(This is not my official DevNet Associate exam results, at least not quite yet!)
This practice exam included with the DevNet OCG is amazing for last minute review!
900/1000 was the score of my 2nd practice exam attempt today, I don’t mean to misrepresent my initial score of 750/1000 on my first attempt out of 70 questions, I just didn’t think of grabbing that screen snip before attempting it again and felt this deserved a post.
The reason it deserved a post is it revealed a few huge weaknesses:
- Talking / Reading the question back to myself – This can cause an exam fail at home!
- Starting to glaze over the question / answers once I thought I knew the answer!
- Revealing out the areas I was more making a best guess in that I need to cover!
- I cannot stop myself from sub-consciously mouthing the question!!!
If you have taken Cisco exams before at in person test centers, you probably have mouthed the question back to yourself as you read it, and I’ve often put my finger up to the screen to follow the question as I read it myself for lengthier questions on ROUTE for my CCNP.
I didn’t realize how difficult it is to stop doing something you just do subconsciously, I do this with trouble tickets I review at work before determining how to approach troubleshooting, and this really almost a skill that needs to be practiced before taking a home exam!
That first point is going to be the biggest mountain to climb to prep for exam day Monday.
The next is something I caught myself doing after the first attempt came back 750/1000, that I would start to read a question and skip down to the answers, and I would look at all of them but I did it selectively knowing the answers I wanted to find which prevented me from really registering all other answers beyond just thinking about them briefly – Don’t do this!
This brought me back to the lesson I learned during my failed attempts at ROUTE, only this practice exam is much cheaper to fail, and that lesson is read the answers first!
When reading the answers first, it gave me a good context of the question before even looking at it, which then helped me process all of the answers rather than selectively.
This practice DevNet exam is great to train yourself to consider all answers on exam day!
Pearson really does a great job of mirroring the practice questions I encountered on the practice exam questions from Cisco’s library itself, it is included with the DevNet OCG if you purchase it new or verify the digital code has not been used before buying it used, and it has helped me realize how much progress I made in that short burst of GIT / Python deep dive while exposing some weaker areas like Cisco Systems (ACI / NX-OS / DNA Center).
I very highly recommend getting this book new or with the practice exam 1000%!
After my Python Blitz and GIT battle with Conflict Merging / Unified Diff, I feel very confident in passing as Python was a huuuuge blind spot for me, so I believe that knocking the rust off Cisco Systems terminology / technology and practice not mouth questions will result in a Pass.
I will report back Monday with the real score, takeaways from the exam, and then I will be taking a long overdue break for the end of 2020 before resuming the 2021 Grind!!!
Will report back soon with hopefully a Pass and some cleanup of articles 🙂
The DEVNET GRIND! 