Boson...or.....Boson

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Anyone have an opinion on the Boson exam which comes with the Cisco books (specifically CCENT), or should I spend the money to get the "real" Boson exam.

Boson makes it clear that the two exams are not the same. Cisco Press is using the Boson exam engine, but the content on the two exams are different.

Any experience with the two exams?

 

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I could give you my opinion... but it would be heavily biased, as I am the lead author of Boson's CCENT/CCNA ExSim Max product. ;)

Welcome to the forums, by the way!

 

Perhaps a "little" biased, but that's ok. You are very knowledgeable about the differences and I am very interested in what you have to tell us.

Yep, my first post here. I look forward to participating in the forum.

 

Michael and I have both created questions for a book (not the Cisco Press book, though) and questions for Boson's ExSim-Max products. I can assure you that the process for developing them for each format are very different. In the books, the questions are meant to test your knowledge on what's in the book, some of which may or may not be on the exam. Furthermore, the explanations are in the text of the book, so there's not much need to go into detail on a question by question basis. By contrast, for the ExSim-Max products, we focus specifically on the topics that are covered on the exam, and we go into detail in the explanations to help you determine why the correct answer is correct and why the wrong answers are wrong.

Whether you buy the Boson ExSim-Max product or not, I always recommend getting a book AND a practice exam when studying for an exam. The book is there to provide more background information than we can provide within a question. The practice tests are there to narrow your focus to the topics that are on the exam. Some people can get by with just the book, and some people can get by with just the practice exams. It's up to you to determine which approach best fits your current knowledge base.

Why not download a demo of Boson's CCENT product and see if it works for you?

 

Well, to be honest, I don't know a whole lot about the differences, as I haven't looked in great detail at the Cisco Press exams that are bundled with the books. But I do know how many trouble tickets we get from people who think the Cisco Press exams are Boson's... compared to how many trouble tickets we get for our own exams (EDIT: looks like it's about a 13:1 ratio).

I am not certain whether the Cisco Press exams include drag-and-drop, testlet/simlet, and simulation items. But I am certain that the Boson exams include all of these question types.

I'm not saying the Cisco Press exams are bad - not at all. I'm simply saying that I am quite sure that Boson's exams are better. Only you can determine whether they are worth the cost. Download a demo and see for yourself!

 

I used the exam engine/questions that came with the official study guide and thought that they were very good, if you get a question wrong it will tell you the answer and explain the reason, there are simlets, drag and drop, also multi choice.

Got me through mine.

Mac

 

I used ExSim Max when studying for the 640-802 exam and would definitely recommend it.

 

They do

I found the questions that came with the ICND1 quite diverse and thorough enough to pass the exams.
All answers are extensively documented and the shortcuts in the answers lead directly to the right chapter in the PDF version of the book for reference...

As a matter of fact, the exam was quite a breeze compared to the practice exams

Don't know about ICND2 though, as I haven't taken the actual exam yet...

 

So does the Boson software include the simlets, sim, drag and drop type questions as well?

 

Yes, the Boson ExSim-Max product for CCENT has the interactive (simlets, sim, drag and drop) items.

 

I had a go on the demo last night and was impressed so I bought the full package.

Clearly the questions won't be the same but is it fair to say that if I am getting 90%+ consistently on Boson ExSim Max for CCNA then I am ready for the exam?

My exam is on Tuesday so I am hoping so...

 

That's generally a pretty good indicator that you'll do well on the exam. It depends somewhat, however, on how you're studying. If you take the exams over and over again, it's likely that you'll start to memorize items, which will skew your exam score a little. What we typically suggest doing is to take Exam A to see how well you're prepared. Study those sections that you don't score well in, then take Exam B. After Exam B, study the sections that you still need to work on. Then, when you think you're ready to take the live exam, take Exam C. Each time, you should be scoring better. If not, make sure that you continue to study the areas in which you score lower than you want.

Hope that help. Good luck!

 

Thanks mate, because the software gives really detailed reasoning for why an answer is right and also why it is wrong, I am learning why I am getting things wrong and shouldn't get them wrong again. Thanks