What To Expect When Taking Your First Cisco Certification Exam
What To Expect When Taking Your First Cisco Certification Exam
Taking your first Cisco certification exam can be nervewracking! Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, tells you what to expect on the trying out middle on the massive day.
You've studied tough you've practiced your configurations you've used your flash cards again and again again and finally, the huge day is right here. Your first certification examination!
For many Cisco certification applicants, their first exam is the CCNA Composite exam or one of the tests that make up the CCNA, the Introduction To Networking examination or the ICND (Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices) exam.
Walking right into a testing middle for the first time may be a nerve-wracking enjoy. You've were given sufficient to your thoughts simply preserving all that new records immediately without stressful approximately what the testing experience could be like.
You're no longer there to take the exam. You're there to bypass the examination. With this competitive attitude in thoughts, permit's test what you ought to anticipate (and now not expect) whilst taking your first Cisco certification exam.
Be Early and Bring Your ID.
If the testing middle is not in a part of town which you pressure to within the morning, and also you've got a 9 AM exam, you could find the site visitors is a good deal heavier that point of morning than you expected. Driving up to the testing middle 10 minutes past due is not an amazing way to get started. If you've by no means been to the center earlier than, check their website for directions, or call them for guidelines. If in any respect possible, power to the middle the night time earlier than your examination.
Make positive to carry your pockets or purse. You can't take the exam with out proper identification. You'll likely be asked for 2 varieties of ID, one of which must be a photograph ID.
Test Your Marker & Dry Erase Board
The trying out middle will give you a dry erase board and a marker. Make sure that the marker has a quality factor when you are re answering subnetting questions or acting a hexadecimal-to-binary conversion, so as to are available in on hand.
Cisco policy states which you are no longer allowed to use paper during the exams.
The Testing Room
Despite the best efforts of VUE and Prometric, some trying out center rooms are afterthoughts. I strongly advise that if you're taking your examination at a technical school, ask to look the testing room BEFORE you sign up for the examination. If it seems like a converted broom closet, it possibly is. Those rooms additionally have a tendency to be right next to lecture rooms, which could result in distracting noise for the duration of your exam.
If your testing center makes a speciality of giving pc-based totally tests instead of instructions, you're possibly in properly shape. Again, sense loose to drop by using the trying out middle before your exam to take a peek on the testing room. Most testing rooms have a window that personnel use to keep an eye on testers, and also you ought to be able to take a peek through the window.
When you pass in, you'll be asked to enter your social security number as your trying out ID. Once you do that, the examination engine starts walking. However, this doesn't imply the test starts offevolved.
The Survey
When you are taking a Cisco exam, you'll first be offered with a survey. The survey consists of 10 20 questions asking approximately your historical past, education methods, and comfort stage with extraordinary technology. This is a good time to capture your breath earlier than starting the examination. The survey will handiest take about five mins, and this time does now not rely towards your exam time.
Pay Attention To The Exam Tutorials
You'll then be offered with an exam academic, displaying you the way to solution the exceptional styles of questions Cisco can also ask. While maximum of these questions types are commonplace experience (a couple of choice, single answer, fill-in-the-blank), I strongly urge you to pay unique interest to the router simulator question tutorial.
The simulator questions convey extra weight than the opposite questions certainly, it's nearly impossible to bypass the CCNA exams in case you completely pass over the simulator questions. While the interface for those tests is intuitive, every so often college students who fail their exam complain that they have been no longer given enough records to answer the question. The real problem is that they didn't look within the proper location for that information. It's now not hidden, however spend a couple of minutes with the educational and do not pass ahead until you're comfy with the simulator interface.
The Exam Itself
Finally, the examination starts! Remember, you're not being requested anything you don't recognize. If you have organized correctly with the proper tools, you'll have a passing grade in your display earlier than you are aware of it.
Speaking of that grade, you'll be offered with it about 5 seconds after you solution the very last query. Cisco assessments now not allow CCNA and CCNP candidates to go back as soon as a question is spoke back, so be organized for that.
Knowing what to anticipate when you go into the trying out room for the primary time will amplify your possibilities of achievement. Work tough (and smart!) whilst studying, reap a aggregate of theoretical know-how and arms-on paintings with real Cisco routers, and you're on your way to examination achievement!
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