V5 Written Study Materials?

razar

So far most of the topics I see are about the lab but what materials are people using to study for the written exam? Has anybody on here taken the v5 written exam yet?

I've seen that the OCG guide is out now but wondering if there are any good alternatives that people have experience with?

lrb

Depending on your experience with any of the technologies, I would recommend the following:

TCP/IP Illustrated OR Internetworking with TCP/IP
Routing TCP/IP Volume 1, read the whole book and don't skimp on the IS-IS chapter
Routing TCP/IP Volume 2, read the whole book
MPLS Fundamentals, read the whole book but skip the TE chapters and the ATM chapters
QoS Official Cert Guide
CEF, read the first few chapters if you are particularly interested in how it works
Interdomain Multicast Routing OR Developing IP Multicast Networks, I personally wouldn't read both and I preferred the first one
Plenty of RFCs
DocCD for everything else

Imo the best approach is to take the written about a month or so out from when you intend to take the lab otherwise you will just be worried about hitting the lab within the 18 months which may lead to you taking the lab before you are actually ready. 18 months sounds like a long time but life commitments can very often get in the way.

And above all, don't stress too much about the written. For most people who are properly studied for their CCNPs and have a few years of solid Cisco experience, this exam is very trivial and is just a ticket to the lab. If you look at my thread I started a few months ago I read only Routing TCP/IP Vol1/2 and the doccd and I passed okay. It's more of the edge topics like VSS, EIGRP OTP, PfR, 802.1x which in retrospect I should have studied for more.

EDIT. I skimmed the OCG for the v5 written, it won't cover the topics in any where the amount of detail you will need to know for the exam.

galaxyexpress

lrb wrote: »

Depending on your experience with any of the technologies, I would recommend the following:

TCP/IP Illustrated OR Internetworking with TCP/IP
Routing TCP/IP Volume 1, read the whole book and don't skimp on the IS-IS chapter
Routing TCP/IP Volume 2, read the whole book
MPLS Fundamentals, read the whole book but skip the TE chapters and the ATM chapters
QoS Official Cert Guide
CEF, read the first few chapters if you are particularly interested in how it works
Interdomain Multicast Routing OR Developing IP Multicast Networks, I personally wouldn't read both and I preferred the first one
Plenty of RFCs
DocCD for everything else

Imo the best approach is to take the written about a month or so out from when you intend to take the lab otherwise you will just be worried about hitting the lab within the 18 months which may lead to you taking the lab before you are actually ready. 18 months sounds like a long time but life commitments can very often get in the way.

And above all, don't stress too much about the written. For most people who are properly studied for their CCNPs and have a few years of solid Cisco experience, this exam is very trivial and is just a ticket to the lab. If you look at my thread I started a few months ago I read only Routing TCP/IP Vol1/2 and the doccd and I passed okay. It's more of the edge topics like VSS, EIGRP OTP, PfR, 802.1x which in retrospect I should have studied for more.

EDIT. I skimmed the OCG for the v5 written, it won't cover the topics in any where the amount of detail you will need to know for the exam.

what about this book "CCIE Routing and Switching v5.0 Official Cert Guide, Volume 1 (5th Edition) by Narbik Kocharians and Peter Paluch" ? They got like 3 stars rating in amazon, is it worth it?

gorebrush

Learn to love the DocCD - it will be your best friend.

razar

Thanks guys, some good advice here. And I already have some of the books mentioned above which I have started reading.

Sorry if I'm being really dumb here, but by DocCD do you mean Cisco Documentation?

lrb

No probs man - Get to know this link: Cisco IOS Software Release 15.3(3)M - Cisco

FloOz

I've been also contemplating buying the new OCG guide by Narbik. However the reviews have been less then spectacular. Which is really unfortunate because I really love Narbiks workbooks. Anyone have the OCG book and can comment?

ande0255

Do you really think TCP/IP Illustrated Vol I is worth the time to read through? It is a very thick book, and breaks the protocol down into code, I skimmed through the pages and immediately put it in a donation bin for a local consignment store.

I meant to get Routing TCP/IP Vol I, the Illustrated book seemed way too heavy on the coding of the protocol (if I'm wording that right), rather than how it is used in conjunction with routing protocols.

lrb

They are very different books. TCP/IP Illustrated talks about the TCP/IP stack in detail, including TCP, UDP, IP, IPv6, ICMP, ICMPv6, DHCP, etc. If you were to get the question in the exam "What IOS command can be used to prevent TCP silly window syndrome" are you comfortable with you knowledge of TCP that you could figure out what this is or where to look on the DocCD? I'm not saying this to try and undermine your knowledge of TCP/IP but the CCIE tests your ability to configure both the ninja stuff and the basics, so there is no point in skipping the basics.

Routing TCP/IP Vol1/2 are CCIE essentials in my opinion, as they discuss they discuss EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, and BGP in a lot of detail which is what your knowledge will expected to be at when you are ready to take the lab.