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xxiv Introduction

CD-based practice exam--The companion CD contains a large number of questions not included in the text of
the book. You can answer these questions by using the simulated exam feature, or by using the topical review
feature. This is the best tool for helping you prepare for the test-taking process.

Approach

Retention and recall are the two features of human memory most closely related to performance on tests. This exam
preparation guide focuses on increasing both retention and recall of the topics on the exam. The other human
characteristic involved in successfully passing the exam is intelligence; this book does not address that issue!

Adult retention is typically less than that of children. For example, it is common for four-year-olds to pick up basic
language skills in a new country faster than their parents. Children retain facts as an end unto itself; adults typically
either need a stronger reason to remember a fact or must have a reason to think about that fact several times to retain it in
memory. For these reasons, a student who attends a typical Cisco course and retains 50 percent of the material is actually
quite an amazing student.

Memory recall is based on connectors to the information that needs to be recalled--the greater the number of connectors
to a piece of information, the better chance and better speed of recall.

Recall and retention work together. If you do not retain the knowledge, it will be difficult to recall it. This book is
designed with features to help you increase retention and recall. It does this in the following ways:

By providing succinct and complete methods of helping you decide what you recall easily and what you do not
recall at all.

By giving references to the exact passages in the book that review those concepts you did not recall so that you can
quickly be reminded about a fact or concept. Repeating information that connects to another concept helps
retention, and describing the same concept in several ways throughout a chapter increases the number of connectors
to the same pices of information.

By including exercise questions that supply fewer connectors than multiple-choice questions. This helps you
exercise recall and avoids giving you a false sense of confidence, as an exercise with only multiple-choice questions
might do. For example, fill-in-the-blank questions require you to have better recall than multiple-choice questions.

Finally, accompanying this book is a CD-ROM that has exam-like, multiple-choice questions. These are useful for
you to practice taking the exam and to get accustomed to the time restrictions imposed during the exam.