CCDA Readiness

[kai16181]

Hi All,

I am planning to do my CCDA in the next week or so, followed by the CCDP (ARCH) Exam to recertify my CCNP, and achieve CCDP at the same time.

Its been a while since i've done the Cisco certs, what is the best way these days to test your readiness for the exam?

Regards,
Kai Nicholls.

[laup]

if u have a good business view it seems youll find ccda quite easy, im now studying it and quite suprised by how it is.
i generally work my way through sybex books or cisco press ones. then run through cbt nuggets, then polish off on a few transcenders.
Ive taken that route for all my certs and hadnt failed one yet

[kai16181]

Hi I took my exam today and failed, I saw a new topic called Social Requirements which has never been covered in either CCDA study book.

I have also scanned through other books and looked on various search engines and came up with nothing.

Does anyone have an idea what this is?

It appears on the Cisco exam requirements list as first in the list
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le...s/640-861.html

But does not appear in any of their teachings!!!!

ANyone shed any light before I retake next week?

Kai.

[tripwire45]

Are you saying that this topic is what caused you to fail the exam?

I haven't studied for the CCDA but did search Cisco's site from the webpage you provided and came up with these search results:

http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/search....com=cisco.com

The first hit in the results seems to provide the most "clues" as to what "social requirements" are:

http://www.cisco.com/web/about/gov/markets/voip.html

Apparently, they are requirements the group has of the technology you are implementing. For example, if you replace a company's PSTN phone system with Voice over WLAN (VoWLAN), will the group's social requirements which were met by the PSTN system be met by the new technology?

[kai16181]

Well i failed so close to the wire, there were two questions on this that i probably got wrong which never helps.

The wording in the exam was like it was written really poorly one question went like this....

"Which of the following helps DOS attacks"
Obviously missing a word between helps and DOS, i got so annoyed i left a comment, it could have said...

"which of the following helps prevent|reduce| DOS attacks"

Thanks for your input Tripwire. The links are great!

I am studying once again with my trancenders, the ciscopress book, ciscopress safari and the aid of cisco.com or google.com just in case.

Im maxing the tests at between 90-100% at the moment, i guess i just had a bad day in the exam.

Kai

Does anyone have any other suggestions to know how ready you are, but then how ready is ready lol....

[tripwire45]

Originally Posted by kai16181

Im maxing the tests at between 90-100% at the moment, i guess i just had a bad day in the exam.

Actually, you may have had just bad luck at the draw. When the exam loads into the computer at the testing center, the exam questions are selected at random from a large database so no two candidates get exactly the same exam. When you sit the exam next time, there may be a few questions you'll recognize but largely, it'll be a very different test. A few different questions here and there might make a big difference. Good luck.

-Trip

[laup]

im currently having a 2-3 week break then im givin myself a month to learn and pass the CCDA so make u pass it cause i havent seen many people that have passed the exam recently

[r.h.lee]

Originally Posted by kai16181

Hi I took my exam today and failed, I saw a new topic called Social Requirements which has never been covered in either CCDA study book.

I have also scanned through other books and looked on various search engines and came up with nothing.

Does anyone have an idea what this is?

It appears on the Cisco exam requirements list as first in the list
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le...s/640-861.html

But does not appear in any of their teachings!!!!

ANyone shed any light before I retake next week?

Kai.

kai16181,

According to the "CCDA(r) Exam Certification Guide (CCDA Self-Study, 640-861), 2nd Edition" Table of Contents, it's listed as...

1. General Network Design
   1. Design Principles
      1. Social contraints.

Source:

1. CCDA(R) Exam Certification Guide (CCDA Self-Study, 640-861), 2nd Edition - http://www.ciscopress.com/bookstore/...767&rl=1#info2
   • Scroll down until you see the section "More Information", then click on the link for _Table of Contents_

[kai16181]

No I actually think its more to do with the fact that Cisco have released a new exam, and they are testing the new material which is really unfair on us!!

Once I've done my CCDA and CCDP im going to wash my hands of Cisco for a while and do some vendor independant certifications.

I might take a look at CEH or something in Security to follow up from my CISSP.

Kai

[r.h.lee]

Originally Posted by kai16181

No I actually think its more to do with the fact that Cisco have released a new exam, and they are testing the new material which is really unfair on us!!

Once I've done my CCDA and CCDP im going to wash my hands of Cisco for a while and do some vendor independant certifications.

I might take a look at CEH or something in Security to follow up from my CISSP.

Kai

kai16181,

The book I cited was for the 640-861 DESGN exam. The new exam is 640-863 DESGN. Therefore it is not "new material from new exam placed into the 640-861 DESGN exam."

Source:

1. CCDA-Career Certifications & Paths - Cisco Systems - http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le...type_home.html
2. 640-861 DESGN-Career Certifications & Paths - Cisco Systems - http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le...s/640-861.html
3. 640-863 DESGN-Career Certifications & Paths - Cisco Systems - http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le...s/640-863.html

[kai16181]

I was being sarcastic lol....

I know they wouldn't pre-release new material into current exams, thats what betas are for.

Im going again for my CCDA this Thursday, Im not really enjoying studying over the weekend but here goes.

Kai

[BosonMichael]

Originally Posted by kai16181

I was being sarcastic lol....

I know they wouldn't pre-release new material into current exams, thats what betas are for.

Im going again for my CCDA this Thursday, Im not really enjoying studying over the weekend but here goes.

Kai

Actually, Cisco and Microsoft DO often pre-release new questions into current exams... but when they do, those questions are usually unscored. So that wouldn't be your problem.

[kai16181]

Right at 10.30am tomorrow im off to London to try again at this darn DESGN exam, hopefully this time will result in a pass so I can concentrate on the ARCH and try to pass that before the end of April.

Thanks for the assistance chaps, hopefully tomorrow I can log in to give you good news, not another failed attempt.

Right a few more practice tests then bed i think.