CCENT/CCNA ICND1 Official Exam Certification Guide - Chapter 18 pot

If you’re preparing for the CCNA exam by reading both this book and the CCNA ICND2 Official Exam Certification Guide, you know that both books have a final preparation chapter.. Using

Part V: Final Preparation

Chapter 18 Final Preparation

C H A P T E R 18

Final Preparation

The first 17 chapters of this book cover the technologies, protocols, commands, and features you need to understand to pass the ICND2 exam Although these chapters supply the detailed information, most people need more preparation than simply reading the first 17 chapters This chapter details a set of tools and a study plan to help you complete your preparation for the exams

If you’re preparing for the CCNA exam by reading both this book and the CCNA ICND2

Official Exam Certification Guide, you know that both books have a final preparation

chapter However, you can refer to just this chapter to read about the suggested study plan, because this chapter refers to the tools in both this book and the ICND2 book Just look for the text highlighted in gray, like this sentence, for suggestions that apply to CCNA (640-802) exam preparation, but not to ICND1 (640-816) exam preparation

This short chapter has two main sections The first section lists the exam preparation tools that can be useful at this point in your study process The second section lists a suggested study plan now that you have completed all the earlier chapters

Tools for Final Preparation

This section lists some information about the available tools and how to access them

Exam Engine and Questions on the CD

The CD includes an exam engine—software that displays and then grades a set of exam-realistic questions These include simulation (sim) questions, drag-and-drop, and many scenario-based questions that require the same level of analysis as the questions on the ICND1 and CCNA exams Using the exam engine, you can either practice with the questions in Study Mode or take a simulated (timed) ICND1 or CCNA exam

NOTE This chapter refers to many of the book’s chapters and appendixes, as well as tools available on the CD Some of the appendixes, beginning with Appendix D, are included only on the CD that comes with this book To access those, just insert the CD and make the appropriate selection from the opening interface

The installation process has two major steps The CD includes a recent copy of the exam engine software, supplied by Boson Software (http://www.boson.com) The practice exam—the database of ICND1 exam questions—is not on the CD Instead, the practice exam resides on the http://www.boson.com web server, so the second major step is to activate and download the practice exam

Install the Software from the CD

The software installation process is pretty routine as compared with other software installation processes The following steps outline the process:

Step 1 Insert the CD into your PC

Step 2 The software that automatically runs is the Cisco Press software to access

and use all CD-based features, including the exam engine, viewing a PDF file of this book, and viewing the CD-only appendixes From the main

menu, click the option to Install the Exam Engine.

Step 3 Respond to prompt windows, as you would with any typical software

installation process

The installation process might give you the option to register the software This process requires that you establish a login at the http://www.boson.com website You will need this login to activate the exam, so feel free to register when prompted If you already have a login at the http://www.boson.com site, you don’t need to register again Just use your existing login

Activate and Download the Practice Exam

After the exam engine is installed, you should activate the exam associated with this book:

Step 1 Start the Boson Exam Environment (BEE) software from the Start menu It should

be installed in a Cisco Press folder on your computer

Step 2 The first time you start the software, it should ask you to either log in or

register an account If you do not already have an account with Boson, select the option to register a new account (You must register to download and use the exam.)

Step 3 After you are registered, the software might prompt you to download the

latest version of the software, which you should do Note that this process updates the exam engine software (formally called the Boson Exam Environment) It doesn’t activate the practice exam

NOTE The cardboard CD case in the back of this book includes the CD and a piece

of paper The paper lists the activation key for the practice exam associated with this

book Do not lose the activation key.

Tools for Final Preparation 567

Step 4 To activate and download the exam associated with this book, from the

exam engine main window, click the Exam Wizard button.

Step 5 From the Exam Wizard pop-up window, select Activate a purchased

exam and click the Next button (Although you did not purchase the

exam directly, you purchased it indirectly when you purchased this book.)

Step 6 On the next screen, enter the Activation Key from the paper inside the

cardboard CD holder, and click the Next button.

Step 7 The activation process downloads the practice exam When this is done,

the main exam engine menu should list a new exam, with a name such as

“ExSim for Cisco Press ICND1 ECG.” If you do not see the exam, be

sure you have selected the My Exams tab on the menu You may need to

click the plus sign icon (+) to expand the menu and see the exam

At this point, the software and practice exam are ready to use

Activating Other Exams

You need to go through the exam software installation process and the registration process only once After that, for each new exam, only a few steps are required For instance, if

you bought both this book and the CCNA ICND2 Official Exam Certification Guide, you

could follow the steps just listed to install the software and activate the exam associated with this book Then, for the practice exam associated with the ICND2 book, which has about 150 exam-realistic ICND2 questions, you need to follow only a few more steps All you have to do is start the Boson exam environment (if it is not still up and running) and follow Steps 4 through 6 in the preceding list In fact, if you purchase other Cisco Press books, or purchase a practice exam from Boson, you just need to activate each new exam

as described in Steps 4 through 6

You can also purchase additional practice exams from Boson directly from its website

When you purchase an exam, you receive an activation key, and then you can activate and download the exam—again without requiring any additional software installation

The Cisco CCNA Prep Center

Cisco provides a wide variety of CCNA preparation tools at a Cisco Systems website called the CCNA Prep Center The CCNA Prep Center includes demonstrations of the exam’s user interface, sample questions, informational videos, discussion forums, and other tools

To use the CCNA Prep Center, you need a registered login at http://www.cisco.com

To register, simply go to http://www.cisco.com, click Register at the top of the page, and

supply some information (You do not need to work for Cisco or one of its partners to get

a login.)

After you have registered, proceed to http://www.cisco.com/go/prepcenter, and look for the link to the CCNA Prep Center There you can log in and explore the many features

Subnetting Videos, Reference Pages, and Practice Problems

Being able to analyze the IP addressing and subnetting used in any IPv4 network may be the single most important skill for all the CCNA exams This book’s Chapter 12, “IP

Addressing and Subnetting,” covers most of those details The ICND2 book’s Chapter 5,

“VLSM and Route Summarization,” adds to the puzzle by explaining VLSM

This book includes several tools to help you practice and refine your subnetting skills:

■ Subnetting reference pages: CD-only Appendix E, “Subnetting Reference Pages,”

summarizes the binary and decimal shortcut processes explained in Chapter 12 Each reference page lists a single process related to subnetting, along with reference information useful for that process These summarized processes may be a more convenient tool when you’re practicing subnetting, as compared to flipping pages in the subnetting chapters, looking for the correct process

■ Subnetting videos: The DVD included with this book has a series of subnetting

videos These videos show you how to use the shortcut processes to find the answers

to popular subnetting questions You can select and play the videos from a simple menu that starts when you insert the DVD into a DVD drive

■ Subnetting practice: CD-only Appendix D, “Subnetting Practice,” contains a variety

of subnetting practice problems, including 25 problems for which you need to find the subnet number, subnet broadcast address, and range of valid IP addresses This appendix shows you how to use both binary and shortcut processes to find the answers

Scenarios

As mentioned in the Introduction to this book, some of the exam questions require you to use the same skills commonly used to troubleshoot problems in real networks The troubleshooting sections and chapters of both the ICND1 and ICND2 books help prepare you for those kinds of questions

Another way to prepare for troubleshooting questions on the exams is to think through many different network scenarios, predicting what should occur, and investigating whether the network is performing as it should Appendix F, “Additional Scenarios,” in both books includes some tasks that you should attempt before reading the suggested solutions listed later in the appendix By reading these scenarios and doing the exercises, you can practice some of the skills required when analyzing and troubleshooting networks

Study Plan 569

Study Plan

You could simply study using all the available tools, as mentioned earlier in this chapter

However, this section suggests a particular study plan, with a sequence of tasks that may work better than just using the tools randomly However, feel free to use the tools

in any way and at any time that helps you fully prepare for the exam

If you are preparing for only the ICND1 exam, you can ignore the gray highlighted portions

of this study plan If you are studying for the CCNA exam by using the ICND2 book as well, include the tasks highlighted in gray

The suggested study plan separates the tasks into four categories:

■ Recall the facts Activities that help you remember all the details from the first

17 chapters of this book

■ Practice subnetting You must master subnetting to succeed on the ICND1, ICND2, and

CCNA exams This category lists the items you can use to practice subnetting skills

■ Build troubleshooting skills using scenarios To answer some exam questions that

present a scenario, you may need to recall facts, do subnetting math quickly and accurately, and use a hands-on simulator—all to answer a single question This plan section suggests activities that help you pull together these different skills

■ Use the exam engine to practice realistic questions You can use the exam engine on

the CD to study using a bank of unique exam-realistic questions available only with this book

Recall the Facts

As with most exams, you must recall many facts, concepts, and definitions to do well on the test This section suggests a couple of tasks that should help you remember all the details:

Step 1 Review and repeat, as needed, the activities in the “Exam Preparation Tasks”

section at the end of each chapter Most of these activities help you refine

your knowledge of a topic while also helping you memorize the facts For CCNA exam preparation, do this for Chapters 2 through 17 in this book as well as Chapters 1 through 17 in the ICND2 book

Step 2 Review all the “Do I Know This Already?” quiz questions at the beginning of

the chapters Although the questions may be familiar, reading through them again

will help improve your recall of the topics covered in the questions Also, the DIKTA questions tend to cover the most important topics from the chapter, and it never hurts to drill on those topics

Practice Subnetting

Without question, absolutely the most important skill you need to succeed in passing the ICND1, ICND2, and CCNA exams is to be able to accurately, confidently, and quickly answer subnetting questions The CCNA exams all have some element of time pressure; the most stressful questions are the sim, simlet, and subnetting questions So, you should practice subnetting math and processes until you can consistently find the correct answer

in a reasonable amount of time

Before I suggest how you should prepare for subnetting questions, please note that there are many alternative methods for finding the answers to subnetting questions For example, you can use binary math for all 32 bits of the addresses and subnet numbers Alternatively, you could recognize that 3 of the 4 octets in most subnetting problems are easily predicted without binary math, and then use binary math in the final interesting octet Another option would be to use decimal shortcuts (This topic is covered in this book’s Chapter 12, which

is included in the ICND2 book’s Appendix H.) Shortcuts require no binary math but do require you to practice a process until you’ve memorized it You can even use variations on these processes as taught in other books or classes

Whichever process you prefer, you should practice it until you can use it accurately, confidently, and quickly

The following list of suggested activities includes practice activities that you can use regardless of the process you choose In some cases, this list includes items that help you learn the shortcuts included with this book:

Step 1 View or Print Appendix E, “Subnetting Reference Pages.” This short CD-only

appendix includes a series of single-page summaries of the subnetting processes found in Chapter 12 Appendix E includes reference pages that summarize both the binary and decimal shortcut subnetting processes

Step 2 Watch the subnetting videos found on the CCNA video DVD found in the

back of this book These videos show examples of how to use some of the more

detailed shortcut processes to help ensure that you know how to use the processes CCNA exam candidates: The subnetting videos are on DVDs included with both books They are identical, so you can watch the videos from either DVD

Step 3 View or print Appendix D, “Subnetting Practice.” This CD-only appendix

includes enough subnetting practice problems so that, through repetition, you can significantly improve your speed and internalize the shortcut processes Plan on working on these problems until you can consistently get the right answer, quickly, and you no longer have to sit back and think about the process for finding the answer The goal is to make the process of finding the answers to such

Study Plan 571

problems automatic CCNA exam candidates: The ICND2 Appendix D contains all the problems from ICND1’s Appendix D, plus a few others, so use ICND2’s Appendix D

Step 4 Practice subnetting with Cisco’s subnetting game Cisco has a subnetting

game, available at the Cisco CCNA Prep Center It prompts you with various subnetting scenarios and makes practicing subnetting fun Just go to the CCNA Prep Center (http://www.cisco.com/go/prepcenter), log in with your Cisco.com

User ID, select the Additional Information tab, and look for the link to download

the game (If you do not have a login, you can establish one from this web page.)

Step 5 Develop your own practice problems using a subnet calculator You can

download many free subnet calculators from the Internet, including one available from Cisco as part of the CCNA Prep Center You can make up your own subnetting problems like those in Appendix D, do the problems, and then test your answers by using the subnet calculator

Build Troubleshooting Skills Using Scenarios

Just as a real problem in a real network may be caused by a variety of issues—a routing protocol, a bad cable, spanning tree, an incorrect ACL, or even errors in your

documentation about the internetwork—the exam makes you apply a wide range of knowledge to answer individual questions The one activity for this section is as follows:

■ Review the scenarios included in Appendix F of this book These scenarios make

you think about issues covered in multiple chapters of the book They also require more abstract thought to solve the problem CCNA exam candidates should review the scenarios in Appendix F of both books

Use the Exam Engine

The exam engine includes two basic modes:

■ Study mode is most useful when you want to use the questions to learn and practice

In study mode, you can select options such as whether you want to randomize the order

of the questions, randomize the order of the answers, automatically see the answers, refer to specific sections of the text that reside on the CD, and many other options

■ Simulation mode presents questions in a timed environment, providing you with a

more exam-realistic experience However, it restricts your ability to see your score as you progress through the exam, view the answers as you are taking the exam, and refer

to sections of the text These timed exams not only allow you to study for the actual ICND1 and CCNA exams, they also help you simulate the time pressure of the actual exam

Choosing Study or Simulation Mode

Both study mode and simulation mode are useful for preparing for the exams It’s easy to choose one of the modes from the exam engine’s user interface The following steps show you how to move to the screen where you select study or simulation mode:

Step 1 Click the Choose Exam button The exam should be listed under the title ExSim

for Cisco Press ICND1 ECG.

Step 2 Click the exam’s name to highlight it

Step 3 Click the Load Exam button.

The engine should display a window Here you can choose Study Mode or Simulation

Mode using the radio buttons.

Choosing the Right Exam Option

The exam engine has many options You need to choose from one of the three listed exams

on the left side of the window, and select either simulation or study mode Additionally, depending on these two choices, you can potentially modify many other small settings Although this is a useful tool, it can be difficult to figure out which options to choose to perform the following four primary tasks:

■ Study for the ICND1 exam

■ Study for the CCNA exam

■ Simulate the ICND1 exam

■ Simulate the CCNA exam

To support the ability to study for and simulate both the ICND1 and CCNA exams, the practice test includes two separate question banks The first bank includes about 150 unique questions written specifically for the ICND1 exam The second bank includes a

subset of the ICND2 question bank written for the CCNA ICND2 Official Exam

Certification Guide.

When studying for or simulating the CCNA exam, you have to choose an option that includes both the ICND2 and ICND1 questions To study for or simulate the ICND1 exam, you need

to choose an exam option that includes only ICND1 questions The following list outlines the three options on the menu and the questions served by the exam engine for each choice:

■ Cisco ICND1 Exam: ICND1 questions only

■ Custom Exam: ICND1 questions only

■ Full CCNA Exam: Both ICND1 and ICND2 questions