How to Prepare for an Exam

No two people prepare for an exam in quite the same way, but some general guidelines should help. First, don't rush yourself. You might be the kind of person who needs a deadline; fine, set a deadline, but be prepared to change it if you won't be ready. There is a great deal of material to understand for this exam, and you will need some time to absorb it. Pushing yourself too fast will cause you to miss some material that will probably be on the exam. With a relatively high passing score (more on that in Chapter 1, "Overview of Cisco Certification"), you can't afford to give away points you should have had.

If you have access to Cisco equipment, study the documentation and the existing configuration files. If it is production equipment, don't experiment or even view the configurations without explicit permission! If you have a lab or have access to equipment in a lab setting (such as a rack rental), practice configurations of the various security features. Set up VPNs between unlike systems (PIX to VPN concentrator, which then connects to a router, and so on).

Cisco Connection Online (CCO), Cisco's support service on the Web, at www.cisco.com, has a wealth of resourcesso many, in fact, that it can be hard to find something a second time unless you file the bookmark. Even if you do not have a CCO account (which comes with a service support contract for Cisco products), you can still research hardware capabilities, the product documentation, and each software release, or you can view and print many sample configurations of devices that do the same sort of thing you need to know how to do.

Another terrific resource is the collection of people from all over the world who subscribe to the GroupStudy mailing lists; you can access them via a newsreader or on the Web (at www.groupstudy.com). These are moderated mailing lists, and there are experienced subscribers all the way to newbies studying for their CCNA and CCDA. One thing you will not find there, though, is exam information that violates the NDA: The group values certifications and helps those willing to earn them honestly.

Another method of preparation is to create your own study guide. Writing down material, like entering it at the CLI, helps commit it to memory. In fact, studies have suggested that writing something three times " writes it" to memory significantly more effectively than writing it just once. Above all, look at the exam information on Cisco's Web page: Go to www.cisco.com, then to Learning and Events, then to Career Certifications and Paths, and then to CCSP; scroll down and click on the link to the 642-541 CSI Exam. There you will find the most current information on what Cisco says is on the test. This is always a good idea for all of Cisco's exams; the material does change periodically, and it pays to look carefully at both the Exam Description section and the Exam Topics list.