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Mastering Cisco Exam Challenges

Cisco exams are challenging due to the extensive knowledge and skills required, including the ability to analyze networks and troubleshoot issues. Exam questions often resemble jigsaw puzzles, requiring candidates to connect various networking concepts and configuration commands to solve problems. Understanding topics like IP subnetting and interpreting command outputs are essential for answering these complex questions.

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ashwinivinod29
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40 views1 page

Mastering Cisco Exam Challenges

Cisco exams are challenging due to the extensive knowledge and skills required, including the ability to analyze networks and troubleshoot issues. Exam questions often resemble jigsaw puzzles, requiring candidates to connect various networking concepts and configuration commands to solve problems. Understanding topics like IP subnetting and interpreting command outputs are essential for answering these complex questions.

Uploaded by

ashwinivinod29
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

he challenge of these exams comes from many angles.

Each of these exams covers a


lot of
concepts, as well as many commands specific to Cisco devices. Beyond knowledge,
these Cisco
exams also require deep skills. You must be able to analyze and predict what really
happens in a
network. You must be able to configure Cisco devices to work correctly in those
networks. And
you must be ready to troubleshoot problems when the network does not work
correctly.
The more challenging questions on these exams work a lot like a jigsaw puzzle�but
with four
out of every five puzzle pieces not even in the room. To solve the puzzle, you have
to mentally
re-create the missing pieces. To do that, you must know each networking concept and
remem-
ber how the concepts work together. You also have to match the concepts with what
happens
on the devices with the configuration commands that tell the devices what to do.
You also
have to connect the concepts, and the configuration, with the meaning of the output
of various
troubleshooting commands, to analyze how the network is working and why it is not
working
right now.
For example, you need to know IP subnetting well, and that topic includes some
math. A simple
question�one that might be too simple to be a real exam question�would tell you
enough of
the numbers so that all you have to do is the equivalent of a little addition or
multiplication to
find a number called a subnet ID.
A more exam-realistic question makes you connect concepts together to set up the
math prob-
lem. For example, a question might give you a network diagram and ask you to list
the subnet
ID used in one part of the diagram. But the diagram has no numbers at all. Instead,
you have the
output of a command from a router, for example, the show ip ospf database command,
which
does list some numbers. But before you can use those numbers, you might need to
predict how
the devices are configured and what other troubleshooting commands would tell you.
So you
end up with a question like a puzzle, as shown in Figure 1. The question puts some
pieces in
the right place; you have to find other pieces using different commands and by
applying your
knowledge. And some pieces will just remain unknown for a given question.

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