CCNP Security SISAS 300-208 Official Cert Guide (2015)
Part VII: Final Preparation
Chapter 23. Final Preparation
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 the exam. At this point, everything you do should be focused on getting you ready to pass so that you can finish. You are very close to the finish line, so let’s put forth one last effort. Everything is possible; you just need to believe it.
The second section of this chapter gives you some exam review tasks as your final preparation for your SISAS 300-208 exam.
Advice About the Exam Event
Now that you have finished most of this book, you could register for your Cisco SISAS 300-208 exam, show up, and take the exam. However, if you spend a little time thinking about the exam event itself, learning more about the user interface of the real Cisco exams and the environment at the Vue testing centers, you will be better prepared—particularly if this is your first Cisco exam. This first of three major sections in this chapter provides some advice about the Cisco exams and the exam event itself.
Learning the Question Types Using the Cisco Certification Exam Tutorial
In the weeks leading up to your exam, you should think more about the various types of exam questions and have a plan for how to approach those questions. One of the best ways to learn about the exam questions is to use the Cisco Exam Tutorial.
To find the Cisco Certification Exam Tutorial, go to www.cisco.com and search for “exam tutorial.” The tutorial sits inside a webpage 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 a multiple-choice, single-answer question without clicking an answer, and see that the testing software tells you that you have too few answers.
On a multiple-choice, multiple-answer question, select too few answers and click Next to again see how the user interface responds.
In a 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 a simulation 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 simulation question, make sure that you look at the scroll areas at the top, at the side, and in the terminal emulator window.
Still on the simulation question, make sure that you can toggle between the topology window and the terminal emulator window by clicking Show Topology and Hide Topology.
On a testlet question, answer one multiple-choice question, move to the second, answer it, move back to the first question, and confirm 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 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.
Thinking About Your Time Budget Versus Number of Questions
On exam day, you need to keep an eye on your speed. Going too slowly hurts you because you might not have time to answer all the questions. Going too fast can hurt as well if your fast speed is because you are rushing and not taking the time to fully understand the questions. So, you need to be able to know whether you are moving quickly enough to answer all the questions while not rushing.
The exam user interface shows some useful time information—namely, a countdown timer as well as a 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 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 us beforehand the exact number of questions for each exam. For example, Cisco.com (at the time this book was published) listed SISAS as a 90-minute exam with 65-75 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 take approximately 1 minute each.
Time burners—Simulations, simlets, and testlets take approximately 4-5 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, and use 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, are exactly 1:15 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 in the next section.
A Suggested Time-Check Method
The following math can be used to do your time check in a way that weights the time based on those time-burner questions. You do not have to use this method. But this math uses only addition of whole numbers to keep it simple. It gives you a pretty close time estimate, in my opinion.
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 for normal questions and 7 minutes per time burner; here’s the math:
Number of Questions Answered So Far + 7 Per Time Burner
Then, 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, 2 of which were time burners, 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: 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.
Note
This math is an estimate; we make no guarantees that the math will be an accurate predictor on every exam.
Miscellaneous Pre-Exam Suggestions
Here are just a few more suggestions for things to think about before exam day arrives:
Get some earplugs. Testing centers often have some, but if you do not want to chance it, come prepared. The testing center is typically a room inside the space of a company that does something else as well, often a training center. So, people might be talking in nearby rooms and there might be other 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 notes for reference. For example, maybe you want to write down the table of magic numbers for finding IPv4 subnet IDs, the critical steps required to accomplish a certain task within ISE, or the more common RADIUS Attribute-Value pairs. 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.
Exam-Day Advice
We hope the exam goes well for you. Certainly, the better prepared you are, the better chances you have on the exam. But these small tips can help you do your best on exam day:
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 the 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. Still, some testing centers actually insist that you leave cell phones in your car.
The exam center will give you a laminated sheet and pen to take notes. (Test center personnel typically 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 you do not have to rush.
Plan on finding a restroom before going into the testing center. If you cannot find one, of course you can use one in the testing center, and test personnel will direct you and give you time before your exam starts.
Do not drink 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 that you have practiced to help get your mind focused while you wait for the exam.
Exam Review
This exam review completes the Study Plan materials as suggested by this book. At this point, you have read the other chapters of the book and have done the chapter review Exam Preparation Tasks. Now you need to do the final study and review activities before taking the exam, as detailed in this section.
The Exam Review section suggests some new activities, as well as repeating some old ones. However, whether new or old, the activities all focus on filling in your knowledge gaps, finishing 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 the 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 CLI or GUI
Repeating the chapter review tasks
Taking Practice Exams
One day soon, you will need to pass a real Cisco exam at a Vue testing center. So, it’s time to practice the real event as much as possible.
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 a 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 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 two 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 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.
Practicing Taking the SISAS Exam
To take a SISAS practice exam, you need to select one or both of the SISAS exams from PCPT. If you followed the study plan in this book, you will not have seen any of the questions in these two exam databases before now. After you select one of these two exams, you simply need to choose the Practice Exam option in the upper-right corner and start the exam.
If you are interested in purchasing more practice exams, check out the CCNP Security SISAS 300-208 Official Cert Guide Premium Edition eBook and Practice Test product at www.ciscopress.com/title/9780133888782, and be sure to use the 70% off coupon included in the CD sleeve of this book.
Table 23-1 gives you a checklist to record your practice exam events. Note that recording both the date and the score is helpful for some other work you will do, so note both. Also, in the Time Notes section, 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.
Table 23-1 SISAS 300-208 Practice Exam Checklist
Advice on How to Answer Exam Questions
Open a web browser. Yes, take a break and open a web browser on any device. Do a quick search on a fun topic. Then, before you click a link, get ready to think where your eyes go for the first 5-10 seconds after you click the link. Now, click a link and look at the page. Where did your eyes go?
Interestingly, web browsers and the content on those webpages have trained us all to scan. Webpage designers actually design content with the expectation that people will scan with different patterns. Regardless of the pattern, when reading a webpage, 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 each message barely fills an entire sentence. (In fact, that previous sentence would not fit in a tweet because it’s 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 webpages, texts, and tweets, you will probably make some mistakes because you missed a key fact in the question, answer, or exhibits. It helps to start at the beginning and read all the words—a process that is amazingly unnatural for many people today.
When 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 ensure that you understand it.
Step 5. Read each answer thoroughly, while referring to the figure/exhibit as needed. After reading each answer, before reading the next answer:
A. If correct, select as correct.
B. If for sure it is incorrect, mentally rule it out.
C. If unsure, mentally note it as a possible correct answer.
Note
Cisco exams will tell you the number of correct answers. The exam software also helps you finish the question with the right number of answers noted. For example, the software prevents you from selecting too many answers. Also, if you try to move on to the next question but have too few answers noted, the exam software asks if you truly want to move on.
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.
Taking Other Practice Exams
Many people use other practice exams and questions other than the questions that come with this book. Frankly, using other practice exams in addition to the questions that come with this book can be a good idea, for many reasons. The other exam questions can use different terms in different ways, emphasize different topics, and show different scenarios that make you rethink some topics.
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 23-2 gives you a place to take those notes. Also, take a guess at the percent of questions you have seen before 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.
Table 23-2 Checklist for Practice Exams from Other Sources
Note that the publisher does sell products that include additional test questions. The CCNP Security SISAS 300-208 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 DVD that comes with the print book, including all the question databases mentioned in this chapter. Additionally, this product includes two more SISAS exam databases for extra exams.
Finding Knowledge Gaps Through Question Review
You just took a number of practice exams. You probably learned a lot, gained some exam-taking skills, and improved your networking knowledge and skills. But if you go back and look at all the questions you missed, you might be able to find a few small gaps in your knowledge.
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 about some important fact? Finding gaps in your knowledge at this late stage requires more than just your gut feeling 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 for 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 23-1 shows a sample Question Review page, in which all the questions were answered incorrectly. The results list a Correct column, with no check mark meaning that the answer was incorrect.
Figure 23-1 PCPT grading results page.
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 that question. From the question, you can click Grade Exam to move back to the grading results and to the Question Review page shown in Figure 23-1. The question window also shows the place to mark the question, in the upper left, as shown in Figure 23-2.
Figure 23-2 Reviewing a question with the mark feature in upper left.
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 23-5. 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.
Table 23-5 Tracking Checklist for Gap Review of Practice Exams
Other Study Tasks
If you get to this point and still feel the need to prepare some more, this last topic gives you three suggestions.
First, the chapter review Exam Preparation Tasks 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 plus additional questions in additional PCPT exam banks. You also can search the Internet for questions from many sources and review those questions as well.
Note
Some vendors claim to sell practice exams that contain the literal exam questions from the exam. These exams, called “brain dumps,” go against the Cisco testing policies. Cisco strongly discourages using any such tools for study.
Finally, join in the discussions on the Cisco Learning Network. Try to answer questions asked by other learners; the process of answering 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.
Final Thoughts
You have studied quite a bit, worked very hard, and sacrificed time and money to be ready for the exam. We hope your exam goes well, that you pass, and that you pass because you really know your stuff and will do well in your IT and networking career.
We encourage you to celebrate when you pass and ask advice when you do not. Congratulations on achieving a major milestone in your career.