New Goal: BS IT-Security at WGU.

[Thorne]

This makes me feel a little better. I thought they'd all be really rough. I'll keep that in mind as I start on CCNA. Thanks.

I've gone all the way through the CCNP R&S, and I can confirm some of it. The ICND1 is fairly easy. With the classes I took plus two days studying Pearson's practice tests, pulled a 966/1000. The ICND2 was less so. First time I took it (after the classes at my local CC and a month of studying the book + CBT Nuggets + Pearson practice tests) I failed by 30 points. The second time I took it I got 881/1000 just by brushing up on the technologies that kicked my backside (anything I scored less than a 70% on my score report)

The IINS exam was a pain for me. Not because it was entirely difficult, but because they were so ambiguous. One example (without violating the NDA) was something like this:

What is necessary to configure a Cisco router to support TACACS+? (Choose two)
a. The command aaa new-model must be issued in global configuration mode of the router (this is true)
b. The securityk9 package must be enabled (this is false)
c. The command tacacs-server host ip address must be issued (this is true)
d. An authentication method list must be defined to include a TACACS+ server (this is true)
f. The router must be using IOS 15.1 or later (this is false)

A, C, and D are all accurate, and are all necessary for a router to fully support TACACS+, but they would be looking for A and C. Why? A is correct because configuring ANY AAA feature requires the aaa new-model command to be issued. C is correct because you cannot utilize TACACS+ AT ALL without first defining a server.

In order to get it right, regardless of how well you know the protocol, you would need to mentally restate the question into something like "What are the first two requirements that are necessary to support TACACS+"

/rant

To put it plainly, you can expect a good quarter of your questions to be similarly murky, so just prepare to treat it like a logic exam and you'll do fine (I ended up with 927/1000 in the end, but I only had five minutes left)

Also, JSD, how easy/hard was the CIW test? Is it more process and theory or hands-on technical?