

Take some time off. You have put in so much effort. You will get it next time for sure. Relax and put this out of your mind for your vacation and come back refreshed and renewed.

Regards,

xnx

Deathmage wrote: »

Is this a perseverance check for me it sure is, is it testing my learning disability and struggle to anticipate what Cisco will ask me in my mad-man studies um yes is it...is this testing my dyslexic issues with words being flipped yup it sure is.

I swear half of those questions I've never seen before or asked in that matter and then some questions with picture diagrams I have NEVER ever seen before even in labbing or in a real production network.

Like one that I swear I have no clue how to reproduce is the one with a DCE/DTE and it gives this buffer question on a serial link, like who deals with Serial Buffers!!!!!! ... I don't recall any of my study content having that question covered in it at all.

But I'm getting back onto the band wagon, doing a Boson practise exam atm, but my brain is so mentally shot right now. I'm up to any suggestions on new content or changes in my studying.

I'm really struggling to figure out what I'm doing wrong with my studying.

On a side note I finished with 19 minutes to go, I trusted my gut and went with my 1st answer on all questions this time.

PM me if you need any help, I passed mines first go nearly 2 years ago with a high score.

Your home lab looks good and Boson is good too..

If you suffer from dyslexia then it WILL make the exam harder for you as the questions are worded in a way to guage your understanding / comprehension skills.

A tip I can give you without breaking NDA is that there's only a certain number of sims that can come up, so you will see the same one from either attempts.

Mooseboost

Dang man, sorry to hear. You were very close though. I know it is discouraging to miss by so little but don't let yourself get turned off. You did better than last time and that is progress.

Deathmage

Thanks guys, I'm just going to live in Boson for the next two weeks until I pass them all with high scores and then keep taking practice exams in my other books. and keep doing flash cards and subnetting till my hands fall off, I guess I will write out Class A's now. I guess I need to order 11 x 17 notepads for all those zero's! .... still can't believe 9 of those questions were all class A's subnetting, I was like WTF and they were back to bloody back...

On a positive note, I'm engaged now, as of last night, to a lovely traditional Vietnamese girl I meet in Manhattan. She's definitely very supportive and that helps sooooo much! .. plus shes a doctor, no idea what she sees in me, but meh.

alias454

no idea what she sees in me, but meh

Don't ask, your better off not knowing so you keep doing whatever it is. Congratulations

mikeybinec

Deathmage wrote: »

My luck I got all Class A addresses and had to guess half the time. I suck with those high ass numbers..

What does this mean? You cant subnet a Class A? OK, time to learn Mikey's method-- you'll subnet in less than 30 seconds.. Just memorize the block sizes

Deathmage

mikeybinec wrote: »

What does this mean? You cant subnet a Class A? OK, time to learn Mikey's method-- you'll subnet in less than 30 seconds.. Just memorize the block sizes

Ya I'm focusing on A's now.

Mow

Congratulations on the engagement! Sorry to hear about the exam. I can give you some tips, also, if you want, PM me and I will share my wisdom, haha.

bigdogz

I am sorry to hear that you did not pass on your second attempt.
Do not give up!

If you have problems reading, you may want to see if there are videos available. By looking at Cybrary or udemy videos.

Good Luck!!!

PM me if you need help on anything....

Deathmage

I have this week off. Even while in VT I'm doing Boson, did 3 practice exams today and go figure I'm well over 900 points. Going to keep doing them till I get 1000 and then take the exam again. Living with a learning disability has made me really persevere through hard exams, not about to give up now. I failed the SAT's 6 times before I passed it, all because I didn't understanding the wording, had to get someone to read them to me and I passed with one of the highest score in the state back in 2002.

I've devoted my life for the past year and laser-focused for the past 6 months since VCP, I'm not quitting now.

Just doing to listen to Chris Bakers Udemy videos and re-read Todd's book yet again and retake it in two weeks on a Saturday in NJ.

If I don't pass the 3rd time I'm calling up Cisco and asking them what do I need to prove to get it done.

anyways I'm off to bed, been studying since I got up here in VT at 2pm in the motel. Tomorrow is a day on the town and then back home Thursday for more studying....

mikeybinec

Deathmage wrote: »

Ya I'm focusing on A's now.

Cmon man.. just do the block sizes!! OK, here we go:

Test question comming up!!

Given the IP address 20.188.13.50 /12, what is the network ID and two valid hosts?

A) 20.192.0.1

20.177.255.255

C) 20.190.1.255

D) 20.255.255.255

E) 20.176.0.0

READY!!! START THE CLOCK!!

A slash 12 means it hits the 2nd octet and has a block size of 16. How many 16s can we fit under the 188 WITHOUT GOING OVER? 11!11 11 times 16 = 176

WE GOT OUR NETWORK ID 20.176.0.0 /12

Our first host is 20.176.0.1

add a block of 15 to the 176 to come to the end of our network and you have 20.191 Now put in the host addreses in the third and 4th octet 255.254 for the last host and 255.255 for the broadcast address

Last host address is 20.191.255.254

Bcast address is 20.191.255.255

MIKEY DID IT 30 SECONDS OR LESS

Deathmage

Ya I need to learn something different for the really large ones. The subnetting table I understand but it's too long to write out.

Is there a link to the mickey's way? ....the block sizes I get from Wildcards since I know the CIDR by heart. Just I dont do many class A's since take me 10 minutes to write out the table alone..

Jon_Cisco

Don't overlook this simple site. You can do a couple questions any time you have 5 min at a computer.

subnetting.net - Subnet Questions and Answers

I used that and ciscos binary game on my phone.

Deathmage

I used subnetting.net like 7 months ago when I didn't know subnetting as well as I do now. I think I'll revisit it and add that to my daily madness..

Question for the CCNP's... does it get any easier with CCNP or is CCENT/CCNA supposed to be this hard with the Cisco Exams and how they word them? ...or is just a fact of life that I need to get used to their poor wording?

Deathmage

mikeybinec wrote: »

Cmon man.. just do the block sizes!! OK, here we go:

Test question comming up!!

Given the IP address 20.188.13.50 /12, what is the network ID and two valid hosts?

A) 20.192.0.1

20.177.255.255

C) 20.190.1.255

D) 20.255.255.255

E) 20.176.0.0

READY!!! START THE CLOCK!!

A slash 12 means it hits the 2nd octet and has a block size of 16. How many 16s can we fit under the 188 WITHOUT GOING OVER? 11!11 11 times 16 = 176

WE GOT OUR NETWORK ID 20.176.0.0 /12

Our first host is 20.176.0.1

add a block of 15 to the 176 to come to the end of our network and you have 20.191 Now put in the host addreses in the third and 4th octet 255.254 for the last host and 255.255 for the broadcast address

Last host address is 20.191.255.254

Bcast address is 20.191.255.255

MIKEY DID IT 30 SECONDS OR LESS

took me a little while of staring at this to see a pattern and then the block values clicked, I've always added 256, 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 under each octet and I always used them for just calculating the custom subnet but I think I finally see the block sizes your talking about.

As we know in a class B in the 2nd octet a .254 is a /23, a .252 is a /22, and a .248 is a /21; so if I follow your logic, then that block value I always place under my octets is also my ranging subnets. IE a 172.16.1.0 /23 would be a 172.16.1.0 through 172.16.2.255, essential (2) 256 ranges. So if I follow myself that's in the /23 slot and that's a block size of 2, so that equates to the above.

So with that being said let me go deeper, a 172.16.1.0 /19 would be 5 bits used for hosts and 3 left networks in the 2nd octet so 2^5 is 32. So my block sizes would be: 172.16.1.0 - 172.16.31.255 or 32 (256) sized subnets. With that said the next block of subnets would be 172.16.32.0 - 172.16.63.255.

Am I following your block size idea?

If so it took me a little while to stare at this Boson picture for it to click...

I always been doing my subnetting with a chart and I mastered it, I just didn't type out a Class A chart on that tiny paper in the testing center. Plus I didn't focus on A much because of their size. But if I got this block size way this is much easier...

I think the block size way just clicked....jpg

koz24

Everything you need on block sizes is in Lammle Chapter 4

HAMP

Deathmage wrote: »

So with that being said let me go deeper, a 172.16.1.0 /19(This would be an host IP address) would be 5 bits used for hosts and 3 left networks in the 2nd octet so 2^5 is 32. So my block sizes would be: 172.16.0.0 - 172.16.31.255 or 32 (256) sized subnets. With that said the next block of subnets would be 172.16.32.0 - 172.16.63.255.

The bold is a slight correction.

In the block size, the first usable host would be 172.16.0.1, while the last usable would be the 172.16.31.254

v1ral

Deathmage wrote: »

I used subnetting.net like 7 months ago when I didn't know subnetting as well as I do now. I think I'll revisit it and add that to my daily madness..

Question for the CCNP's... does it get any easier with CCNP or is CCENT/CCNA supposed to be this hard with the Cisco Exams and how they word them? ...or is just a fact of life that I need to get used to their poor wording?

Im not at the CCNP level, but I've worked with a bunch of CCNP's and CCIE's, they all say that it doesn't get any easier. It just seems like the CCNP is easier but it's because you have seasoned networking folks taking the exams. CCENT/CCNA are predominantly rookies trying to get into the networking field.

steele84

Todd Lammle's approach (block sizes method) is great and that's what I use to subnet, but it did take some time for it to solidify in my brain. What I did to get it to stick is watch / Listen to Todd Lammle's video series over and over again. I would pull it up on my phone and plug it into my aux on my car and listen (not watch) as I drove. The more and more I listened the easier it got till BAM! I had it. I also made flash cards with block sizes, CIDR notation, Bits on , Bits off, Subnetworks, and Host for each subnet mask. I did this for Class C but it translates over to the other classes easily.

[Deleted User]

CCENT/CCNA is just the foundation for Cisco Networking in general. Depending on if you do CCNP R&S, you will have more practical hands on questions and less theory. If you do a different specialization track such as CCNA Security, Wireless etc, you will have more theory based questions (at least from my understanding) The theory will build in CCNP as covered on CCENT/CCNA, just not as much stuff like Frame Relay etc. if that makes sense.

[Deleted User]

Also in regards to your Serial Buffer question, in Cisco exams, it doesn't matter if it is used in the real world, it is material covered in the Cisco Press book and you will have some questions on it. In other words, if it is covered in Cisco press guide, it is fair game. They cover a decent amount of DTE/DCE cabling stuff like clock rate on DCE side etc. If the question you are talking about is the one that I had on my exam (can't really say much because of NDA but it sounds familiar), all I can say is read over DTE/DCE cabling and understand the output generated by certain show controllers commands. I wish I could help you out more but things should be ok since you are 3 points away.

steele84

kMastaFlash wrote: »

Also in regards to your Serial Buffer question, in Cisco exams, it doesn't matter if it is used in the real world, it is material covered in the Cisco Press book and you will have some questions on it. In other words, if it is covered in Cisco press guide, it is fair game. They cover a decent amount of DTE/DCE cabling stuff like clock rate on DCE side etc. If the question you are talking about is the one that I had on my exam (can't really say much because of NDA but it sounds familiar), all I can say is read over DTE/DCE cabling and understand the output generated by certain show controllers commands. I wish I could help you out more but things should be ok since you are 3 points away.

I had a lot of Serial questions on my exam.

Deathmage

kMastaFlash wrote: »

Also in regards to your Serial Buffer question, in Cisco exams, it doesn't matter if it is used in the real world, it is material covered in the Cisco Press book and you will have some questions on it. In other words, if it is covered in Cisco press guide, it is fair game. They cover a decent amount of DTE/DCE cabling stuff like clock rate on DCE side etc. If the question you are talking about is the one that I had on my exam (can't really say much because of NDA but it sounds familiar), all I can say is read over DTE/DCE cabling and understand the output generated by certain show controllers commands. I wish I could help you out more but things should be ok since you are 3 points away.

it's all good man I know the NDA makes us walk a very fine line. I'm just re-reading Todd's book. I read Odom's book the last two weeks and only becasue I wanted a second go from a different author but it was really um textbook on some chapters if that makes any sense; Todd's book was way more clear. If anyone read them both you know what I mean.

But I've been doing Subnetting.net for 15 minutes a day and doing ay-least one Boson a day. I'm just doing more of the focused studying this time and spacing it out daily instead of doing it all in one sitting over 2 weeks every two days. I'm doing it every day and letting it sink into my skull...

I'll re-read DCE/DTE stuff and really learn it. I'm also really play around with my Serial connections on my 2600's and see if I can force the screen I got on the exam. Is there a way to change the buffer size of the controllers?

Ok, so this is what I'm used to doing:

Router(config-if)# clock rate 2000000
and then I do this:
Router# show controller serial 0/1
104-n-108-Core-Router#show controller s1/0

Interface Serial1/0
Hardware is PowerQUICC MPC860
DCE V.35, clock rate 2000000
idb at 0x81081AC4, driver data structure at 0x81084AC0
SCC Registers:
General [GSMR]=0x2:0x00000000, Protocol-specific [PSMR]=0x8
Events [SCCE]=0x0000, Mask [SCCM]=0x0000, Status [SCCS]=0x00
Transmit on Demand [TODR]=0x0, Data Sync [DSR]=0x7E7E
Interrupt Registers:
Config [CICR]=0x00367F80, Pending [CIPR]=0x0000C000
Mask [CIMR]=0x00200000, In-srv [CISR]=0x00000000
Command register [CR]=0x580
Port A [PADIR]=0x1030, [PAPAR]=0xFFFF
[PAODR]=0x0010, [PADAT]=0xCBFF
Port B [PBDIR]=0x09C0F, [PBPAR]=0x0800E
[PBODR]=0x00000, [PBDAT]=0x3FFFD
Port C [PCDIR]=0x00C, [PCPAR]=0x200
[PCSO]=0xC20, [PCDAT]=0xDF2, [PCINT]=0x00F
Receive Ring
rmd(68012830): status 9000 length 60C address 3B6DAC4
rmd(6801283

: status B000 length 60C address 3B6D444
Transmit Ring
tmd(680128B0): status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(680128B

: status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(680128C0): status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(680128C

: status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(680128D0): status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(680128D

: status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(680128E0): status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(680128E

: status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(680128F0): status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(680128F

: status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(68012900): status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(6801290

: status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(68012910): status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(6801291

: status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(68012920): status 0 length 0 address 0
tmd(6801292

: status 2000 length 0 address 0

tx_limited=1(2)

SCC GENERAL PARAMETER RAM (at 0x68013C00)
Rx BD Base [RBASE]=0x2830, Fn Code [RFCR]=0x18
Tx BD Base [TBASE]=0x28B0, Fn Code [TFCR]=0x18
Max Rx Buff Len [MRBLR]=1548
Rx State [RSTATE]=0x0, BD Ptr [RBPTR]=0x2830
Tx State [TSTATE]=0x4000, BD Ptr [TBPTR]=0x28B0

SCC HDLC PARAMETER RAM (at 0x68013C3

CRC Preset [C_PRES]=0xFFFF, Mask [C_MASK]=0xF0B8
Errors: CRC [CRCEC]=0, Aborts [ABTSC]=0, Discards [DISFC]=0
Nonmatch Addr Cntr [NMARC]=0
Retry Count [RETRC]=0
Max Frame Length [MFLR]=1608
Rx Int Threshold [RFTHR]=0, Frame Cnt [RFCNT]=0
User-defined Address 0000/0000/0000/0000
User-defined Address Mask 0x0000

buffer size 1524

PowerQUICC SCC specific errors:
0 input aborts on receiving flag sequence
0 throttles, 0 enables
0 overruns
0 transmitter underruns
0 transmitter CTS losts
0 aborted short frames

This right here is what I saw on the exam, but I don't know where in the devil I go to get this, I found this coding in a google search. don't think a simple google search voids a NDA if it's public knowledge. I mean the only thing I can gather is that's a extremely shrunk down output of the output above but even then I'm puzzled.

HD unit 0, idb = 0x710CC0, driver structure at 0x716140
buffer size 1524 HD unit 0, V.35 DTE cable

But now I'm trying to figure out what this means, if I set the clock rate to 56000 and that's the only thing I normally set with a Serial and the Encapsulation, how in god creation do you set the buffer size, 1524 to me doesn't equate to 56000. Am I missing something, this is why I had a hard time with this question. Two of my books as Cisco press books and I honestly don't recall anything on buffer sizes.

Deathmage

A different question I have, I did a frack ton of the labs and I know for a fact the OSPF one I did fine with just the 'show ip ospf interface' and 'show ip ospf database' command for all of the required information but does anyone know if you don't use a command in a simlet that Cisco is looking for you to use would they hold that against you?

Like on all the simlet I tried to avoid using the show running-config and use other show commands that got way more granular like 'show cdp neighbors details' or 'show protocols' vs using 'show ip inter br'. Even in my home-labbing I avoid show running-config since I thikn it's cheating. That command pretty much tells you a crap ton of stuff and its useful but what I've found is other command has way more helpful stuff...

koz24

Deathmage wrote: »

A different question I have, I did a frack ton of the labs and I know for a fact the OSPF one I did fine with just the 'show ip ospf interface' and 'show ip ospf database' command for all of the required information but does anyone know if you don't use a command in a simlet that Cisco is looking for you to use would they hold that against you?

Like on all the simlet I tried to avoid using the show running-config and use other show commands that got way more granular like 'show cdp neighbors details' or 'show protocols' vs using 'show ip inter br'. Even in my home-labbing I avoid show running-config since I thikn it's cheating. That command pretty much tells you a crap ton of stuff and its useful but what I've found is other command has way more helpful stuff...

How would they hold it against you? Dude, just find the answer any way you can. If show run works and it gets you the answer then use it!