Road to ccent

Hello,

I started studying for my CCENT about 5 weeks ago. At the beginning, i didnt know ip, subnet, functions of a router, didnt know what a ping was. Basically i am a network idiot.

I joined up here and cisco learning thing (the free one) a few weeks ago. I read the ICND cisco press book cover to cover 3 times , watched a little video. I used GNS3 and packet tracer for lab. Surfed here and cisco to learn from others when i got tired from reading the book.

I read a lot of stories about how tough these test are, the failed and the almost got it experience. This got me very worried.

Today I passed my CCENT, I write this not for congratulations but to encourage others that it's not so tough. It was super tough for me because I knew nothing, I was like a blank sheet of paper when it comes too networking. I think luck had a part to do with it for me in passing.

For those that are studying, keep up the good work. For the mentors here, thank you for taking the time to answering questions.

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Comments

Nans

Congrats on your pass buddy...

Jamesweb

That is really awesome! Congrats on your pass!! You started studying for it about the time I did but I am dragging behind pretty slow at it. Only 6 chapters into Lammle's book and 5 chapters into the cisco press book and I have all day to study right now. Not sure what I may be doing wrong but I seem to want to totally understand each and every topic in each chapter before moving on to the next the first time reading the book. Maybe not the best thing. Good luck to you in your next exam!!

koz24

Congrats!

Verities

Congratulations! 5 weeks from start to CCENT without any networking experience is really good and you should be very proud of yourself.

Are you going to finish ICND2 and obtain the CCNA? If so, what does your time table for that look like?

Justin-

Congrats on the pass, and thanks for the encouragement. Wish you the best with your future endeavors my friend!

techfiend

One tip, the ICND2 may look like a lot less material but it's more complicated. As a fellow fast tracker I went from 0 to CCENT in a little over 3 weeks. After finding ICND1 easier than boson I decided to take ICND2 when I was acing the boson, a little over 2 weeks, just to fail. Spend as much time, if not more, time studying ICND2 from multiple sources and prepare to be crunched for time.

Justin-

techfiend wrote: »

One tip, the ICND2 may look like a lot less material but it's more complicated. As a fellow fast tracker I went from 0 to CCENT in a little over 3 weeks. After finding ICND1 easier than boson I decided to take ICND2 when I was acing the boson, a little over 2 weeks, just to fail. Spend as much time, if not more, time studying ICND2 from multiple sources and prepare to be crunched for time.

What material did you use to study for ICND1? Thanks bro. I'm planning on using Lammle's book + CBT nuggets videos.

techfiend

Odom then Lammle. It's what I should have done with ICND2 but thought Lammle's ~12 hour read would suffice.

Justin-

techfiend wrote: »

Odom then Lammle. It's what I should have done with ICND2 but thought Lammle's ~12 hour read would suffice.

What did you use to lab for icnd1? Thanks again

erikiiy

Thanks guys for the encouragement and tips on icnd2

I didnt use any lab for ccent. I just do the ones in Odom book. Like I try to understand the objective of that particular lab example and then I play around in packet trace and try to do it without looking at the book. I feel that you can really retain info when you figured out how to do it without following book steps.

I plan to study for icnd2 as if I am studying for icnd 1 & 2. So I will re-read the first book again. I have heard the icnd2 is much tougher and I believe it since there is more troubleshooting. I think you have to really understand to troubleshoot.

As far as time frame, I anticipated 2 months for icnd1 and 3 months for icnd2. I think if if study hard, I think I can give it a shot in two months, though giving it a shot and passing us two different thing.

I am going with the Odom book again. I haven't read another book, so I can't comment on others book. I chose Odom because it seems to be good and I get a couple of free test. The lab program with the Odom is a joke though.

routingsparks

erikiiy wrote: »

Thanks guys for the encouragement and tips on icnd2

I didnt use any lab for ccent. I just do the ones in Odom book. Like I try to understand the objective of that particular lab example and then I play around in packet trace and try to do it without looking at the book. I feel that you can really retain info when you figured out how to do it without following book steps.

I plan to study for icnd2 as if I am studying for icnd 1 & 2. So I will re-read the first book again. I have heard the icnd2 is much tougher and I believe it since there is more troubleshooting. I think you have to really understand to troubleshoot.

As far as time frame, I anticipated 2 months for icnd1 and 3 months for icnd2. I think if if study hard, I think I can give it a shot in two months, though giving it a shot and passing us two different thing.

I am going with the Odom book again. I haven't read another book, so I can't comment on others book. I chose Odom because it seems to be good and I get a couple of free test. The lab program with the Odom is a joke though.

I think that's most of my issue. I keep thinking I'm not ready and keep putting it off. I think it's about time to schedule CCENT and at least get that one over with.

techfiend

I used Lammle's lab mainly, although I did a bit on my home lab and a bit from Pearson's netsim. For the test, labbing isn't that important but pretty important in practice.

ImYourOnlyDJ

5 weeks and you didn't know the basics starting out? Someone has a bright future ahead