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Home > Archive > CCNA > September 2005 > Pass 975, comprehensive feedback
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Pass 975, comprehensive feedback
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| johnaspen 2005-05-13, 7:26 pm |
| Used Sybex Deluxe 5th edition along with the Cisco Press books (and downloaded updates from ciscopress.com). Boson's Netsim and Transcender were my other tools of choice. Transcender is always the last thing I do a few days before taking a cert to verify that I'm ready. I scored 950 on the 1st Transcender test, so I'd say they're right on the money in terms of providing a practice test that's in-line with the difficulty of the real thing.
Boson's netsim was more than sufficient for getting the hands-on experience. They include labs on NAT/RIP/EIGRP/OSPF/ACL's/PPP which are absolutely perfect for preparation. If you can perform the lab instructions without needing to see the answers, you're ready for the CCNA sims and some written questions.
I always wondered if the sims allowed for the use of the TAB key and ? key. It turns out that they do, but I didn't end up needing to use either one. It is nice to know that they're available anyway, but don't rely on those tools as your only way of making it through the sims.
On the widely-discussed topic of "do you need to copy run-start in the sims", I did not do this per Cisco's instructions, and obviously my score reflects that it's not a necessary step. Sidenote: Sims are weighted heavily.
Time is another hot topic for CCNA and I was thinking about it during the entire test. Cisco recommends 10 min max on the sim(s); I only needed 1 min which reflects the easiness of the sims (read: they don't require 5 million steps to complete) as long as you have rock-solid knowledge of the material. Overall I ended up with 30 min leftover. I can see how it would be very easy to go over the time limit if your knowledge and understanding wasn't were it needs to be. Less than 25% of the questions are the quick and obvious type of answers. Reasoning, understanding, calculation, and troubleshooting are used on the other 75%. This is a good (my way of saying difficult test.
I'm trying to think of what else everyone is interesting in pertaining to the CCNA. NAT is definitely there, so that's the one downfall to the Sybex book (I still recommend it). Sybex provides no commands for configuring NAT. On the other hand, Cisco Press and Bosons Netsim do a terrific job of covering what you need to know to answer the test questions. Broken record statement: use more than one source.
That wraps it up my thoughts. I think I read over in the Linux+ forum that the next revision is taking effect July 1st? I might just have to nail that down before it happens, so we'll say that's my next step.
God bless everyone! | |
| Cisco1980 2005-05-15, 10:35 pm |
| Transcender? Where did you get it?
will simulation on ISDN and Frame Relay be on the test?
Thanks | |
| johnaspen 2005-05-17, 6:36 pm |
| Transcender would be www.transcender.com of course. Probably the most respected practice testing company along with Boson.
I'm glad you brought up ISDN because that topic will scare the daylights out of you when you're reading about it in any of the CCNA books. Way to many commands and terms to remember. Fortunately the CCNA test does not pound on ISDN, just need to know basics.
Frame relay is an important and current topic so expect plenty of questions related to that technology.
As to what's specifically in the sims, that would be a topic I can't divulge information on. | |
| Cisco1980 2005-06-02, 4:30 am |
| Thanks alot.
You passed with flying colors! haha
Amazing. You really have in depth understanding about networking. Its not easy. | |
| davidbec 2005-06-06, 8:33 pm |
| Do you really get questions asking you about the commands to move around a command you have on the CLI?
Like CTRL- P and CTRL -A ?
Sometimes I think there are probably people at Cisco, that do nothing all day but come up with new commands, whether they do nothing important, whether no one will ever use them, or whether there is already an existing command for that function.
Maybe they even get bonuses at Christmas for new commands. | |
| davidbec 2005-06-06, 10:38 pm |
| Guess what I just discovered.
Someone actually wrote a command to disable them!
"Terminal no editing"
wow! | |
| zxmjkxz 2005-07-18, 8:59 am |
| "I'm glad you brought up ISDN because that topic will scare the daylights out of you when you're reading about it in any of the CCNA books. Way to many commands and terms to remember. Fortunately the CCNA test does not pound on ISDN, just need to know basics."
I'm glad too, since I'm taking my icnd tomorrow and I was really worried about ISDN, and a lilttle worried about frame relay. I can breath again... thanks | |
| davidbec 2005-07-18, 9:27 am |
| Is the ICND easier than the CCNA? I failed the CCNA twice and I was wondering whether I should do the INTRO and ICND instead of the CCNA. | |
| WaldoIsHere 2005-07-18, 9:34 pm |
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| confuse 2005-07-24, 3:53 pm |
| Congrats
Excellent
Way to go
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| BroadcastStorm 2005-08-03, 2:28 pm |
| quote:
Sometimes I think there are probably people at Cisco, that do nothing all day but come up with new commands, whether they do nothing important, whether no one will ever use them, or whether there is already an existing command for that function.
You aint seen nothin yet. Wait till you get up to CCSP Pix Firewall. There are tons of crappy commands youll see which cisco plainly denotes as "features". | |
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| great job on the pass and thanks for taking the time to type your advice to other test takers! | |
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| johnaspen 2005-09-01, 6:19 pm |
| I've been out of the game for awhile and just noticed davidbec's unanswered questions from the 1st page of posts:
"Do you really get questions asking you about the commands to move around a command you have on the CLI?" - I can't comment on my specific test. If anything, I'd say to just know the most basic combinations that you might find yourself using in the real world. Those keystrokes can make you much more efficient which is why Cisco created them. Whether all the combinations they've come up with is necessary or not is certainly questionable.
"Is the ICND easier than the CCNA? I failed the CCNA twice and I was wondering whether I should do the INTRO and ICND instead of the CCNA." - Sorry to hear about those fails, you're definitely not alone. A lot of people get lured into taking the 2 test route and there's plenty of discussion around this. Intro is generally considered easy, so you have one test with all easy questions. ICND on the other hand is considered difficult, so you finish with one test with all difficult questions. If you think about that, you end up with better odds taking the combined test since you'll have a mix of easy and difficult questions. There's also a decent level of overlap, so the benefit of studying less material is not as great as it would seem. |
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