It starts...

Scorp6

Well my CCNP journey has officially begun. Starting with the FLG on the Route exam and praying the information on the new test in January won't be much different. Chris Bryant's videos brightened my outlook on that a good bit. So far into chapter two with the EIGRP stuff. I will be labbing the examples in gns3 as I go. Wish me luck and I can't wait to continue learning from everyone here!

JustFred

Good luck and have fun

her.yang

Good luck! I'm working on the CCNP SWITCH right now. I'll be taking the exam on the 19th of August, 2014. Just a heads up, the CCNP SWITCH exam is all over the place. Neither the FLG or the lab manual will be enough to prepare you for it. You'll definitely have to consult outside resources.

Danielh22185

Good luck! It's a long/difficult journey but well worth every bit of it. I attribute much of my network knowlege to my CCNP studies.

OfWolfAndMan

Good luck dude!

Scorp6

Thanks everyone! The detail in the FLG is tremendous. I believe I am finding myself spending too much time hanging on every word of the FLG and taking too many notes. Should I take less time note taking and just read a chapter and begin labs? Any tips are appreciated.

Danielh22185

Honestly everyone is different, there is no said "best way" to study. Much of the challenge of taking on a difficult cert like this is really discovering how you learn best.

On a high level: I personally like to read the book cover to cover and highlight on sections I feel is important along with pairing my reading with video content to drive the concepts home. Then I go back and make my notes over those sections. Lastly I will lab the concepts to death once I have a firm understanding.

Shdwmage

Every time I see the title of this thread all I can think of is

from the Lion King SNES game.

Scorp6

Danielh22185 wrote: »

Honestly everyone is different, there is no said "best way" to study. Much of the challenge of taking on a difficult cert like this is really discovering how you learn best.

On a high level: I personally like to read the book cover to cover and highlight on sections I feel is important along with pairing my reading with video content to drive the concepts home. Then I go back and make my notes over those sections. Lastly I will lab the concepts to death once I have a firm understanding.

Great advice! I decided to get the official certification guide to go along with the FLG. I got through the EIGRP chapter in the FLG and just reading so I understood and highlighting went much quicker and my understanding increased greatly. I will be doing a chapter at a time followed by numerous gns3 labs on that chapter's subject.

Once I'm comfortable with eigrp I'm going to go to the ocg and see if I think the content in there is sufficient for me to study. Right now I'm just super anxious to get labs started!

Danielh22185

Scorp6 wrote: »

Great advice! I decided to get the official certification guide to go along with the FLG. I got through the EIGRP chapter in the FLG and just reading so I understood and highlighting went much quicker and my understanding increased greatly. I will be doing a chapter at a time followed by numerous gns3 labs on that chapter's subject.

Once I'm comfortable with eigrp I'm going to go to the ocg and see if I think the content in there is sufficient for me to study. Right now I'm just super anxious to get labs started!

Labbing as you go through each chapter isn't a bad idea. This is basically what I did for Route. I felt I didn't really have a firm grasp on several topics until I labbed it. The only thing I found challenging about taking extra time to lab inbetween chapters was the time frame to cover all subjects left me a bit foggey on the subjects I originally labbed on early on in the eariler chapters. Repetition is basically going to be what allows you to learn the material and make it stick.

Scorp6

That makes sense. Maybe I will just do one or two labs between then go back after I've finished the book and do some again.