The Journey finally begins. After a month of intense reading and practice, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for my CCENT certification in the form of a light-emitting-diode. I can’t believe my test date is already here! I forced this date upon myself because I would never feel ready if I didn’t strictly force a date.
Here’s why I should pass:
- I read two books cover to cover, this alone is around 2000 pages.
- I did practice labs twice. CCENT is pretty barren when it comes to exciting lab topologies. Seriously, you can only configure a login banner so many times before wetting your eyes with boredom.
- I consistently scored about 85% on the practice tests. Now, I’m the sort of person that tends to score better on the day of the test. I feel as if the adrenaline rush kicks my brain into overdrive.
- I paid good money for this. I am a frugal guy and this $200 or so in testing fees and books better not have gone wasted.
Here’s where I am weak:
- Careless subnetting mistakes – subnetting is not hard, but sometimes when I move around a bunch of numbers and count by 16’s too much I make mistakes. Here’s to hoping that my laser focus during the test can help keep the bugs away.
- Granular details like port numbers and command outputs. Generally, I am great with concepts. I grasp top level concepts and apply them really well. However, when you ask me which port is FTP Control information traveling on, I get stumped (not Sunday!!). I also am a keen troubleshooter who is able to get all the info from show commands and debug commands I need. Yet, it’s difficult for me to recall specifically, what information is found with which command. I know what I’m looking for and find my fingers tend to move naturally towards those commands without much thinking. On the exam, I would have to push HARD to remember these details.
- Fast and the Furious. I jump to conclusions sometimes without reading the questions carefully. This is such a fixable problem but it has plagued me since elementary school.
The test is at 10 AM which tends to be my favorite time of day. That’s when the caffeine spike has abated a bit but still in full-effect in my bloodstream. Wish me plenty of clear, focused thinking on Sunday. That is probably all I need to succeed.
@thecmancan 