Considerations to pass Cisco conceptual exams

I write this post to remember myself some best practices based on my own experience when taking Cisco conceptual exams. These tipically are the question - single or multichoice answers and contain some common distractors which can be easily identified and avoided.

I also need to specify that I adopted the self-study approach for several reasons:

• it's really cheap compared to a classroom (physical or virtual) course
• I can fit my study slots to my other roles of father and employee
• I can concentrate on some micro concepts which seem stupid but are still recurring (e.g. DSL and cable TV connections are asymmetric)
• I can draw some schemes and memorize them as a picture, both while I draw them and when I study them later on

This approach perfectly fits to the considerations about Cisco questions I'd like to share with you, but it's mandatory that you deeply study the material: 818 minimum pass score means that you just can't skimmer the Cisco books unless it's your 20th Cisco exam in 5 years...

• if an answer contains terms which you haven't heard before, it's wrong or you need to study a some more...
• if an answer contains terms or concepts which you know from your real life experience, but you are sure that they aren't written in the Cisco book, it's wrong.
• if you exercised a lot on Pearson exam simulations (questions come directly from Cisco) and you're sure that they're wrong, remember to memorize the wrong answer since Cisco wants that answer and assumes that Cisco is always right. If you don't trust me here's an example (summarized for copyright matters):
• PC1 and PC2 are separated by several routes and communicate each other. What is the largest entity (it's specified IN SIZE) that make it from PC1 to PC2? Cisco says packet, I say frame (it's in the answers): in my knowledge a frame is packet + L2 encapsulation so it's LARGER IN SIZE than the packet just because it contains the packet itself!!!
• Which command makes you exit from conf mode to exec mode? Well "end" and "exit", while "CTRL+Z" is considered an error although it's explicitly adviced as a return to EXEC in any online Cisco manual...
• Sometimes the questions present complex scenarios, hiding a simple question and a simple answer: you can bypass the complexity reading the question (no matter if you don't understand everything) and then all the answers. The answers themselves will show you if you need to read again the question and really understand that scenario, or if it's simpler than it looks. Usually Cisco would display a graphic for really complex scenarios.