Finally finished some sort of a decent looking study schedule that I can follow in preparation for the INCD2 test I plan to take at the end of June.
In the next 3 months, my schedule is going to look a little something like the table below. This is not the complete table. I have the complete schedule for the whole 3 months. This is just an illustration of how I plan to approach my studies.

I’ve been consistently waking up at about 6am and study until about 8:30 am everyday for the last 3 months. Then I study for about 3 more hours at night. That’s not including a few times I get to study at work during down times. Here’s a glimpse of what my typical day looks like:

6:00 – 6:30 Wake up
7:00 – 8:30 Study
9:00 – 6:00p Work
6:30 – 8:30p Family time
8:30 – 11:30p Study
12:00m Sleep

So given a typical work week, I can usually put in 5-6 hours a day of studying. On the weekends, I usually plan on putting in about 7-8 hours of study time, depending on what we have planned for that weekend. Of course not all those times are devoted to pure studying. You also have to take into account lab preparation time, unexpected distractions, breaks, and reading other resources such as forums, tech news, and the occasional web surfing and checking sports scores online. But for the most part, I try to keep the study time slots devoted to a lot of study.

So my goal is to take the ICND2 (640-816) exam on June 28, and to have finished at least two CCNP track exams by the end of the year. That amounts to 3 months of studying per test by the end of the year. Rough estimate puts my study time to about 1800 hours a year if I studied every day for about 5 hours a day. As long as my motivation keeps up with me until the end of the year, I should be good. I also want to condition myself to do this in case I want to pursue a CCIE – which at this point is a strong possibility. In fact, I’m approaching this whole journey as if my ultimate goal is to achieve a CCIE. The only thing that may possibly get in the way of this plan are family issues, a change in work situation/condition, or some sort of disability on my part. Otherwise I’d like to see myself through the whole thing.

We’ll just see what happens, I guess.

Phew!!!! What a close one it was. Took the CCENT test last Saturday and I passed… barely. Driving to the test center was a bit uncomfortable as I wasn’t sure whether I was ready or not. Part of me knew that there were many topics on the exam objectives that I could’ve mastered prior to sitting. But also part of me felt that I knew enough to pass. Logic would tell me that if I have reservations towards taking the test, then maybe I’m not ready. But then I’ve also postponed the test once already and if I keep postponing it, it might become a habit and almost an excuse for me not to concentrate enough to get the job done in my pre-established timeframe. So I decided to go for it with whatever amount of knowledge I had. And as it turned out, I knew enough to pass. Did I master the exam objectives? Far from it. I do, however, plan to continue my studies and hope that I’ll eventually master them as I move further along.

The test itself wasn’t too difficult. It was the uncertainty and second guessing myself that ate up most of my time. The simulation questions where I had to write configurations on given scenarios were pretty easy I thought. I was pretty confident with the configurations I had to write. In fact that may have been what boosted my score. The constant re-reading of the questions and second-guessing of myself, however, proved inefficient because I ran out of time and didn’t finish the test – there were 2 questions remaining when the clock ran out. I spent so much time on the earlier sims that I had 15 more questions to go with less than 10 minutes left. So I had to rush the last 15 questions and tried not to spend more than 1 minute per question. As my luck would have it, or not, most of the questions I got towards the latter part involved a lot of subnetting – actually, it was all over the exam. And there was no way I can spend less than one minute on a subnetting problem. I tried practicing it at home but I could not get to a problem that involves some sort of subnettting calculation under 1 minute. I can do the calculations in under a minute but not when applied to a scenario that involves analysis of the given network. I was thinking right then that I need to keep practicing subnetting no matter how well I think I know it. At this point, I’m passed trying to understand the concept. I’ve got the concept down. I now need to get my speed up in solving them.

Around the 4th or 3rd minute mark, I got another sim question. At this point, is where I was totally convinced that I failed the exam because I completely skipped the question without even looking at the problem. I just knew that if I had stopped on that problem, there was no way I could get throught all the other ones. I figured it will eat up at least a good minute to read and understand the question before I can even give a reasonble answer. So I moved on and worked on the last few smaller questions hoping that by getting those right, it can offset the points I lost on the last sim. But the time pressure wouldn’t allow me to even get a good handle on what was being asked on the few remaining questions becuase I was trying to hurry. So I ended up skimming through the questions hoping I would get a general idea of what’s being asked and it would trigger some sort of word association that will match the answer from the multiple choice options that were given to me. And in my mind I was thinking, “ok, I blew it. But it’s ok, at least now I know what to expect and I’ll re-schedule for the next week and I’ll be better prepared.”

The test ended with the last 2 questions remaining unanswered and I had to endure the seemingly endless waiting period while my workstation calculated my score. I just couldn’t wait for the suspense and just wanted to see a big red mark in front of me proclaiming my utter failure. Well, i was hoping that it won’t be a big red, bold-faced proclamation in front of the screen because all the other test takers had a clear view of my screen. As if failing wasn’t embarassing enough in itself, the whole room might see it too. But, with what could only be attributed to the divine providence that was showered upon me from the heavens above… lo and behold! I passed. The outpouring of relief that flowed through my veins rendered me helpless and weak. I almost slumped on the floor from the stress and trauma that the reversal of my fate had undergone. It’s kinda like someone telling you… “hey G! your house just burned down..” and then turn around 30 seconds later and hear, “oh wait just kidding.. it’s your neighbor’s house”. The agony and the relief rolled into one emotional taco roll!

well, this experience is a good learning experience. I can say that I am one-passed-exam seasoned. Believe it or not, even though this test is the lowest of all the Cisco tracks I’m going to take, it is a major boost in confidence and motivation. It’s kinda like when a top notch college football team schedules a game against a powder puff team in the beginning of the season. The coaches know that there is no way they can lose to the inferior opponent. But what it does to their players is give them a confidence boost and instill a belief in themselves that they can take on anything and whomever. But then of course, you have to win the game as is expected, otherwise the whole concept is shot.

So anyway, I’m more motivated than ever. If anything I’m very motivated not to go through that whole ordeal again – that feeling of uncertainty and unpreparedness. At least now I know how not to approach an exam and I have an improved idea of how to study efficiently.