Passed CCNA 200-301- 2nd Attempt - Tips

[Applause] [Music] hey how's it going my name is chad tadio and i'm here to do a follow-up video on my second attempt taking the ccna exam this is for the 200 301 exam now unfortunately the first time i did not pass the exam i gave some tips on that one this time i'm gonna try to give a few other tips that i didn't mention there that may be helpful so uh in my other video i talked about how i i took the test at home and uh some things called me off guard and that was the fact that now i took the test through pearson and on the other end they monitor you remotely when you're taking it from home because it is a proctored exam and they uh were constantly talking to me through the computer and interrupted me with things like i was reading the question out loud they told me to stop talking uh putting my hand to my mouth they told me not to do that they mentioned i had to take away a second monitor that i had and i even had to change lighting because i guess they said they couldn't see me well enough in the camera uh now as you can imagine i mean all this is time consuming uh with all these interruptions plus what uh kind of hurt me was i wasn't off to a good start with the exam uh where i was already a little bit uh the anxiety was kind of a little bit high at that point already now they started interrupting me and of course it even even was uh if you saw the video it even got worse than that but so it was just a really bad uh experience overall but i do i i do think it's good to have that home option i took it again at home this time it's just that i uh was more prepared i knew more what to expect and and like i think i mentioned in the other video uh i i put on myself uh those surprises uh because i did i didn't read the fine print before actually starting the test like i should have and i i could have missed that stuff what seemed kind of funny to me this time around was this time before i hit start to the exam these things i mentioned that they told me not to do that i was talking about my video uh it said very clearly on the screen you know no second monitors no talking don't put your hand to your mouth and it felt like they actually watched my video or something now do i really think they did know i to be honest with you you know i do these videos where i started doing them from my own learning and if somebody else gets something out of it great but really um i did it because uh you know how they say like if you teach something you get more out of it um so it had me hone in on a topic uh much more i tried to soak everything up as much as possible knowing i was going to do a video on it um and then also just i wanted to learn how to even make these videos like the ones where i actually did teach on a few topics um you know there was more editing that i have to do and just more that would be involved in actually making the video where i get to learn how how it's done and it's just kind of a fun thing i guess you could say and if anyone does see it and watch it great now do i actually think cisco or pearson or whoever somebody even saw my video and modified the test because of that i don't but it just had that feeling like now it was really clear on the screen i don't think i would have missed it before so who knows whatever um so and uh you know it's kind of funny too like now before i took the test on a monday my thinking then was i have all weekend to finalize whatever i was studying whatever i wanted to go over and just take it while take it monday and it's like fresh in my mind i would have taken it sunday if that was available but um it wasn't so i took it monday night uh the bad part about that was uh you know i had this experience i didn't end up passing i was all worked up i couldn't sleep i had to you know get to work the next day um and i was just really bummed out like it was uh you know something that just really bummed me out because you put a lot of time into this and you're waiting and waiting for it to come and it's like um it gets to a point in the study process where although we love what we do um you're ready for something different like it gets to a point where you just want to stop looking at the stuff you're looking at and just move on to something different and you start getting these things in your head where you're like man you know if i can get by this i can start learning this that and that so it was a little bit bummed out when i failed it but now this time around i was like you know what this time i'm going to take it on a friday uh because if i do fail um then you know i have the i have the weekend to lick my wounds or whatever and you know it's different it's it's there's not as much going on on the weekend if you're bummed out it's it's uh not i guess you could say as this is not as much on you when it's the weekend i guess uh so that's kind of my thinking there but um what came to bite me a little bit the second time around was uh see i i have these neighbors who love karaoke they'll drink heavily and they'll be singing karaoke and i live in a town house so you could like hear everything uh like you can they could hear me talking about them probably right now so but oh well that's good maybe anyway like so i you know i tried to a little side little deviation here um you know with the whole karaoke thing i try not to even mention it just because um i try to get along with my neighbors i understand they have kids i'm i'm i live alone i don't have kids we have like different living situations i do think that they could be a little more respectful of course um but for me i have earplugs where i just put the earplugs in i don't hear it it's fine and and to me it's more important just to get along with my neighbors um so that's what i ended up doing now for the test was like because i was about to hit start um and they started with this karaoke and i'm like you got to be kidding me if you saw my first video uh that's the very thing that i did not want to happen was another interruption um so now it's already like starting off on the bad foot and i didn't even hit start yet so but i once i put my earplugs in it was that a non-issue and it you know it all worked out fine uh thankfully but uh so where was i with this oh yeah just looked like a couple um you know tips that i i figured might be good to pass after this time around um the big thing with this test that at least for me the hardest thing was the the time uh the time seems to go down really quick uh so i i know like with me personally if i'm reading something it the way i am when i read stuff i like to read slower and and really internalize what i'm reading and carefully read stuff you have to be careful with that um with this where of course you got to make sure you read the question well enough of course but i mean you gotta find that balance where you can't be sitting on these questions too long because that time really goes uh so uh the probably the the one tip i think that was helpful for me and the way i am when i take these tests is i'll read the care that i re i'll read the question carefully once and i'll at least look at it a second time to make sure i didn't miss anything like so if it's a really hard question um i'll read it more i'll read it even carefully a second time so i'll read it carefully once i'll figure out what my answer is going to be and i'll speed up the reading a second time but i'll still read it carefully now if i get to the questions that i feel like the answer just jumps right out at me i'll still at least glance at it a second time or skin skim the question over a second time um because like even if even with the well the reason is is you don't you don't want to miss stuff and misunderstand the question one word can totally change the question so that's that's the reason i like to at least look at it a second time but i say that even with the easy ones because like the the ones that are like they don't have much wording to them and it feels like the answer just jumps right out at you the thing about those two is is they expect you to have a certain amount of knowledge when you're taking this and they'll try to lead you down a certain path expecting you to go down that path and they'll throw a little twist in them that totally changes the answer uh so they'll throw a twist in the question so and that kind of helped me out uh with a couple questions on this one where i just by reading it again i was i just thought whoa wait it's actually not this and i was able to switch my answer and i was like well i'm glad i looked at that a second time um so that would be one thing i guess another thing um in a way like looking back at the whole experience where i failed failed it the first time um and again i'm i i forget if i mention this or not um i think i mentioned in the beginning of this video just in case i didn't it's for the 200 301 exams for the ccna but i took it the first time and the good part about failing it i mean if i'm looking for a silver lining the good thing about just taking it and failing it was uh i got to see where i what the gaps were i needed to fill so um no matter how prepared you are for this test i think when you actually take the test there are gonna be some things that catch you off guard so i guess probably the other tip i would say is like if you're at a certain point in your studies just try to take it and just it's 300 bucks it's it's expensive but uh kind of weigh all that out like obviously your financial situation and um like where you are with your studies weigh it all out but i feel like if you're at a point where you're like you know i might be able to pass this thing um i i would say just take it because of that reason because you could see where you're weak then and i kind of did something i heard somebody else say from like a different video where somebody else said if you fail it the first time right away write down all the things that you could remember where you were weak on and that's what i did and i took each day i was researching the things that i saw that i was weak on to fill in those gaps and better prepare me for this um so that that did seem to help me too so that'll be another thing just just just give it a try just take it and if you fail it easy to say because i took it really hard but looking back in the long uh in the big picture it it actually helps you get closer to your goal if you actually just take it and fail it uh for that reason um as far as like the study materials maybe i'd recommend um if you're just completely new to networking i would say i see i got wendell odom's book the the ccna book and i would say you know get a book like that if you're brand new to like networking um i know people say oh you don't really read those books cover to cover i would say do that if you are like new to networking you got to learn everything now obviously we can never really learn everything but you know what i'm saying like you have to have a certain foundation in place before even getting to how i personally approach the test because i have had a decent amount of i.t and network experience before i even started studying for this thing so if you do have depending on where you are if you do have a good amount of experience uh the way i approached it was i leaned heavily on boson like practice exams and network simulator they have a network simulator where uh the practice questions are great because um it's at least said to be i don't know if i totally agree with this um but it's at least said to be that those questions and the bows and practice exams are harder than what you'll see on the actual exam um so the thing about these bows and practice tests though where like i recommend them is um the topics you're presented with in these exams uh are a lot of what you'll see on the actual test but uh obviously they're not the actual questions but i'm saying like the actual topics that you're presented with in the boson exam a lot of those same topics will come up in the actual real exam and they'll give good descriptions of why the answer is right why it's wrong um so me personally i i just kind of leaned heavily on that and then just used other resources to fill in whatever gaps i need i use cbt nuggets like got a subscription for there and took a practice test there which was good because that practice test uh presented me with other gaps i needed to fill that boson wasn't uh giving me so that's another thing i would say multiple resources and obviously depending on where you are with your experience would depend on when i even try to start taking practice exams because even with those practice exams you already have to have a certain amount of knowledge if you're just right away jumping into practice exams uh to find out the types of error the types of things you'll be presented with on the actual test uh then you're not you're going to do horrible on these practice exams and you're only going to learn that area what i'm trying to say is this like if you read like say wendell odom's book cover to cover most of the stuff in that book is not even going to come up on the exam um and like i said if you take practice tests a lot of those topics in these practice tests are a lot of the types of things you'll see on the exam so theoretically you could jump right to practice exams and get most of what you need for the test but i would not recommend doing that i like if you are newer to networking you just um have to start from the beginning and take your time and um and enjoy the learning process that's another thing like i try to keep in perspective like it got to where i've i feel like like i've been looking at the material for so long although i love uh the material and what i'm working with it gets to be where you're just ready for something different and it gets to be where like you're just i just gotta get this behind me i hope uh you're like really just wanting to pass and just get it behind but what i'm saying though is um in large just enjoy the process of learning take your time forget about even taking the test um so let's see so yeah the the resources like i said bose and cbt nuggets um when to load them or whatever other book you want to get um the the time oh well like one thing that was kind of weird too this is kind of just like a theory i i have no idea if this is really how it is but at least the way it seemed was when i took the exam the second time they kept hitting me with something i know i was weak on from the first time i took the test and failed and uh i almost wonder if because it's like like you know now everything with computers and and like how they do things just generally speaking i'm not saying this is the way it's really done for this i wonder if uh they take what they could see whatever you were weak on and when you take it the second time hit you more with those questions you were weak on the first time to see if you uh filled in those gaps because there was there was something in particular where i i was like oh man not again they're hitting me with this and at this time it wasn't because i wasn't prepared uh but it was like it was type of questions that required more reading and figuring out and time was a thing so that's the whole thing like uh like the time like make sure you're going through the questions um at a good speed but yet make sure you're reading them carefully and i when i was like half point in the test i i quickly glanced at the time and gauged how many questions i took already how many i had to go and realized i need to pick up the speed because now i have less time trying to answer more questions than i've already like i realized that i'm gonna have to answer the questions faster than i have been in order to get through all of them and at the end i kind of had to just like answer them quickly uh the last few but like i think i mentioned i took that thing right down to the last minute uh that was the hardest thing for me was the time um and i think i let me see if i wanted to kind of add a few things i wanted to make sure i touched on that i i just jotted down i just want to make sure i didn't forget anything um no yeah i think i i touched on like really like what i wanted to so if you are uh looking to take this um again just multiple resources like different from different people um there are a lot of lot of ccna resources out there but hopefully hopefully you got a few tips from this and if you are going to take it good luck in your studies

Channel: Chad Taddeo

Views: 1,607

Rating: 4.9259257 out of 5

Keywords: ccna, 200-301, Cisco, Networking, IT

Id: NA6M20lC1Fo

Length: 21min 11sec (1271 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 27 2020