Deciding What to Memorize

The amount of memorization you must undertake for an exam depends on how well you remember what you've read and how well you know the software by heart. If you're a visual thinker and can see the command-line interface in your head, you won't need to memorize as much as someone who's less visually oriented. However, the exam will stretch your abilities to memorize the theory behind routing and remote access with topics such as quality of service (QoS), remote access network design, and traffic shaping configuration. At a minimum, you'll want to memorize the following kinds of information:

• WAN connection types and criteria

• Remote access cabling pins and types

• Modem configuration commands

• ISDN and PPP configuration commands

• Dialer profile functionality

• Frame Relay traffic shaping terminology

• Dialer backup configuration

• Quality of Service (QoS) tools and uses

• DSL and Cable terminology

If you work your way through this book while accessing the IOS interface, as well as diagramming network topologies as they're discussed throughout, you should have little or no difficulty mastering this material. Also, don't forget that The Cram Sheet at the front of the book is designed to capture the material that's most important to memorize; use this to guide your studies as well.