Reviewing a #CCDE book is definitely taking me back to the days of preparing for and taking the practical. Here are some of the things that can help you perform your best. A 🧵
Connect with the scenario. This may seem obvious but you can't approach this without putting you in the shoes of the network designer. In most exams, you answer a question in isolation. Here, you go along a story and have to live with your decision, and the business as well.
A scenario will have background information. Is it relevant how much revenue the business has? How many stores they have? Or is it there just to make you find more relevant information such as current problem areas or iniatives? Learn to filter this info.
Be conservative in what you highlight. Highlighting is for key information. Don't get carried away with using different colors, unless you feel that it helps you. Most often you should highlight business considerations rather than then number of a ports in a switch.
This is one of the most mentally challenging exams you can take. You will not be comfortable. You will most likely feel like you are failing. This is normal. You may have answered something correctly but the story takes you somewhere else. This is by design.
Do not answer questions in isolation. Always connect with the scenario and back to key details like architectural guidelines, business requirements and constraints. The question may seem simple but might be checking if you are adhering to what was communicated previously.
Do not answer based on "best practices" or based on what protocols you prefer over others. You have bias but you must set this aside in the exam. Maybe ISIS is cooler than OSPF but you have to pick what is best for the business.
This means that sometimes the correct answer is something that seems like obsolete tech or a suboptimal solution, which may very well be true, but it is the best design based on business requirements and constraints. You must always consider this.
This is an exam where you may feel overloaded with information. You have to be comfortable reading a lot of text, skimming through it to find important details. You get blasted with e-mails and documents. Build mental stamina by reading and working through scenarios.
As in any exam when searching for the correct answer you will try to find what answers are incorrect or suboptimal. You can throw away what will not work but what may seem suboptimal may be the right answer. Keep in mind what you learned earlier and highlighted.
It takes a lot of practice, even for very skilled people to prepare for this exam. Having deep technical knowledge is not enough, you need to build that design mindset. It's challenging and takes different amount of time for different people. The process is super beneficial.
Good luck in your studies! Let me know if you have questions and I will do my best to respond.
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