Looking For Some Input From Fellow Members of The Board About CCENT & CCNA

Morning everyone and happy Wednesday. After going back and forth for some months now I've finally decided on networking. I work for a great company which has allowed me to obtain a few routers and switches, which I have setup in the lab, to lab with courtesy of one of the networking guys. I've been playing w/ the router for a couple days and learning some commands. The guy also gave me a CCENT and CCNA books to read to help w/ the exam. My question to everyone here is should I do both or simply study for the CCNA exam which I hope to have completed by this time next year, or maybe even soon?

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Comments

--chris--

The consensus is the composite (CCNA) exam is for those who need to re-certify or have some experience with Cisco under their belt.

The two part method (ICND1 & ICND2) are for people who are new to the subject and dont have much hands on/field experience.

NYC_TECH

I went the 2 exams route for same reason mentioned above (no hands on exp.). Worked out well, no regrets, was less intimidating. Cost wise I believe it is around the same.

coreyb80

Thank you and looks like I will go the 2 exam route as I have little to no experience at this point.

Jon_Cisco

There are a few things to consider.

The cost of getting to the test center.
The cost of taking the test.
The amount of stress involved in taking a test.

I think most people would be better off with the two exam route unless the cost of travel is to high.

thatguy67

If you're doing self-study I would take the 2-exam route. I was going to break it up but decided to do the composite. I got a discount voucher from NetAcad. So I ended up paying around $125 for the composite exam. The email said that I only got ONE voucher and I didn't really want to risk buying a single voucher for ICND1 and then finding out that I have to pay full price for ICND2. The fine print said I could get a discount for both ICND's but I would rather get the request process done once and once only.

I took CCNA 1-4 (two semester-length courses concurrently) this spring at a community college so I've got the material down. I did an internship on Fridays and basically worked on Cisco routers about 10 hours a week outside of class. The labs for both classes bumped the total amount of weekly hands-on hours to around 15-16.

Overall, I expect to have my CCNA by July. So 0 to CCNA in 7 months, and I might be taking it somewhat slow for what it's worth.

If you are able to put in time like that and have access to a professional who can aide you occasionally, you should be prepared to sit for the exam within a year.

JeanM

coreyb80 wrote: »

Thank you and looks like I will go the 2 exam route as I have little to no experience at this point.

I noticed your signature says "2013 IT Goals: CCENT"

Is your clock wrong?

coreyb80

JeanM wrote: »

I noticed your signature says "2013 IT Goals: CCENT" Is your clock wrong?

LOL na it's not I just haven't touched my signature since last yer.