Tips for Taking Your Cisco Exams

Marks & Number of Questions

The Cisco exams contain about 40–50 questions and must be completed in about 90
minutes or less. This information can change per exam. You must get a score of about 85
percent to pass this exam, but again, each exam can be different.

Type of Questions

Many questions on the exam have answer choices that at first glance look identical,

especially the syntax questions! So remember to read through the choices carefully.

Because close just doesn’t cut it. If you get commands in the wrong order or forget one.

Measly character, you’ll get the question wrong. So, to practice, do the hands-on exercises

at the end of this book’s chapters over and over again until they feel natural to you.

Tips for Taking Your Cisco Exams Also, never forget that the right answer is the Cisco answer. In many cases, more than one.

An appropriate answer is presented, but the correct answer is the one that Cisco

recommends. On the exam, you will always be told to pick one, two, or three options,

never “choose all that apply.” The Cisco exam may include the following test formats:

Multiple-choice single answer

Multiple-choice multiple answers

Drag-and-drop

Router simulations

Cisco proctored exams will not show the steps to follow in completing a router interface configuration, but they do allow partial command responses. For example, show run, show

running, or sh running-config, would be acceptable.

Here are some general tips for exam success:

Arrive early at the exam center, so you can relax and review your study materials.
Read the questions carefully. Don’t jump to conclusions. Make sure you’re clear about. Exactly what each question asks. “Read twice, answer once,” is what I always tell my students.
When answering multiple-choice questions that you’re not sure about, use the process of elimination to get rid of the obviously incorrect answers first. Doing this greatly. Improves your odds if you need to make an educated guess.
You can no longer move forward and backward through the Cisco exams, so double-Check your answer before clicking Next, since you can’t change your mind.

After you complete an exam, you’ll get immediate, online notification of your pass or fail status, a printed examination score report that indicates your pass or fail status, and your exam results by section. (The test administrator will give you the printed score report.) Test scores are automatically forwarded to Cisco within five working days after you take the test, so you don’t need to send your score to them. If you pass the exam, you’ll receive.

Confirmation from Cisco, typically within two to four weeks, sometimes a bit longer.