Chapter 24. Final Review

Congratulations! You made it through the book, and now it’s time to finish getting ready for the exam. This chapter helps you get ready to take and pass the exam in two ways.

This chapter begins by talking about the exam itself. You know the content and topics. Now you need to think about what happens during the exam and what you need to do in these last few weeks before taking it. At this point, everything you do should be focused on getting yourself ready to pass the exam so that you can finish up this hefty task.

The second section of this chapter gives you some exam review tasks as your final preparation for your DCICN exam.

To find the Cisco Certification Exam Tutorial, go to www.cisco.com and search for “exam tutorial.” The tutorial sits inside a web page with a Flash presentation of the exam user interface. The tutorial even lets you take control as if you were taking the exam. When using the tutorial, make sure that you take control and try the following:

Try to click Next on the multiple-choice, single-answer question without clicking an answer, and see that the testing software tells you that you have too few answers.

On the multiple-choice, multiple-answer question, select too few answers and click Next to again see how the user interface responds.

In the drag-and-drop question, drag the answers to the obvious answer locations, but then drag them back to the original location. (You might do this on the real exam if you change your mind when answering the question.)

On the simulation (sim) question, first just make sure that you can get to the command-line interface (CLI) on one of the routers. To do so, you have to click the PC icon for a PC connected to the router console; the console cable appears as a dashed line, and network cables are solid lines. (Note that the exam tutorial uses the IOS CLI, not NX-OS, but it is similar enough to get the idea.)

Still on the sim question, make sure you look at the scroll areas at the top, at the side, and in the terminal emulator window.

Still on the sim question, make sure you can toggle between the topology window and the terminal emulator window by clicking Show Topology and Hide Topology.

On the testlet question, answer one multiple-choice question, move to the second and answer it, and then move back to the first question, confirming that inside a testlet you can move around between questions.

Again on the testlet question, click the Next button to see the pop-up window that Cisco uses as a prompt to ask whether you want to move on. Testlets might actually allow you to give too few answers and still move on. After you click to move past the testlet, you cannot go back to change your answer for any of these questions.

The exam user interface shows some useful time information—namely, a countdown timer and question counter. The question counter shows a question number for the question you are answering, and it shows the total number of questions on your exam.

Unfortunately, treating each question equally does not give you an accurate time estimate. For example, if your exam allows 90 minutes, and your exam has 45 questions, you would have 2 minutes per question. After answering 20 questions, if you had taken 40 minutes, you would be right on time. However, several factors make that kind of estimate difficult.

First, Cisco does not tell you beforehand the exact number of questions for each exam. For example, Cisco.com (at the time of this writing) listed DCICN as a 90-minute exam with 65 to 75 questions. So, you only know a range of questions. But you do not know how many questions are on your exam until it begins, when you go through the screens that lead up to the point where you click Start Exam.

Next, some questions (call them time burners) clearly take a lot more time to answer:

Normal-time questions: Multiple-choice and drag-and-drop, approximately 1 minute each

Time burners: Sims, simlets, and testlets, approximately 6 to 8 minutes each

Finally, the exam software counts each testlet and simlet question as one question in the question counter. For example, if a testlet question has four embedded multiple-choice questions, in the exam software’s question counter that counts as one question.

You need a plan for how you will check your time—a plan that does not distract you from the exam. It might be worth taking a bit of a guess, to keep things simple, like this:

60 questions, 90 minutes, is exactly 1:30 per question. Then just guess a little based on how many time-burner questions you have seen so far.

No matter how you plan to check your time, think about it before exam day. You can even use the method listed under the next heading.

The concept is simple. Just do a simple calculation that estimates the time you should have used so far. Basically, this process gives you 1 minute per normal question and 7 minutes per time burner. Here’s the math:

Number of Questions Answered So Far + 7 Per Time Burner

Then, you check the timer to figure out how much time you have spent:

You have used exactly that much time, or a little more: Your timing is perfect.

You have used less time: You are ahead of schedule.

You have used noticeably more time: You are behind schedule.

For example, if you have already finished 17 questions, two of which were time burners, then your time estimate is 17 + 7 + 7 = 31 minutes. If your actual time is also 31 minutes, or maybe 32 or 33 minutes, you are right on schedule. If you have spent less than 31 minutes, you are ahead of schedule.

So, the math is pretty easy: the number of questions answered, plus 7 per time burner, is the guesstimate of how long you should have taken so far if you are right on time.

Get some earplugs. Testing centers often have some, but if you do not want to chance it, come prepared. The testing center is usually a room inside the space of a company that does something else as well, oftentimes a training center. So, there are people talking in nearby rooms and others office noises. Earplugs can help. (Headphones, as electronic devices, are not allowed.)

Some people like to spend the first minute of the exam writing down some notes for reference. For example, maybe you want to write down the table of magic numbers for finding IPv4 subnet IDs. If you plan to do that, practice making those notes. Before each practice exam, transcribe those lists, just like you expect to do at the real exam.

Plan your travel to the testing center with enough time so that you will not be rushing to make it just in time.

If you tend to be nervous before exams, practice your favorite relaxation techniques for a few minutes before each practice exam, just to be ready to use them.

Rest the night before the exam, rather than staying up late to study. Clarity of thought is more important than one extra fact, especially because the exam requires so much analysis and thinking rather than just remembering facts.

If you did not bring earplugs, ask the testing center for some, even if you cannot imagine you would use them. You never know whether it might help.

You can bring personal effects into the building and testing company’s space, but not into the actual room in which you take the exam. So, take as little extra stuff with you as possible. If you have a safe place to leave briefcases, purses, electronics, and so on, leave them there. However, the testing center should have a place to store your things as well. Simply put, the less you bring, the less you have to worry about storing. (For example, I have even been asked to remove my analog wristwatch on more than one occasion.)

The exam center will give you a laminated sheet and pen for taking notes. (Test center personnel usually do not let you bring paper and pen into the room, even if supplied by the testing center.)

Leave for the testing center with extra time so that you do not have to rush.

Plan on finding a restroom before going into the testing center. If you cannot find one, you can use one in the testing center, of course, and test personnel will direct you and give you time before your exam starts.

Do not consume a 64-ounce drink on the trip to the testing center. After the exam starts, the exam timer will not stop while you go to the restroom.

On exam day, use any relaxation techniques you have practiced to help get your mind focused while you wait for the exam.

This section suggests some new activities and repeats some old ones. However, whether new or old, the activities all focus on filling in your knowledge gaps, finishing off your skills, and completing the study process. Although repeating some tasks you did at chapter review and part review can help, you need to be ready to take an exam, so this exam review asks you to spend a lot of time answering exam questions.

The exam review walks you through suggestions for several types of tasks and gives you some tracking tables for each activity. The main categories are as follows:

Practicing for speed

Taking practice exams

Finding what you do not know well yet (knowledge gaps)

Configuring and verifying functions from the command-line interface (CLI)

Repeating the chapter and part review tasks

The Cisco exams also have a timer. Some of the math crops up often enough so that if you go slow with the math, or if you have to write down all the details of how you compute the answers, you might well run out of time to answer all the questions. (The two biggest reasons we hear as to why people do not finish on time are slow speed with the math-related work and slow speed when doing simulator questions using the CLI.)

However, look at these math processes and the time crunch as a positive instead of a negative. Right now, before the exam, you know about the challenge. You know that if you keep practicing subnetting and other math, you will keep getting faster and better. As exam day approaches, if you have spare minutes, try more practice with anything to do with subnetting in particular. Look at it as a way to prepare now so that you do not have to worry about time pressure so much on the day of the exam.

Table 24-1 lists the topics in this chapter that require both math and speed. Table 24-2 lists items for which the math or process is important, but speed is probably less important. By this point in your study, you should already be confident at finding the right answer to these kinds of problems. Now is the time to perfect your skills at getting the right answers, plus getting faster so that you reduce your time pressure on the exams.

To practice the math listed in both Tables 24-1 and 24-2, look at the end of the respective chapters for some suggestions. For example, for many subnetting problems, you can make up your own problems and check your work with any subnet calculator.

A practice exam using the Pearson IT Certification Practice Test (PCPT) exam software lets you experience many of the same issues as when taking a real Cisco exam. The software gives you a number of questions, with a countdown timer shown in the window. After you answer a question, you cannot go back to it. (Yes, that’s true on Cisco exams.) If you run out of time, the questions you did not answer count as incorrect.

The process of taking the timed practice exams helps you prepare in three key ways:

To practice the exam event itself, including time pressure, the need to read carefully, and the need to concentrate for long periods

To build your analysis and critical thinking skills when examining the network scenario built in to many questions

To discover the gaps in your networking knowledge so that you can study those topics before the real exam

As much as possible, treat the practice exam events as if you were taking the real Cisco exam at a Vue testing center. The following list gives some advice on how to make your practice exam more meaningful, rather than as just one more thing to do before exam day rolls around:

Set aside 2 hours for taking the 90-minute timed practice exam.

Make a list of what you expect to do for the 10 minutes before the real exam event. Then visualize yourself doing those things. Before taking each practice exam, practice those final 10 minutes before your exam timer starts. (The earlier section “Exam-Day Advice” lists some suggestions about what to do in those last 10 minutes.)

You cannot bring anything with you into the Vue exam room, so remove all notes and help materials from your work area before taking a practice exam. You can use blank paper, a pen, and your brain only. Do not use calculators, notes, web browsers, or any other app on your computer.

Real life can get in the way, but if at all possible, ask anyone around you to leave you alone for the time you will practice. If you must do your practice exam in a distracting environment, wear headphones or earplugs to reduce distractions.

Do not guess, hoping to improve your score. Answer only when you have confidence in the answer. Then, if you get the question wrong, you can go back and think more about the question in a later study session.

You should plan to take between one and three DCICT practice exams with these exam databases. Even people who are already well prepared should do at least one practice exam, just to experience the time pressure and the need for prolonged concentration. For those who want more practice exams, these two exam databases have enough questions for more than two exams. As a result, if you take a fourth practice exam with these exam databases, you will have seen almost all the questions before, making the practice exam a little too easy. If you are interested in purchasing more practice exams, check out the Cisco Data Center (DCICN) 200-150 Official Cert Guide Premium Edition eBook and Practice Test product at www.ciscopress.com/title/9781587205965 and be sure to use the 70% off coupon included in the cardboard sleeve in the back of this book.

Table 24-3 gives you a checklist to record your different practice exam events. Recording both the date and the score is helpful for some other work you will do, so note both. Also, in the Time Notes column, if you finish on time, note how much extra time you had. If you run out of time, note how many questions you did not have time to answer.

Interestingly, web browsers, and the content on those web pages, have trained us all to scan. Web page designers actually design content with the expectation that people will scan with different patterns. Regardless of the pattern, when reading a web page, almost no one reads sequentially, and no one reads entire sentences. They scan for the interesting graphics and the big words, and then scan the space around those noticeable items.

Other parts of our electronic culture have also changed how the average person reads. For example, many of you grew up using texting and social media, sifting through hundreds or thousands of messages, but with each message barely filling an entire sentence. (In fact, that previous sentence would not fit in a tweet, being longer than 140 characters.)

Those everyday habits have changed how we all read and think in front of a screen. Unfortunately, those same habits often hurt our scores when taking computer-based exams.

If you scan exam questions like you read web pages, texts, and tweets, you will probably make some mistakes because you missed a key fact in the questions, answers, or exhibits. It helps to start at the beginning and read all the words—a process that is amazingly unnatural for many people today.

For when you are taking the practice exams, and answering individual questions, let me make two suggestions. First, before the practice exam, think about your own personal strategy for how you will read a question. Make your approach to multiple-choice questions in particular be a conscious decision on your part. Second, if you want some suggestions on how to read an exam question, use the following strategy:

Step 1. Read the question itself thoroughly from start to finish.

Step 2. Scan any exhibit (usually command output) or figure.

Step 3. Scan the answers to look for the types of information. (Numeric? Terms? Single words? Phrases?)

Step 4. Reread the question thoroughly from start to finish to make sure that you understand it.

Step 5. Read each answer thoroughly while referring to the figure/exhibit as needed. After reading each answer, do the following before reading the next answer:

A. If the answer is correct, select it as correct.

B. If for sure the answer is incorrect, mentally rule it out.

C. If you are unsure, mentally note it as a possible correct answer.

Use the practice exams as a place to practice your approach to reading. Every time you click to the next question, try to read the question following your approach. If you are feeling time pressure, that is the perfect time to keep practicing your approach, to reduce and eliminate questions you miss because of scanning the question instead of reading thoroughly.

No matter where you get additional exam questions, if you use the exam questions for a timed practice exam, it helps to take a few notes about the results. Table 24-4 gives you a place to take those notes. Also, take a guess at the percentage of questions you have seen before when taking the exam, and note whether you think the questions are less, more, or the same challenge level as the questions that come with this book. And as usual, note whether you ran out of time or had extra time left over at the end.

Note that the publisher does sell products that include additional test questions. The Cisco Data Center (DCICN) 200-150 Official Cert Guide Premium Edition eBook and Practice Test product is basically the publisher’s eBook version of this book. It includes a soft copy of the book in formats you can read on your computer or on the most common book readers and tablets. The product includes all the content you would normally get with the print book, including all the question databases mentioned in this chapter. Additionally, this product includes two more DCICT exam databases for extra practice tests.

One of the hardest things to find when doing your final exam preparation is to discover gaps in your knowledge and skills. In other words, what topics and skills do you need to know that you do not know? Or what topics do you think you know but you misunderstand some important fact about? Finding gaps in your knowledge at this late stage requires more than just your gut feel about your strengths and weaknesses.

This next task uses a feature of PCPT to help you find those gaps. The PCPT software tracks each practice exam you take, remembering your answer for every question and whether you got it wrong. You can view the results and move back and forth between seeing the question and seeing the results page. To find gaps in your knowledge, follow these steps:

Step 1. Pick and review one of your practice exams.

Step 2. Review each incorrect question until you are happy that you understand the question.

Step 3. When finished with your review of a question, mark the question.

Step 4. Review all incorrect questions from your exam until all are marked.

Step 5. Move on to the next practice exam.

Figure 24-1 shows a sample Question Review page, in which all the questions were answered incorrectly. The results show a Correct column with no check marks, meaning that the answers were incorrect.

To perform the process of reviewing questions and marking them as complete, you can move between this Question Review page and the individual questions. Just double-click a question to move back to it. From the question, you can click Grade Exam to move back to the grading results and to the Question Review page shown in Figure 24-1. The question window also shows the place to mark the question, in the upper left, as shown in Figure 24-2.

If you want to come back later to look through the questions you missed from an earlier exam, start at the PCPT home screen. From there, instead of clicking the Start button to start a new exam, click the View Grade History button to see your earlier exam attempts and work through any missed questions.

Track your progress through your gap review in Table 24-5. PCPT lists your previous practice exams by date and score, so it helps to note those values in the table for comparison to the PCPT menu.

First, the chapter review “Exam Preparation Tasks” and “Part Review” sections give you some useful study tasks.

Second, take more exam questions from other sources. You can always get more questions in the Cisco Press Premium Edition eBook and Practice Test products, which include an eBook copy of this book, additional questions, and PCPT exam banks. However, you can search the Internet for questions from many sources, and review those questions as well.

Finally, join in the discussions on the Cisco Learning Network. Try to answer questions asked by other learners; the process of answering a question makes you think much harder about the topic. When someone posts an answer with which you disagree, think about why and talk about it online. This is a great way to both learn more and build confidence.

We encourage you to celebrate when you pass, and ask advice if you do not. The Cisco Learning Network is a great place to make posts to celebrate and to ask advice for the next time around. We, the authors, would love to hear about your progress through Twitter (@chadh0517, @cobedien, @okarakok). We wish you well, and congratulations for working through the entire book!