A suggestion for the CCNA

[nakona]

I was just cruising the forums because, well..
I'm a geek with no life and I was bored.

Anyhow, I notice that a lot of people keep asking for last minute study tips.

I thought I'd just make a post about that.


week 4 & 3 before the test:
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Use whatever study guide you feel comfortable with, go through the whole book, take the quizes and grade yourself.
I like the Sybex book because even if it's a bit on the light side it covers ENOUGH to pass. If you study.


week 2 before the test:
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Go over all the stuff that your quizes showed you were weak on and practice with your equipment or simulator A LOT. It's no secret that there are troubleshooting questions on the test as well as simulator questions and I'm sure they are more heavilly weighted. The only way to nail them is to practice setting up networks and routers until you can spot mistakes easilly.


last week before the test:
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Get your hands on as many different sets of flash cards and practice tests as you can. Take the tests over and over again, even if you have seen the test so many times you practically have it memorized. There are really only so many things that can be asked on the exam. Boost your odds of having seen the questions before.
Keep practicing with your equipment of simulator. DON'T forget to practice with a switch too. Real or Sim is fine.


2 days before the exam:
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Review your basics. OSI, Subnetting, Wildcarding, etc...
You don't want to get into the test having your configs down pat and then forget what levels frames and packets are used on.


Day before the test:
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Flash cards. All day long.


Day of the test:
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Flash cards again. Keep it light. Don't cram. Just kind of go lightly over your material. Flip through the books casually. Don't try to study, just LOOK at it.


IF YOU FLUNK THE TEST...
Schedual one of the following week immediately.
Why?
Because if you flunk it's just going to be by a few points. The bar is high. You need an 85% to pass. DON'T WASTE ALL THE STUDYING YOU JUST DID.
If you flunked you just got unlucky and got a test that plays to your weaknesses.

Almost 100% of the people who genuinely prepare for this exam will pass it on one of the first two tries.
If you need a third...? Do it. Make up your mind in advance that you are going to takle this test and beat it down.

 

[techkiwi]

My opinion on the last point is pretty much the same. If you flunk the test, schedule another one within one or two weeks. When I did my CCNA the pass mark was 822. First time I sat, I got 816 (doh! So close!) Resat the exam the next week, and passed with 881. The difference was, I took a hard look at the section analysis and worked out where I needed to put in the hard graft. Studied like crazy, concentrated on the 2 sections where I got less than 70%, and just skimmed over the two sections where I scored 100%.

So resit quickly - as nakona said, don't waste all the study you've already done - but take a good look at why you failed. In my case, what I thought was my strength (WAN protocols) let me down because I didn't know it as well as I thought. This is shere the section analysis comes in handy.