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Wendell Odom

CCNA Difficult? Part III - CCNA Time Pressure and Exam Options

Tipping the Scale Towards the 2-Exam Option?

By wendell on Thu, 08/20/09 - 9:53am.

The verdict is in from the last few week's blogs (Part I and Part II) and the associated surveys: the underlying reasons for the challenge of passing CCNA are many. The survey about the exam preparation shows that the time required to study, and the uncertainty of when you're really ready, were the biggest issues. The survey about exam-day issues lists a wide variety of challenges. Today, and maybe next post as well, I will get a discussion started about how to deal with one of these big issues - the issue of time pressure, and more specifically, how the choice of the 1-exam path or 2-exam path impacts the time pressure on the exam.

First, for those who know about both options of how to get your CCNA, skip this paragraph. For the rest, you can take/pass either the CCNA exam (640-802), or take/pass the ICND1 (640-822) and (640-816) exams, to become a CCNA. Oddly, the 2-exam path also results in your getting a CCENT cert (by virtue of passing the 640-822 exam), but you don't get the CCENT when using the 1-exam path.

I've not seen any numbers quoted by Cisco regading how many people take each path, but I can infer from book sales that it appears that most people still take the 1-exam path, but more are taking the 2-exam path than ever before. I suggest that one such motivation for the 2-exam path is the time pressure on the exam, but I'm also interested to hear your comments as well. Let me ramble for a few words about why I think the 2-exam path can help with the exam-day time pressure.

The factors that make the exam have time pressure, in my opinion, are as follows:

  1. Cisco asks too much in the time allowed on the CCNA exam

  2. Time management is more difficult due to the can't-go-back feature on the exam

  3. You must master the ability to apply concepts to new designs in order to answer "application" questions quickly enough

  4. Exam-day time pressure is affected by how much time is available to prepare, which our survey said was the biggest before-the-exam issue

  5. Being prepared for Sims requires lots of reps

  6. Simlets - it's hard to find practice good practice tools, and its harrd to develop comfortability with the show commands and their output

  7. Sims/Simlets pysch people out, in part because of the prep time vs mastery equation

  8. Volume of material

  9. Lack of a time management plan going into the exam

I'm not going to dwell on each of these, and there are probably more than these. Briefly though, we can't do much about the first two - that's just the way it is. Numbers 3-6 all relate to the equation of how much time you spend preparing, versus mastering the topics before the exam. Sure, it'd be great to get a perfect score in half the alloted time, but if getting a perfect score required an extra 50 hours of prep time, maybe it would have been worth saving a few hours and taking a shot at the exam earlier. And it's hard to know.

Number 7 is not a knock on folks at all - I think this one is just an outgrowth of it being an entry-level cert, with no prior Cisco exam experience, most without any practice on the Cisco CLI at work, and the fact that it's hard to know if spending 2-3 more minutes on a Sim question will help or not. #9 - I'll hit it another day, but you need a way to know whether you have time to extend, or if you need to hurry up.

Of the ones you can control (3-9 in my list), 3-8 re all helped by taking the 2-exam path. The breadth of conceptual material is about 50/50 for the two exams, with the hands-on topics having maybe a 35/65 split between ICND1 and ICND2. (ICND1 may well have more subnetting focus.) You can make the same observations just looking at the official Cisco Exam Topics for these exams. So, you can split up the topics, get one Cisco exam/cert under your belt, gain some confidence, and maybe have a better chance of gauging your readiness for the ICND2 exam.

There are some negatives about the 2-exam path, of course. I think if you add up all the hours spent preparing, the 2-exam path will take a little more prep time, just because you'll go through multiple final-week crams to get ready for each exam day. Of course, time to prepare is also a challenge. And the ICND1 and ICND2 tests also have time pressure - it's not like the time pressure goes away. Finally, the ICND2 topics do build on the ICND1 topics, so it's not like you can forget ICND1 once you pass that exam.

I've focused on time pressure today as something that affects the choice of the 1-exam or 2-exam path. What are your thoughts?

And because it just takes one more click... here's a survey to ask, given all this time pressure talk and other reasons, which path would you choose today to get your CCNA - all things considered, not just the time pressure?

Really

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By Daywalker (not verified) on Thu, 08/20/2009 - 11:33am.

I'm going to take the CCNA single exam, because it's better to just take it and go. If you've prepared diligiently enough, then you can't really be afraid of failing. It's kind of like those situations where it's either or. The worst thing that can happen is you'll fail, the best thing that can happen if you fail is that you'll know what's expected of you and the next time you'll be better prepared for what you're facing. Of course I'm not advocating anybody just rush in and take the test. It's better remember the old saying,"If you fail to prepare, then you've prepared to fail."

I think the worst thing is the "can't go back" thing. It's better to be able to see all the questions at once and answer the ones you know first and then be able to spend more time on what you don't know. Why did Cisco choose that method for their testing?

CCNA

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By Twitter derik66 (not verified) on Thu, 08/20/2009 - 1:11pm.

Just curious, if one was a Master Certified IT Architect by The Open Group that even has networks as being a skill one should have, will one be able to be "given" the CCNA by default. Architecture is a huge domain where it is sometimes dangerous to ignore other domains.

More importantly, wodom you should now become the twitter king of cisco certs ... step right in my friend ...

So, if I became "Twitter

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By wendell on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 7:31am.

So, if I became "Twitter King of Cisco Certs", could I jusify a really cool new phone that has a bigger keypad than the 12 numerics on my itty bitty phone? Maybe it's worth it to dislodge some cash from the boss... ;-)

Can't go back - why?

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By maxxfi (not verified) on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 1:35am.

About this "can't go back" limitation, I hope it will be removed in the near future.
I understand and agree with Cisco choice to put Sims/Simlets in the exam and also some time pressure, to make it a realistic 'simulation' of what the candidate will meet in the real world of network troubleshooting.

However, I cannot see why when you're out in the field you could not decide for yourself from where to start tackle a network issue, or come back to your steps and correct some mistake that you may have done. Just as far as the whole task is completed in the agreed time.

I can guess at why they put

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By Daywalker (not verified) on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 1:48am.

I can guess at why they put the limit in there, and Wendell would probably confirm one way or another whether these guesses are right.

"Can't go back" implemented as an anti-cheating measure.

If you can't see all the questions at once, then you can't just answer all the questions you know the answer to (braindumps, exact exam answers, just supposing you're cheating here), then Cisco can measure how long it took you to take the test, and answer each individual question. If you did a bunch of questions nearly instantly, then it looks like you either studied hard, or cheated hard. Or, if you answer a bunch of questions nearly instantly, and then you come across one that your cheating failed to answer for you, then Cisco can see that it took you an inordinate amount of time to guess an answer (correct or not) to that question.

Kind of makes sense when I think about it. If cheating wasn't a factor, I don't think they'd have implemented it.

Just my guesses, but for the honest folks, it'd be nice to be able to look over your answers before you submit em, just like you do all the other Cisco exams online as well as you can for almost any other test you take in school/college. Just my 2 cents.

you're probably right

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By maxxfi (not verified) on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 2:23am.

Well, I think you are right, it must be for some 'technicality' of the exam, i.e. as anti-cheating measure or because Qn reveals the answer for Q(n-1).
I was just expressing a wish that exam could be structured so that it would not need such a limitation.

BTW: I did not have yet a shot at CCNA (going for 1-exam path) but I did enjoy taking another though hands-on exam like RHCE, so I like the real stuff ;)

Don't know why; don't think it'll change

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By wendell on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 7:28am.

Maxxfi,
I've not heard officially nor on the side as to specific motives for the "can't go back" feature. I too have opinions. It's been around long enough for me to think that the original motive was to not give away question N based on N+1's answer, and I could see the pragmatism in that. I'm sure it helps with cheating as well.

If I could change something that was a compromise, I'd like to see the ability to go back to a few questions - either make all Sim's open to going back, or you can pick up to 5 questions to go back, etc, just so if you rush, and get done 5-10 minutes early, you'd have a few questions for which you could maybe pick up a few points. But I don't think it'll change.
Wendell

Allow Back on Some Questions

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By AS (not verified) on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 8:54am.

I think they should allow the back button on some questions. Especially the Sims and Sim-lets.

This is a true story, when I was taking the CCNP BSCI test I was given a Sim-let. Without going into detail, the sim-let contained about 4-5 questions and you also had to navigate through the topology and the console to answer questions. But I didn't realize that you had to navigate through the questions using the Sim-let interface not the "Next" button. So I answered the first question and then hit next button. Low and behold it took me out of the sim-let. It was still early in the exam, so I started freaking out cause I knew that I had just left 4 questions unanswered. But to make a long story short. I took a depth breath and just moved on. I ended up still passing the exam. But it was definitely a curve ball that I didn't expect.

They should at least allow you to go back into the Sims and Sim-lets because the interface can sometimes be tricky. Or instead of going into the next question right away, they should put up a blank page. So if someone accidentally does hit the next button they could jump back in to the Sim/Sim-let. To me that would be the fairest way to solve that problem without giving anyone an advantage by viewing the next question.

Are You Sure?

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By Anon (not verified) on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:27am.

Or if not all qusetions have been attempted, a simple warning box that asks you if you're sure you want to proceed.

Fuzz

It did

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By AS (not verified) on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 1:09pm.

Your right it did. But it didn't say anything about unanswered questions. I know it multi-answer sections, it normally doesn't let you move on if you've selected to many answers or not enough answers. It said something like "Are you sure you want to proceed". In hind sight it makes sense. I'll admit that part of it was my fault, but at the same time it did trick me. I'm guessing I'm not the only person this has happened to.

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About Cisco Cert Zone

Odom, CCIE No, 1624, splits time between writing books for Cisco Press and teaching classes for Skyline ATS. In his 25-ish years in the networking industry, he has worked as as a pre-sale and post-sale SE for a few networking vendors, as well as a network engineer implementing network technology. Wendell has spent the majority of the last 15 years teaching, consulting, and writing about networking technologies, most of which in some way relate to Cisco products. His books include titles on QoS, CCIE R/S, as well as several titles related to CCNA certification, including the September 2007 book CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802) (Read a sneak peek of chapter 7). Click for the list of current titles by Wendell.