ZNDP 023 – CCDE Practical Exam Recommendation and Tips

Cisco, Consultative Leadership, Network Community, Network Design, Podcast, ZNDP

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

CCDE Practical Exam - CCDE Logo

Hey Friends, Nerds, and Geeks out there, in this episode we are going to highlight some CCDE Practical Exam Recommendations and Tips that will help you on your journey to pursue the CCDE Certification. And we are starting right now!! 🙂

 

Related Posts:

If you haven’t seen these posts yet, you should check them out:

Your Role During Your CCDE Practical Exam:

  • Determine what your role is for the scenario, at the beginning of each scenario
  • Reflect on your role throughout the scenario
  • Your role will determine what you have access too
    • For Example, Enterprise vs Service Provider

For each Scenario in Your CCDE Practical Exam:

Determine what the Business vertical is

  • Retail
  • Bank
  • School
  • Online

Determine what the Design Use Case is

  • Add / Replace Technology or Service
  • Merge Divest
  • Scaling
  • Greenfield
  • Design Failure

“You” During Your CCDE Practical Exam:

Don’t make assumptions

  • Don’t assume complexity is bad if the scenario does not mention it.
  • The scenario will give you enough information to make a decision, you just need to find it.
  • Bring your technical knowledge and experience but Leave your Preconceived Notions and Assumptions at the door of the testing center

Read and Read again!

  • Carefully read each question at least 2 times
  • Also, read each answer a couple of times to make sure you fully understand what is being asked
  • If you are not following or understanding the question, re-read the scenario, you are probably missing some relevant information
  • Lastly, try to determine what the test creator is trying to test you on

Do not dwell on questions

  • If you do not know an answer to a question, you probably missed key information in the scenario, go find it!

Do not focus on the level set choices

  • Through out the scenarios, they will level set on design decisions.  They might choose MPLS L2VPN over MPLS L3VPN, even though MPLS L3VPN was the better answer.
  • Do not focus on this, as the scenario is testing on something else now.
  • Be confident in your answer and move on!

It’s a chart, I must fill it in…don’t!

  • When seeing a chart, check only the items that actually make sense in the current scenario
  • Do not fall into the mental trap of needing to fill in the entire chart.

Connecting with the Scenario

  • You need to connect with the scenario but you also need to be reading the scenario fast.  There is a happy middle ground here that you will have to determine for yourself.
  • I found skim reading and Sparsely highlighting worked for me.
  • Do not over connect with the scenario

Questions will have multiple answers

  • This is intended so do not stress.  Stick with the answer you can properly defend the “Why did I choose it?” question, because you will most likely be asked!

Your CCDE Practical Exam Strategy:

Divide your notes into different sections

  • Business
  • Network
  • Application
  • Security
  • QoS
  • Multicast

Draw a diagram per Scenario

  • A physical diagram
  • A quick logical diagram

Highlighting

  • I was an overzealous highlighter in the first 2 attempts, this makes it hard to find important information when everything is highlighted
  • Skim reading while sparsely highlighting is what worked for me in the end
  • I used 1 color but others have used multiple colors
  • Practice and do what works for you

Lunch Break, Do I study more????

  • During your lunch break, use the time to relax your mind.
  • Do not attempt to study or do work
  • Eat some good food, drink some water, have some coffee
  • This exam is a marathon and you need every minute to de-stress and relax

Summary

  • You can’t be successful with the CCDE Practical Exam with out a Strategy
  • Each person’s strategy will be different, but you need to come up with one that will work for you.
  • What worked for me most likely will not work for everyone else.  Take the bits and pieces that does work for you, and build your own strategy off of it.

The Term of the Show

    • Mean time to Failure (MTTR)

Call to Action:

  • Share this content with someone you believe would benefit from it as much as you have!

 

Hosted By: Michael “Zig” Zsiga

Guest Expert: None

Thank you for the podcast reviews!

Thank you for the iTunes reviews as they sincerely motivate me to continue to give back to this community that I love.  If you enjoy the podcast and the information I share, please feel free to write your own personalized review on iTunes!

Ask questions and give feedback

Engage with Zigbits further:

Engage with me further:

Transparency:

This post may contain affiliate links to products or services were I may receive a level of compensation from your actions by following those links. This is seamless to you and does not add any additional cost to the products or services in question. In addition, I do not let any affiliate relationship cloud my judgement or my recommendation of a product or service. My recommendations will always be above reproach.  This is my commitment to you Ziglets!