Exam-Taking Techniques

A well-known principle when taking certification exams is to first read over the entire exam from start to finish while answering only those questions you feel absolutely sure of. The next time around, you can delve into the more complex questions. Knowing how many such questions you have left helps you spend your exam time wisely. Although this is good overall testing advice, this capability is not available to you on the Support exam 642-831. To protect the integrity of the certifications, Cisco does not allow you to mark and go back to review a previously answered question.

It is critical on a Cisco exam that you read each question thoroughly. After you input your answer and move on to the next question, you cannot go back!

As you approach the end of your allotted testing time of 75 minutes, you are better off guessing than leaving a question unanswered.

The most important advice about taking any exam is this: Read each question carefully . Some questions are deliberately ambiguous, some use double negatives , and others use terminology in incredibly precise ways. The authors have taken numerous exams ”both practice and live ”and in nearly every one have missed at least one question because they didn't read it closely or carefully enough.

Here are some suggestions on how to deal with the tendency to jump to an answer too quickly:

• Make sure you read every word in the question very carefully, even if it means reading it several times.

• As you read, try to reformulate the question in your own words. If you can do this, you should be able to pick the correct answer(s) much more easily.

• Sometimes, rereading a question enables you to see something you might have missed the first time you read it.

• If you still do not understand the question, ask yourself what you don't understand about the question, why the answers don't appear to make sense, or what appears to be missing. If you think about the subject for a while, your subconscious might provide the details that are lacking or you might notice a "trick" that will point to the correct answer.

Above all, try to deal with each question by thinking through what you know about supporting and troubleshooting networks. Use the OSI reference model and your knowledge of middle- and lower-layer protocols that are where a majority of your questions will come from. By reviewing what you know (and what you have written down on your information sheet), you will often recall or understand enough to be able to deduce the answer to the question.