It's only an exam, yes, BUT... it's hours of study, it's time taken away from everything else and it's "only" $200. I don't know about you but the reason I am taking the exam is to get a better job (and more challenging) and money is tight. So I try to relax and tell myself I know this but yes in perspective it is only a exam...

I can understand were all of you are coming from and erratictoad actually makes some good sense to me :) I think where a lot of us run into the main pressure the time and effort we've put into it and how many people around us that we don't want to let down. Wife, other family, friends... these are people that have missed you and some of them actually expect you to pass and as a nice guy that you are, you don't want to disappoint.

I have 2 Cisco Certs, two passes one fail.

Like Robert above, I have to settle those nerves before I hit the exam centre.

These Certs are hard to get, sometimes you have a bad day, the sun still comes up tomorrow.

If you dont sit, you dont pass, you dont get the cert. If you sit and fail, you have a better chance to pass next time.

Peter

Hi erratictoades
Yes it is only an exam.

Yes I have taken 6 Cisco exams, Failed 1 and Passed 5 and other exams sitting in a big hall and yes when I go into the exam I still get butterflies in my belly and the dry mouth.

However no matter how well or badly I do I always remember that out in that big bad world there is always someone worse off than myself.

I am fit enough, have the cash to pay for the exam, a warm dry place to study for the exam etc, there are others less fortunate than me (and you) who can't do these things.

Its not the end of the world if you fail, just remember that when you go into the exam, it's just an exam.

Robert

P.S
I'm not one of those bleeding hearts, just a realist

You can die from a big fall and a spider bite so you are using poor examples to prove your point. I want to encourage people to relax a bit more towards the exam and not build it into some sort of monster.

Paul

Yes it's only an exam but thenthat is akin to me saying to someone afraid of heights "but it's only a 200m drop".

Or to someone scared of spiders "you should have seen the ones I came across as a child in Africa - this is tiny".

If we (whomever the we is) have a mortal, irrational fear of something then no amount of us (see above) saying "it's just a ...." will make it better.

FWIW I'm not scared of doing exams I just know that whenever I go into a "public exam" that I inevitably perform badly. Now you may say that's my own subconscious projecting and you may well be right but although I was an A* student at school when it came to the exams I typically did poorly and always have.

Consequently when I first took the CCNA in April 2000 (26th to be precise as it is etched into my mind indelibly) I was a complete and utter bag of nerves as I hadn't sat a public exam (as opposed to pop tests and in class tests) in 20yrs.

Afterwards, having hit the pass mark on the button I walked across the road to the Starbucks (nicely placed I thought) I was such a nervous wreck that I couldn't get my order out - eventually I did and the server took pity on me when I said why and gave me the coffee for free.

Oh and since then I've passed many other exams but my point is this:

Yes it may be just an exam TO YOU but equally, no it isn't just that either TO ME (and I suspect 100's of others).