Passed ICND1!!!!

Honestly didn't think I had passed. The first 3-5 questions were pretty easy, then I got about that number of questions that I struggled with. There were a handful that were worded in such a way that I really wasn't sure of the answer but it may have just been nerves or something. About 2/3 of the way through the test, I got several easy questions that helped boost my confidence and still had around 45 minutes left on the clock. Finally, I had a few sim type questions that didn't seem too hard but took quite a bit of time to work through. Next thing I know, I had around twenty minutes left and 5 questions to go. The next question was a sim that took some time so I was praying the last four were easy. Lucky for me they were!! I finished with around 15 minutes or so on the clock.

As far as what I studied, I started by reading Wendell Odom's Official Cert guide, only skipping the chapters about IPv4 addressing and subnetting because I felt pretty good about that. Also kept practicing subnetting at www.subnetting.org. Also used the Pearson practice test software and the Sybex test software from the ExamCram book. The Pearson software was much better and there were a couple questions on the exam that were very similar to ones in the Pearson software. I don't have access to any hardware so I used Packet Tracer for labs. I pretty much created a lab for every major topic covered ending with a large network covering everything.

I have a subscription to Safari Books Online through my employer so then I read the entire Exam Cram 100-105 book. Finally, I read a few chapters in Lammle's CCENT ICND1 Study Guide to brush up on a few areas like VLSM ect. Honestly, if I had found Lammle's book first, I would probably had used it instead of Odom's Official Cert Guide. Don't get me wrong, the Cert Guide has pretty much everything, but I really like Lammle's writing style and the end of chapter questions, labs ect. I will most likely use Lammle's book for my ICND2 studying.

Oh and also used www.subnettingpractice.com

I started studying in mid March around an hour or two a day then cranked it up the last week or so to two or more hours a day and probably put in around 6-8 hours yesterday. All in all, I probably studied around 110-125 hours total.

One thing I will most likely change is to study more hours per day over a shorter time, I was honestly getting burned out at the end and forgetting some basic stuff from when I first started studying.

Really enjoying all the discussions here!!!

Oh and I need that CAT yo!!!!!