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Home > Archive > CCDA/CCDP > August 2001 > Preparing for case studies
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Preparing for case studies
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| seanmcmahan 2001-08-14, 10:21 pm |
| I passed the CCDA today, though I had a much harder time with this than the CCNA, which I completed in June. My question, for those of you who have taken the CCDA or are about to: Is it better to study a variety of different case studies, or strive to know the material and be aware of the kinds of questions you may receive for case studies. I would suggest that it's not necessarily the number of case studies you have reviewed, but the kind of questions you might encounter that is best for test preparation. Any thoughts? | |
| meyerc13 2001-08-15, 12:51 am |
| I think you could go over hundreds of case studies in books and still fail the exam. It isn't about memorizing case studies.
The important thing is understanding the technologies and in the case of the CCDA, understanding how Cisco expects you to use them. For example, as I recall some of the CCDA case studies suggested using a 10baseT hub or switch at the Access layer. Would I ever recommend that a customer go out and buy 10baseT switches? Hell no. The cost per port for a 10/100 switch isn't that much more, and is a much better investment.
What I found helpful for the CCDA was my real world experience in network design. I had worked with IBM mainframes, RAS servers, IP and IPX networks, routers, switches, bridges, dumb terminals, you name it. Thus, when a case study on the real exam started talking about how to build the network to support an AS/400, it was easy for me to pick the answer they wanted since I have done this stuff in the real world.
Personally, I hated the case studies in the DCN book, since they wanted short answers to the case study questions. I had a heck of a time comparing my short answer to the books to evaluate how correct my solution was. Thank goodness on the real exam it is multiple choice, so even though I might have a different answer in a real world situation, I was still able to pick the best answer out of the options presented to me.
I hope that makes sense, but this exam was probably one of the most irritating I've encountered in some time due to the fact that network design is often as much art as science. Given a network design, I can use my knowledge and experience to evaluate it, but there aren't always right and wrong answers. On the exam, unfortunately they need to have right and wrong answers, which is why this exam is so frustrating. | |
| Gundyman 2001-08-15, 3:59 pm |
| So, CCDA is a case study exam and then implement... All about DESIGN.
I like it.
Where do most people get the case study from? |
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