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October 30, 2007
ICND1, ICND2, and CCNA Exam Review
Alright test-takers...The November 6th date is approaching quickly and the old INTRO/ICND exam path is due to expire. I've been working on three new books for Exam Cram for the new CCENT/CCNA certification path and have taken the new ICND1, ICND2, and CCNA exams. While I hate "brain dumps" of tests (I think it completely devalues the certification and the intelligence of the person taking the exam), I do like having general study guidelines before walking into an exam blindly. So, for those of you preparing to attack these new exams, here's what I have found...
ICND1 (90 Minutes, 50-60 Questions)
- Subnetting, Subnetting, Subnetting: You've got to be a subnetting superstar to pull off may of the questions.
- Sim City: Many simulations / testlets that really test the full scope of your knowledge on a topic. They also have a new simulation style that has not been on Cisco exams previously where you have many self-containing windows that you can resize and place around the screen to your liking. Network Diagrams, multiple switch/router connections. I was impressed!
- General feel: I personally thought this exam was more difficult than ICND2. It's one of those tests where I walked away thinking, "if you REALLY don't know how networks work, you won't pass that exam." Good job on this one Cisco!
ICND2 (75 Minutes, 45-55 Questions)
- Troubleshooting Central: Many of the questions were focused on fixing broken networks. Understanding what information your show commands display is extremely helpful.
- NAT Rules the World: With NAT becoming a critical piece of nearly any network, Cisco has added more and more NAT syntax to the CCNA-realm. You must master NAT command-line implementations and troubleshooting before taking on this exam.
- General feel: This test definitely went faster than ICND1 and required a deeper understanding of the topics (thus the plethora of troubleshooting questions).
The New CCNA All-in-One (90 Minutes, 50-60 Questions)
- SPEED Central: This exam had many of the same questions I encountered in ICND1/ICND2, but they were the more difficult, time-consuming questions. You've got to know your stuff and be able to do it quickly.
- General feel: Tough all-in-one exam. Not as many simulations, but the few I did get were very difficult. They took an "almost CCIE-like" feel of restricting how you can do things. For example, you might be required to gather information about a device, but the simulation disables the "show run" command so you have to be more intuitive to the information displayed by other show commands.
Hopefully this gives you a good idea of what you're getting into when pursuing the CCENT and CCNA certifications! Good luck!
Posted by JC at October 30, 2007 5:46 AM
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Comments
The most important thing about using these tools, is they teach you how to take exams.
That is to say, there are lots of little traps examiners setup for the unwary, and even though you may know your subject back to front, if you misread or misunderstand the question, which is very easy to do if you are not used to looking at scenario based multiple choice questions, it is very easy to slip up and choose what was the technically correct answer in your mind, but not the answer the exam/question is looking for.
So although these types of services are evil, they are a necessary evil, since its the only way to practice taking the tests, without it costing hundreds of dollars a throw.
BTW, from what I have seen, some of these brain dump services are not very good on the technical aspects, if you know your stuff, and you will see plenty of errors, where you will go, "no, that is just plain wrong" especially where you see the explanation telling you the answer you wanted to select, but the answer they said is right, doesn't match their own explanation, or even better, questions that obviously require an accompanying diagram, but no diagram, or diagrams with no information, or the best of the lot, it tells you the answer is Serial 1, except Serial 1 was not even one of the options.
So yes, I hate them to, but what else can you do?
Posted by: Shaun at October 31, 2007 10:40 PM
:(
As long as you proved it's passable. :)
Posted by: Larry at November 4, 2007 10:30 PM
Really helpful tips. Thanks a lot. I look forward to taking my CCNA exam in one sitting this year. It will be hard but I'm using a lot of different techniques to help me. Sybex's CCNA Sixth Edition guide is really helpful. It has a lot of labs, questions, and practice exams that are helpful.
Posted by: SGee at November 18, 2007 8:53 AM
Hi Jeremy,
I 'am looking for fast way 15 seconds to find the subnet address from the ip address and subnet mask
thanks
Posted by: rachid at December 26, 2007 3:38 AM
For class C networks Suppose IP adress is AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD/E
1 - 32 - E = x (1 sec)
2 - y = x power 2 (1sec)
3 - z = | last octed in the ddress/y | , (interger value) (2sec)
4 - subnet address or network adress is AAA.BBB.CCC.z (1 sec)
this will be 5 secounds
Posted by: Mahmoud at January 8, 2008 4:14 AM
I have found two interesting sources and would like to give the benefit of my experience to you.
I am tuning my pc by the best software for free, with the file search engine http://fileshunt.com and http://filesfinds.com May be you have your own experience and could give some useful sites too. Because this two social sites help me much.
Posted by: Natasha at May 11, 2008 10:43 AM
Thanks for sharing Cisco test question.
Posted by: Cisco test prep at May 19, 2008 1:16 AM
Try this Cisco test prep resource.
Posted by: Nicola at May 19, 2008 1:19 AM
Hi Jeremy,
Just passed the ICND2. The CBT nuggets was really useful and I breezed through ICND1. This probably gave me too much confidence and my first attempt at ICND2 was short by 100 marks.
Undaunted (!) I bought the Exam Cram practice questions for CCNA and worked through that as well. (That is by JC too BTW.)
My point is that a single source for the breadth of knowledge required at CCNA was not enough for me. I also setup a small lab at home - 2 routers, 2 switches and 2 PC's.
Many thanks for for your help!! And now where next - CCNP or CCSP??
Posted by: Brian at June 27, 2008 6:27 AM