Just failed the BCMSN for the second time :(

Tommouse

Senior member
Feb 29, 2004
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Bear with me, I'm quite POed/disappointed

ramble/rant: on
Just missed my second attempt , I missed my first one about 5 weeks ago. Missed them both by 50 points, but in different areas. The first time the test crashed on me twice but I (stupidly) soldiered on and ran out of time. This second time I was afraid of getting a simlet/big Q right at the end like I did last time and running out of time, ended up with 12 mins to spare.

The same sort of questions kept reappearing VoIP and Wireless, which means I was missing them. When I get two questions in a row about what button in a GUI do you select for this feature on this tool, it bothers me. That's a freaking tool that you can lookup, its not underlying baseline knowledge. It seems like a stupid thing to put in a test.
And they kept drilling me about the QoS trust boundary and trusting/extending via the IP phone. This pisses me off because you don't trust anything out of your control! If you actually care about security you don't trust the IP phone, you do all the QoS classification on the switch itself. So the question is irrelevant!

I don't really know what I'm getting at other than I'm just really disappointed in myself and angry as I do this for a living. A little background - I'm the only net guy for a 400 person, 230m online retail company that runs a call center on a network comprised of almost completely L3 switches. The fundamentals of this test parallel most of what I do on a daily basis very closely. And everything works great, so when I fail (twice!) it reaaalllly eats at me.

rant/ramble (or is that angst/emo?): off

On a more productive note, I will be needing new study material as it's now obvious that this book (Cisco Press CCNP BCMSN 4th Edition) won't do me any more good. Anyone have suggestions? Specifically on the wireless portion, as a lot of the questions on the test were out of left field relative to what was covered in the book.
 

jlazzaro

Golden Member
May 6, 2004
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Originally posted by: Tommouse
When I get two questions in a row about what button in a GUI do you select for this feature on this tool, it bothers me.
i failed my ISCW twice because of these questions...i agree they're irrelevant and should be asked on the CCNA tests, not the CCNP. however, if you want to put this test behind you start remembering SDM panes.

Originally posted by: Tommouse
And they kept drilling me about the QoS trust boundary and trusting/extending via the IP phone. This pisses me off because you don't trust anything out of your control! If you actually care about security you don't trust the IP phone, you do all the QoS classification on the switch itself. So the question is irrelevant!
real world, trust your phone markings unless you have a VERY good reason not to. always mark traffic as close to the source as possible to decrease overhead. as for extending the trust zone to the PC, i can think of very little reason to do so. if you have a critical server whose CoS markings need to be preserved, its unlikely that its connected to a phone ;x

i feel your pain...having to drive back from the testing center after a failed attempt eats me up inside (hour and a half drive for me). unfortunately i can't really recommend any new study material...the BCMSN 4th edition is all i used in conjunction with a lot of labbing.

not to put any more pressure on you, but after the 3rd failed attempt you must wait 6 months before taking the test again. don't let these tests bring you down as they're not an accurate representation of real world knowledge, some people are just better test takers (im not one of them lol). best of luck in the future.
 

mcmilljb

Platinum Member
May 17, 2005
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SDM questions need to be simulation questions, but you are informed before the exam that you will be asked questions (It's in the outline). I hated the BCMSN exam's wireless questions. They should have wireless exams by now. We're probably getting a "CCWP" certification soon now that we have CCIE Wireless.

I used both Cisco Press books, the official Lab Portfolio, and the Quick Reference Sheets. You might want to pick up the Cisco Press BCMSN Certification Guide. The Self-Study Guide is bloated with too much stuff not on the exam.

I feel the CCNP is being hurt by their desire cram extra stuff in the CCNP exams. I think they should make the CCNP: a CCNA speciality(includes the CCDA exam), BSCI, BCMSN, and 2 elective exams. That allow candidates to focus on their job roles by having exams that focus on specific areas instead of being so broad.

I know the feeling of failure. I failed the BCMSN exam by 8 points the first time I took it. I brought out the whoopin stick the second time though. By the way, you can take the exam again for free by using the promo code RECERTIFY. That should save you a few bucks. You have until Jan 18 to use it.