I found only limited product knowledge and a fair balance of spanning tree, VTP and
Multi-cast.
There was also a reasonably indepth dose on the MLS-SE and MLS-RP
Hope this helps those yet to do the exam.
By the way I was surprised with a result of 912 as I did not feel comfortable with my
responses while doing the exam.
Rob O'Brien
Neal Rauhauser wrote:
> I took the BCMSN this afternoon and exited the testing center
> with a very surprising 934.
>
> Background:
>
> I have a couple of years time in grade with cat 19xx/28xx, about
> the same more recently with 29xx/35xx, and I once worked for three
> months on an incredibly psychotic Cat 5500 with 800 MACs in the cam and
> one subnet(!). I've also done one Cat 5500 + NFFC + RSM layer 3 deploy
> to an ISP with 40k worth of public IPs being routed through the switch.
>
> Study gear:
>
> I had two Cat 3524s running enterprise attached to a Cisco 2621
> running 802.1Q VLANs in production at work. I had a loaner Cat 5000 with
> a Sup 1 and a ws-x5213 for the last few weeks of my studies. There was
> an idle 7206 in a remote facility that I used to brush up on mls rp
> commands. I did some multicast work with my 25xx collection at home.
>
> Study Materials:
>
> Didn't refer to Caslow once(!). The Cisco Press BCMSN book (only a
> few errors) and the official Cisco Press LAN switching were all I used.
> The LAN switching reference does an excellent job of covering some items
> that the BCMSN gives what I felt was a lightweight treatment.
>
> The boson.com pretests were *excellent* - my only gripe is that what
> is in boson's stuff is *way* harder than the real thing - I was getting
> mid 60% on the boson stuff and I thought I'd squeak by the exam ... the
> 934 was a huge surprise.
>
> What to watch for on the exam:
>
> I think the BCMSN question base is *very* broad. I've talked to
> folks that had to examine network sniffer traces and so forth and I saw
> none of that. The possible broadness being mentioned the details are ...
>
> Pound VTP operations into your head and do it twice for that stuff
> about version numbers. Use the same amount of effort on spanning tree
> and VLAN configuration issues. MLS is there but if you *understand* the
> BCMSN chapter on it and then read the Cisco Press LAN Switching you'll
> be fine.
>
> I am amazed at how little there was on multicast - knowing how to
> convert an IP address to a MAC address covered 50% of what I saw. This
> makes me think the exam question base is broad because I've talked to
> others who got a lot of multicast questions.
>
> I really got flogged on Cisco product line knowledge. I worked for an
> equipment dealership and I've troubleshot/tested/sold/refurbed
> everything Catalyst from 1912s to 65xx series include all of the layer 3
> modules and I was streeetttttccchhhhhheeeeeddd by what the test wanted
> to know. I can eyeball a box full of Cat 5500/6500 cards and tell you
> part numbers and specs on them - I rarely need to refer to the fact
> Cisco product guide any more - and I was really reaching on some of this
> stuff. If my experience is represenative you should call 800-553-NETS
> and order DOC-CISCOCATALOG= and memorize the 55/6500 layer three stuff
> before approaching the exam.
>
> Well, thats all the wisdom I have to offer at the moment ... I am
> going to go pounce on CIT and see if I can be a CCNP by this time Friday
> .. I left the easiest exam for last :-)
>
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