CCNP - Passed Switching

Author

Passed Switching

peterd

2001-08-28, 5:39 am

Hi Everyone,

I took and passed the switching exam about two hours ago...

the questions were evenly spread between MLS, Spanning Tree, VTP & Vlans, and multicasting, probably ten questions each.

Plus several questions on selecting the relevant switch.

There was one question to type in a command from memory, plus another 10 - 12 questions to select the relevant command(s) from a list of five options.

Two questions to place information from a grid into some boxes on a circuit diagram (IP Address, VLAN numbers, etc). Nice and easy but I double check everything before I press the 'next' button and I'd actually typed a '1' where it should have been a '2' so don't take these seemingly easy questions for granted.

I got one particular question twice but I was confident that I'd got the right answer so it was no big deal.

There was plenty of time, and I found it easier than I'd imagined as I found the studying for this one particularly difficult, I couln't seem to get really interested in the subject.

I had an good feeling by question nine that it was a piece of cake, and AIR there was only about three questions in the exam that made me stop and think for a minute of two before answering.

I'd used the Cisco Press Prep book and Boson tests, Boson was much harder than the exam. I also used plenty of tutorials from various sites but mainly from Cisco.

I plan to avoid all conatct with switching in future if I can though...

it doesn't excite me.

Regards
Peter

Mat P

2001-08-28, 5:43 am

well done, whats next?

peterd

2001-08-28, 9:54 am

Hi Mat,

a few days playing around with a VB program that I wrote a couple of years ago for predicting football results..it needs a few updates/amendments and now's a good time at the start of a new season.

Then next week on with Remote Access and hope to be taking the exam before Christmas...

Regards
Peter

vizard

2001-08-28, 10:24 am

great work conratulations

Daharmaster

2001-08-28, 12:26 pm

What Kind Of Marks did you get on Boson ?

As I feel kinda prepared , and am edging the 80's in boson

depamo

2001-08-28, 1:13 pm

That is some good information. I am glad to hear that the Boson exam is harder then the actual exam. I have the test in two weeks (friggen Labor Day Weekend, testing center is closed, do these people realize I don't have a life!!!). That makes me feel a little better about it. Personally I don't like switches either but you just can't seem to get an Enterprise Network running right without them. I have been very surprised at the complexity of Ether Channel and RSM's with the ROSM functions. Just hope that I don't have to encounter Multi-Cast. That would be a massive jiznit of boring tedious work.

Thanks again for the great information on the exam, good luck with your next one!!

cardshark

2001-08-28, 8:38 pm

If switches don't excite ya, then remote access might not either. I guess each person has his/her own thing.

Congrats and please take less than 3 months for BCRAN!

peterd

2001-08-29, 2:33 am

Hi Guys,

Daharmaster: I take each test twice, one day apart, I started with 35% on test 1, followed next day with a 65% on the same test.

A few days later (after more reading) I scored a few more points each time. Finally, about three weeks later after much more reading and re-reading I was getting low 60's first time and high 80's the second time.

Some people will argue that I'm learning the questions, but this is my way of doing it. I'm looking for steadily incresing numbers both times I take each test.

I finished up with taking all of the tests in one day just before I went for the exam (more about that later).

Deparmo:
Labor Day weekend is a public holiday? I've heard of it via Hollywood films, etc but don't really understand what it is. We have these Bank Holidays, always on a Monday so it makes a three day weekend, there are four or five throughout the year.

I like to book exams on a Tuesday...I get tired later in the week...and I go for 10 am as research has shown that we're wide awake at that time of day.

While on the subject, research has also shown that we lose a few points on our IQ if we have a drink of tea/coffee/water and the effect lasts for a couple of hours, so I just have a mere sip of water to clear my throat before I enter the exam room.

So, I booked this exam for Tuesday without realising that it was a Bank Holiday Monday which for me meant a near disater as I'm not awake on Monday mornings...

and having a Monday off would mean the Tuesday morning having an even worse effect due to a three day lay-off!

So I spent most of Monday in my study, re-reading notes and taking all the practice exams that I could to get my brain into gear. My wife was less than pleased as it was sunny for a change and she wanted a drive in the country...

erm, what's ROSM? I don't recall seeing that one before...

Cardshark:
I'm hoping that Remote Access is like 'coming home'...I've been a telephone engineer for 31 years. I have a way of learning, it involves reading the book for 1 - 2 hours each day, takes about a monoth to get through one of these books. The second month I go through the book again and make revision notes.

The third month I review the notes, find other tutorial, take practice exams, etc. Three months is the minimum time for me to feel comfortable with a subject...

and it can stretch if it's a bit too much for me. I took six months over the BSCN.

Regards
Peter

Dillon

2001-08-29, 4:09 am

Peter

I notice that you have 31 years experience as a Telephone Engineer, so a rough estimate would place your age in the late 40's. I would just like to say that I am full of admiration for what you are doing, as the commitment & will to succeed is there for all to see.

Best of luck with the rest of the CCNP.

Dillon

peterd

2001-08-29, 6:51 am

Hi Dillon,

erm, oh dear...

thanks, I've gone all red now.

Actually I was 50 just over a week ago but what I'm doing isn't that unusual. I started playing around with electronics in 1959, my eigth birthday present was a small battery kit with buzzers and lights, etc.

So this isn't just my work, it's my hobby too. I can apply a lot of experince to most situations but on the down-side we do shift our thoughts to the 'right' as we get older and I can be more than bit intollerant with some people and situations if I don't watch what I'm doing.

Regards
Peter

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