Passed yesterday 937

mwill

Hello all,

I thought it would be fitting to discus with everyone what I say on my exam and the study materials I used. Hopefully this will mentally prepare the future test takers out there.

The exam is most definitely passable! I know I freaked out over the score needed to pass. Its insane! But do-able. Just apply yourself and you should do fine. Let me give you some background information, and as you shall see you can pass this.

I have no prior experience with Cisco routers, besides in high school, but I do have experience with networking and hands on with network experience. I studied for 5 weeks almost everyday, close to 4-8 hours a day. Busted my ass off. Studied free time at work and at home and on weekends. Of course it wasn’t everyday but about 5 days out of the week I devoted time to study. So if I can pass this exam with no prior experience with Cisco and no online training courses or “Cisco schooling” you can pass also. You just need to devote yourself.

My exam study materials:

Boson router simulator beta CNNP with the Network Designer program.
Real Cisco 2600 router I took from work to study. (Honestly I used it one day, and then brought it back and just used the simulator)

Very good book- Sybex CCNA 5th edition.

Lots of practice questions from many different sources, including the ones that were from the Sybex book.

To re-learn my subnetting and to STRONGLY enforce it I used this site. http://www.subnettingquestions.com/ I strongly recommend this site as it helped A LOT!

Ok, for the things I saw on MY exam:

Not many questions asking you to subnet (I think I got one) but MANY about 50% of my questions were indirect subnetting questions. As in you could not answer the questions without know how to subnet. They would give a problem and at the end would say, use the last usable host address on the first subnet and the last usable host address on the second subnet. So if you didn’t know how to subnet you were screwed!! That means you miss about half your exam questions because you failed to subnet properly! When people and myself put emphasis on subnetting, know that we CARE and it’s VERY important to learn this for the CCNA!


Also let me emphasize VLAN’s and Switching in general. Many general questions came from this category, so know VLANS inside and out and switching and how STP works!

Ok that’s about it, these were the main areas I was hit with on my exam. Again MY exam all exams varies but, at least you get a sneak peak into a real one.

NOTE: If you have no pirior experience with network I would strongly advice the Network+ exam first then CCNA. It will prepare you for the CCNA.

Also for the ones out there who are asking themselves if the CCNA is worth it? Oh you bet your ass it is! Here’s how I know. I updated my resume yesterday, to include my CCNA on there. Today I get, no lie, 6 calls and emails from IT recruiting companies who want to interview me for jobs that I never ever would had access to before my CCNA. 6! In one day! Just for putting my CCNA on my resume that’s all I did!

Hope this helps some people!

D-boy

Congrats!

Thanks for the review... I will start CCNA one day....

mikej412

Congratulations! Nice score!
cough! nda cough! cough!
Good summary!

Don't forget to use the URL on your score report to create your account on the Cisco Certification Tracking Site -- and look for the link to the Cisco Certification Community and create your account there.

Jiggsaww

nice score.......congrats man.....yep cisco is d way 2 go

xlg123

Good job, bro... Im a little jealous, as I'm older (30) and was putting CCNA off until I finished MCSA. Nice review and good motivation!!!!

mwill

Hi all,

Some information I forgot to add!

Watch your time! I had 5 mins left on my exam when I was on number 56 (last question). So it can sneak up on ya

My major problem was my sim. Took me 12 mins to figure it out. I had it completed in 8 minutes. But, it wouldn’t work, after looking over, and, over for 4 mins. I found my typo (oops) and then all the routing worked! So 12 mins doesn’t seem like a long time, but in this exam you cant afford to waste this many mins on one question! The normal questions I only spent a minute an a half tops on each question, and I still almost ran out of time! So that should put this TIME issue into more perspective. Its important.


Also RIP I did have several questions regarding RIP. Wasn’t too bad though, RIP is an easy routing protocol to learn.

Overall all guys, know almost EVERYTHING from the objectives if you take the one test route. I wouldn’t stress soo much of your time on one subject I would rather take that energy and apply it to all areas of the testable objectives.

Well thats my 2 cents!

Bye guys and gals, and good luck!

CertsPlz

mwill thanx for the great info and motivation i got mine on friday hopefully i will pass, i definately feel like im ready i jus hope nothing throws me off

Webmaster

mikej412 wrote:

cough! nda cough! cough!

Indeed, cough! nda cough! cough!

It's great to want to help out others pass their exams too mwill, but the info you gave is a bit too much. Too much considering Cisco's NDA, and our Registration Terms. I edited your post and removed the disclosed details of the exam content. Technically, you can't disclose any of the info you've seen on the exam, but we, as well as Cisco forums, and other clean cert sites, do allow things like "Also let me emphasize VLAN’s ... ....inside and out and switching and how STP works!", but don't disclose how many questions you had on a certain topic, what the sims where about, or other details about individual questions.

Regardless, great review and congratulations!

jescab

CONGRATZ dude - Great Score

mwill

Sorry! wont happen again!

Webmaster

Don't worry about it, and like I said, still a great review that will be of benifit to others.

leigh

Congratulations!
Awesome score. Thank u for sharing.

mwill wrote:

Also for the ones out there who are asking themselves if the CCNA is worth it? Oh you bet your ass it is! Here’s how I know. I updated my resume yesterday, to include my CCNA on there. Today I get, no lie, 6 calls and emails from IT recruiting companies who want to interview me for jobs that I never ever would had access to before my CCNA. 6! In one day! Just for putting my CCNA on my resume that’s all I did.

You got Network+ earlier, so compare with CCNA, how about recruiting after you got Network+?

mwill

leigh wrote:

Congratulations!
Awesome score. Thank u for sharing.

You got Network+ earlier, so compare with CCNA, how about recruiting after you got Network+?

I didn’t get much attention regarding my Network+. In my personal opinion it’s not great by its self. But its better than not having it either, gives you an edge over the competition. The Network+ works better with other certifications. Like Net+, CCNA, or Net+, A+, Network+ and A+ makes you more diverse in your skills and I think and was told by a recruiter is more presentable than specific areas alone. So the Net+ and A+ means you know networking and hardware and software. Other words you’re more diverse than CCNA and Net+ alone. Which is strong on the networking side.

So again to answer your question. No I didn’t get many more hits on my resume for putting on my Network+. But I am so glad I have it! It reinforces my CCNA skill! Networking plus Cisco Networking is more specific in networking. I want to get into a specific networking field. But keep in mind I’m still very diverse. Dell cert, MCP, Network+ , and Cisco.

That’s my opinion.

ubergeek

Congrats! if you are planning to get really serious on the networking field might as well plan for your CCNP and possibly certs from other network equipment providers such as Juniper etc... this way you won't just be fixed on one technology provider.

leigh

mwill wrote:

So the Net+ and A+ means you know networking and hardware and software. Other words you’re more diverse than CCNA and Net+ alone.

Thx.
I absolutely agree Network+ works better together with A+.

shazzam

Congrats. I will write my exam next week.

Ten9t6

congrats on the new cert.

Kenny

txtech

I also took my CCNA certification to get recertified and it also harder than it was 3 years ago when I took it. THis time around they asked me alot of more switching questions and one of the simulations I had was of a switch which I had to answer 5 questions. Also a really easy ospf simulation. Now I am off to get the CCNP!

ferrari

Hi Markus!
Congrats for your certification, you'r the man! Tell me please how many questions all together on the exam and how many stuff regarding router configuration and setting it up with a route 1 or 2 and so on????

Regards
Toni