Resources and Study Tips

 

CWNP certification exams are challenging, and will measure your ability to perform specific real-world job functions. Having collected years of feedback from exam reviewers and certification candidates, we've organized a list of resources, study tips, and test-taking techniques that should improve your chances of passing any CWNP exam.

 

How CWNP Creates a Certification

 

When CWNP builds a certification, we start by creating a job task analysis, which is a summary statement of the job tasks performed by our target audience for a given certification. The job task analysis identifies the real-world duties of individuals in the WLAN industry. After we've created a job task analysis and identified the real-world functions, we determine the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in the specified role. This list of knowledge and skills becomes our exam objectives, an item-by-item list of demonstrable competencies.
The exam objectives are the hub around which all other CWNP products - this includes study guides, course guides, practice tests, and exams - are built. This workflow allows industry experts to create training content in parallel with CWNP. This is the best method of meeting the needs of our target audience.

 

Study Tips

 

1. Always, always start your preparation efforts by downloading and reviewing the exam objectives. All CWNP materials (study guides, course guides, practice tests, and exams) are built around the objectives. Review the objectives line-by-line until you are competent with each item.
2. Never rely on the study guide to provide all exam answers. While study guides are excellent resources and cover most of the material, they do not typically provide all of the answers to the exam. Industry experts partner with book publishers to author the study guides; CWNP does not write them.
3. Take advantage of the practice tests as a learning tool. Use these sample exams as points of comparison as you study and measure your skills. Read the answer explanations and review your selections. When a specific topic remains unclear, search for ancillary study material to help you along. Note: Taking and retaking the practice tests until you memorize the answers and achieve high scores is not the intended or recommended use of the practice exams.
4. Use CWNP and vendor-specific learning resources. Many exam topics are discussed on the CWNP forum, blogs, and via whitepapers. Frequent the forums and participate in conversations. Use the search feature for information on topics that are unclear. Read whitepapers as often as you are able. Search CWNP whitepapers for vendor-neutral technical information. Visit popular vendor sites for technical whitepapers that will help you understand the concepts, but beware of vendor-specific biases - affectionately referred to in the CWNP community as “kool-aid"
5. Google is your friend.

 

Test-Taking Techniques

 

Each certification candidate approaches test-taking with a different set of skills. Some have anxiety while others are calm and collected. Use the following techniques and tips to make the testing process more effective.

1. Mind the basics. Get some sleep, show up early, and review your notes, the exam objectives, and other preparatory material before you go into the testing center.
2. WLAN technology is often very complex and real-world scenarios often have many operational variables. In an effort to reflect the real-world environment, CWNP exam questions are often multi-faceted. To avoid unnecessary mistakes, read the question and all answers twice before selecting an answer. This cannot be overstated. Read the questions and answers carefully, word-by-word. Subtle distinctions are often important. If English is not your native language, time extensions may be arranged prior to the exam date.
3. Some exam questions have multiple correct answers. Use the process of elimination to rule out known incorrect answers - or rule in correct answers - and reason your way through the rest.

 

Resources

 

CWSP

1. The Official CWSP Study Guide
2. 802.11i Authentication and Key Management (AKM) whitepaper, authored by Devin Akin
3. Robust Security Network (RSN) Fast BSS Transition (FT) whitepaper, authored by Devin Akin
4. WIPS design, deployment, and configuration guides from WIPS vendors
5. RFC 3748 (Extensible Authentication Protocol)

CWNE

1. The IEEE 802.11-2007 Specification
2. 802.11 Handbook, Second Edition
3. The CWAP Study Guide
4. Vendor design guides:
   1. The Cisco VoWLAN Design Guide is very well written and focuses on vendor-neutral technology as well as vendor-specific network design.
   2. Design guides for other vendors are typically more vendor-specific in nature, though they will all be helpful.
5. Wi-Fi Alliance Specifications and Whitepapers:
   1. WMM^® (including WMM^® Power Save) Specification
   2. WMM^® Power Save for Mobile and Portable Wi-Fi^® CERTIFIED Devices
   3. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED^® for WMM^® - Support for Multimedia Applications with Quality of Service in Wi-Fi® Networks
6. Extensive hands-on experience with enterprise-class protocol analysis tools
7. Other WLAN books:
   1. 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, Matthew Gast
   2. 802.11 WLAN Hands-on Analysis: Unleashing the Network Monitor for Troubleshooting and Optimization, Byron Putnam