Road to becoming CCNA Certified, need some pointers

4 days ago I passed my Network+, next obstacle in my path is the CCNA R&S which I hear is a big boy. I have Paul Browning's CCNA in 60 days book but I'm a little skeptical because in the book the author asks you to write an honest good review about his book and he'll send you some CCNA exams.

In the book the Author mentions all you would need to pass the book is minimum 2 hours studying a day, following his curriculum to the t, and packet tracer/gns and/or real live routers/switches to toy around on.

Looking for some additional input from those of you who passed the CCNA and what you employed in your studying.

Any recommended books, etc?

Let me know.

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Comments

koz24

I used the OCG by Odom as my main source as well the as the Simulator Cisco CCNA Routing and Switching 200-120 Official Cert Guide and Simulator Library: 9781587204661: Computer Science Books @ Amazon.com

I also used Lammle's book for review and used his way of subnetting for the exam. Also learned the binary way of doing it but for the sake of the exam you just want speed.

techfiend

I'd do Odom first to cram the information, then Lammle to reinforce it is a good path. I found Lammle alone to be enough for the ICND1 but not enough for ICND2. Browning's book doesn't cover nearly enough to pass the ICND2, it's more of a quick review.

thewiz8807

Thanks for the solid input ladies and gents, very appreciated. I just finished ordering Lammle's, will get around to picking up Odom's in the near future.

Current plan is to follow along Cisco's CCNA objectives with Lammle's book and a video playlist I've come across on youtube as well as the CBTNuggets toss in bonus from Lammle's book. After that I'll go to Browning's book and do the labs, etc referring to what I covered in Lammle's, then go onto the practice software bonuses offered with Lammle's and do those.

If I can keep that up with every chapter I think I should be good enough to pass the first half of the CCNA.

If I can get my hands on PacketTracer and/or GNS I'll definitely utilize those to get that close to hands on experience.

E Double U

What type of work do you do? I'm curious of your exposure to Cisco equipment. I was working in a NOC touching Cisco routers everyday for 4+ years when I passed the CCNA.

thewiz8807

E Double U wrote: »

What type of work do you do? I'm curious of your exposure to Cisco equipment. I was working in a NOC touching Cisco routers everyday for 4+ years when I passed the CCNA.

I work in a lab. Prior experience with Cisco equipment = zilch.