Now that I’ve passed, I want share what I did to prepare. Your mileage may vary, but at least now I know it worked for me. The ideas here aren’t necessarily security specific, but I’m going to use security examples.

The Blueprint

The core of my studying was the lab blueprint from Cisco. It’s not a joke when someone tells you that you need to know the blueprint to pass, and Cisco isn’t lying when they suggest it. They can ask anything from it, and in my experience some of those topics show up in some clever ways.

I studied the blueprint by working through each item on the list as best I could. For example, I.A.1 is ASA initial config, so I practiced interface config, setting the time and date, naming the device, etc. I.A.5 is IP Routing, so I configured RIP and OSPF, and I configured every option I could see in the CLI. I used encryption, I changed options, etc. I also tried routing between two ASAs and an ASA and IOS, so that I could review the IOS routing, too.

I worked through just about everything on the blueprint. Really.

“Real” Situations

After (and probably during) my time working through the blueprint, I focused on configuring complete scenarios and more complex items. I used a lot of the documentation and configuration examples on Cisco.com to do this, as well as books from Cisco Press. I would either follow the examples and tweak them to try the options, or try to do it myself and then compare my configuration to the text.

Figuring it out myself, or trying to configure something from memory, proved to be a great way to practice troubleshooting. Inevitably I forgot a command now and then, or messed something else up. When things didn’t behave as expected, I tried to figure it out myself before consulting Cisco.com or a book. This way I got more and more familiar with commands like debug and capture and more used to thinking about how to go about troubleshooting a given situation.

Keep reading for the last three tips.

Practice Makes Perfect

As I got closer to the test, I practiced doing the same core things over and over again. For example, I would start with a blank pair of ASAs and configure a multicontext setup with A/A or A/S failover as fast as I could (about 13 minutes, in case you’re curious). I did this for two reasons:

1. Confidence – If you can set something up crazy-fast then you really know the commands involved in the task. The test certainly isn’t going to look like your practice setup, but if you know the commands for a task, then you should be able to easily adapt to whatever they throw at you without freaking out.
2. Speed – Speed in this case is really a byproduct of confidence. If you stay calm and trust that you know how to handle a basic task, then you won’t need to look it up. This will save you tons of time, which you can use later to look up the things you really aren’t sure about.

Practice, practice, practice. You can’t predict everything that’s going to be on the test, but you can be certain you know the basics down cold.

Take it

Maybe this isn’t an option for everyone, but taking the test once, before I was completely ready, was a good thing. Back in January I took the test mostly to see what was on it. I studied hard, and took it seriously, but going in I didn’t think my chances were that great. I failed, but I learned a lot about the test. I got to experience the testing procedure, see how the questions were structured, and see how hard they were. When I went back for attempt number two (and three), I knew what to expect, so my studying was more focused and I was more calm on test day.

Know the Documentation

It should be your last resort on the exam, but when you need to look something up you better know where it is. I’ve written about this in other posts. If you’re studying and you want to look something up, don’t search and a be sure to go to the old documentation site. The old site is what you get access to on the test, and no, you can’t search. If you practice looking things up this way, you’ll get the hang of how things are organized, and you start to learn the locations of key facts. Now, if you get stuck on the test, you can get help fast, leaving yourself more time to do other things.

I hope you found this strategy session helpful. Keep studying, keep practicing and keep wanting it. You really have to want this one because it takes a lot of work. Beyond all that, my last piece of advice is to think positive. Believe you’re going to pass, and you will.