Yes. Boson ExSim is harder than the real Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) exam, and Boson built it that way on purpose. If you’re scoring in the 60s on your first ExSim attempts, you are not failing. You’re in the exact spot most people who eventually pass the CCNA started from, including me.
I want to walk through what those Boson scores actually mean, what number you should be hitting before you schedule the real thing, and why a brutal practice exam is more useful than a flattering one.
Is Boson ExSim Harder Than the Real CCNA Exam?
Boson ExSim is harder than the real CCNA for most people, and that matches my experience taking both. The questions dig into edge cases, the wrong answers are written to look right, and there’s no partial credit for almost knowing something. The real exam mixes in more direct recall questions, the kind where you either know what a default administrative distance is or you don’t.
Boson is open about the philosophy. ExSim-Max for Cisco 200-301 CCNA as of 2026 includes five full-length practice exams with around 370 questions, and each one is written to match or exceed the difficulty of the live exam. They back that with a pass guarantee, which tells you how confident they are that anyone who can survive their exams can survive Cisco’s.
Here’s the part nobody tells you when you’re staring at a 58: a practice exam that’s easier than the real thing is worse than useless. It costs you money and hands you false confidence on the way out the door. I’d rather get punched by Boson in my living room than by Cisco at a Pearson VUE center.
Is a 60 on a Boson Exam a Bad Sign?
A 60 on your first Boson exam is normal, not a bad sign. Most candidates score somewhere between 55 and 70 on their first untimed run, even after finishing a full video course. My first ExSim score was a 61, and I’d just spent four months studying. I sat there refreshing the score screen like it might change its mind.
What matters is not the first number. It’s the slope. If you scored 61 on Exam A this week, you should be scoring higher on Exam B two weeks from now after reviewing every explanation from Exam A. The explanations are the actual product. Each wrong answer comes with a breakdown of why your choice was wrong and why the right one was right, and working through those is worth more than the score itself.
The trap to avoid is retaking the same exam over and over. Your score will climb, but you’re measuring your memory of those specific questions, not your readiness. Take each of the five exams fresh, in order, with real review time between them.
A low score also tells you exactly where to aim. ExSim breaks results down by exam domain, so a 60 overall might really be an 80 in routing and a 35 in security fundamentals. Annoying to see in print, sure, but it’s also a study plan someone just handed you for free.
What Score Should You Get on Boson Before Taking the CCNA?
Aim for 85 percent or higher, in simulation mode, on Boson exams you haven’t seen before. Simulation mode means timed, no peeking at explanations, no pausing to look things up. If you can do that on a fresh exam, you’re ready to schedule.
Some people will tell you 80 is enough. Maybe. But the real exam adds variables Boson can’t simulate: nerves, a testing center chair designed by someone who hates you, and the fact that you can’t go back to previous questions on the CCNA. That last one changes how the exam feels in a way no practice tool fully captures. The extra five points of margin exist to absorb all of it.
The real exam runs 120 minutes per Cisco’s current 200-301 format, usually with around 100 questions in 2026, so Boson’s timing practice transfers directly. If you’re finishing ExSim exams with 20 minutes to spare at 85 percent, you’re in good shape.
Why Does Boson Feel So Much Harder?
Three reasons, and only one of them is about the questions.
The questions themselves are denser. A real CCNA question might ask which command enables OSPF on an interface. The Boson version asks the same thing, but two of the wrong answers are commands that exist, look plausible, and do something almost related. You have to actually know the syntax, not just recognize its general shape.
Second, you grade yourself harder at home. On a practice exam, every miss feels like proof you’re not ready. On the real exam, you miss a question and move on because you have no choice. Same performance, different emotional math.
And third, by the time most people open Boson, they’ve been studying from material that quizzes them right after teaching them. Of course you got the VLAN questions right in the VLAN chapter. Boson shuffles all 50-some exam topics together and asks them cold, which is what Cisco does too. The difficulty was always there. Boson is just the first tool honest enough to show it to you. I cover this gap in more detail in my full Boson ExSim review, including the score progression that finally got me through.
Can You Pass the CCNA If You’re Still Failing Boson Exams?
You can, but I wouldn’t schedule the exam to find out. If your Boson scores are in the 70s and climbing, some people do pass the real thing, because the live exam tends to be a bit more forgiving. It’s a coin flip I don’t recommend paying Cisco’s exam fee to call.
If your scores are flat in the 60s across multiple fresh exams, the message is clear: you have knowledge gaps, not test anxiety. Push your date. Two to four more weeks of targeted study on your weakest domains is cheaper than a retake, in money and in morale. I’ve written about what happens if you fail the CCNA, and while it’s survivable, it’s a detour you can usually see coming in your practice scores a week ahead of time.
One more thing, because someone reading this needs to hear it. A 60 on Boson six weeks out from your exam date is right on schedule. A 60 on Boson three days out is your cue to reschedule, and rescheduling is not failing. It’s reading the data and acting on it, which is roughly half of what network engineers get paid to do anyway.
The Short Version
Boson is harder than the real CCNA by design. Low scores early are normal and useful, the explanations matter more than the numbers, and 85 percent on fresh exams in simulation mode is your green light. If you want the full breakdown of how the five exams compare and how I’d sequence them, the practice exam rankings cover where ExSim sits against everything else I’ve used.
Senior Network Engineer | CCNP Enterprise | CCIE Candidate
Trave Hurd is a senior network engineer with over a decade of experience designing and managing enterprise Cisco environments. Holding multiple Cisco and industry certifications, he writes about the full arc of a networking career, from passing your first exam to building the skills that get you to the top of the field.
