What seems to be missing by Gerren Murphy

While recently studying for my BSCI exam, I began to notice that many of the legitimate test prep software packages out there don't do a wonderful job in the "prep" part of the equation. Don't get me wrong, they do a good job of doing what they're supposed to do. They help you solidify the basic concepts of the technology, but none of them actually help to prepare you (imho) for the actual Cisco exams.

On the other not-so-legit side of the test prep software spectrum, you have the companies like TestKing, Pass4Sure, etc. that essentially give you the exact test and accompanying answers. For those of us that actually want the knowledge and skills associated with passing the exams and not just being a paper cert, it's a tough path to navigate.

I'm sure there are many of you out there in similar situations as me. I work for a small company with 3 locations in the eastern US. We have a generally uncomplicated network...the kind where once everything is in place, you really don't touch it for the most part. Each site has a firewall, a router, and a few switches. So how does an aspiring CCIE (aspiring CCNP for now - 2 down, 2 to go) get good hands on practice in solving problems and connecting all of the pieces of the puzzle?

But wait...there's dynamips/GNS3 you say. Sure, of course there is. I can set up a few routers/switches, configure this, configure that, and make sure I know how to configure these things. But from my experience, this is not a great way to study for Cisco exams. Of course you have to know how to configure certain features for the simulation questions, but what I find to be difficult to prepare for are the questions like:

"Router A and Router B are connected over a serial link. Router A has this configuration applied and router B has this configuration. Users on subnet 10.1.1.0/24 off router B can do task A, but users on a subnet off router A cannot do the same task. What set of commands would resolve this issue?"

Sure, I can lab up my own "problems" in GNS3, but knowing what the underlying cause of the "problem" is makes it that much easier to fix, and for me, it doesn't really help solidify the concept. That helps reinforce the commands necessary to achieve a certain outcome, but since a majority of exam questions are more than just picking a one word answer out of a lineup, I don't think that doing labs over and over (at least for the CCNP level) is overly useful.

What seems to be missing in the test prep software space is a package that combines the complex question types that the exam doles out, while not giving you the exact questions and answers that are on the exam. One that helps you learn to think like you will need to think during exam time and helps you become comfortable processing questions that may have 3 to 4 subtleties within that may change the outcome of your final answer.

While I'm not looking to be have my hand held throughout the preparation process, nor given the answers, I do think that someone out there can come up with something better than what's available. Now, if I only had more of an interest in software development!

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