Cisco Netacad- advice needed

The college I was studying Netacad at has just stopped offering it with no communication whatsoever until I rocked up last night to start Semester 2 (after summer break) and be told the instructor retired and the college is no longer offering any Cisco courses. Frustrated is an understatement as I've done semester 1 but there are 3 more to go and I need motivation or I will end up being lazy and letting it slip and I do not want that to happen.

What would you guys advise to someone in my position, to get a home lab set up I guess is the answer?

I purchased the Odem official guide and my netacad account is still live so my plan is to rinse it whilst I can and download all of the PT labs possible as well as make notes. I guess my question is whether this along with the Odom book and PT labs is enough to nail the ICND1 and then the ICND2 eventually or whether to invest in some cheap Udemy courses as noticed there's another sale going on there.

The head of IT at the 'un-named' college is looking at mothballing the old equipment as they don't need it now so I'm going to try and acquire some of it as 'compensation' for being messed around as personally I would rather get some real lab kit if possible but can't justify spending a lot on this.

Thanks in advance folks!

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Comments

kohr-ah

The Odom books and lab lab lab lab lab will be more than enough.
I did the NetAcad back with 640-802 and the site was a broken down version of the books.

Just stay concentrated and keep at it and you will pass it.

volfkhat

4 semesters to get the CCNA?

Your school may have done you a favor :]

It took me 90 days for the ICND1 (all self prep).

I say, just keep the classtime reserved for your own self-study... and you should be alright.

Jon_Cisco

Assuming you only have access to the first part on Netacad you will have to switch to another resource. I'm a big fan of reading the official book and doing lots of labs.

You can find plenty online and it's really the repetition of getting in and using the command line that helps. Don't stress over real equipment if you don't have the money. It's nice to have and you learn a lot buying it but you don't need to have it.

Good Luck!

Chev Chellios

Thanks for the replies folks.

Just to add, the reason the course 'would've' taken so long is it was part time in the evenings as that was what would best fit round my work commitments, my wife' job and childcare- sadly nowhere else remotely close offers a similar arrangement.

Going to keep that time slot for self study now though and sneak in extras where I can, usually late at night when my son is asleep will be ideal! Got the official book, my netacad account is live still so will get what I can from Semester 2 from there which takes me up to getting the ICND1 nailed in the near future. I got some hands on lab time during Semester one on the College's kit which was interesting (Don't get chance in my day job as our routers are externally managed) and the Switches I get to configure are Avaya and Netgear (there are plenty of similarities though). In an ideal world I'd buy some kit but seems like there is no need yet, maybe when I go for the ICND2 I will have saved up for some

7255carl

Wow that is shocking on behalf of the learning institute, I would be pushing hard for some of that equipment, but on the other hand self study can be considerably quicker than structured learning, I do understand your motivation theory though I struggled for a while, what I found worked for me is to get a calendar and write on there what you are going to study day by day, and if you keep up with your predictions reward yourself with a day off or a few beers whatever works for you, just remember to factor in contingency days for stuff that a bit more complex or stuff that you didn't quite get the first time round, best of luck with your studies and keep us posted as to your progress

Carl

theodoxa

volfkhat wrote: »

4 semesters to get the CCNA?

This is standard for the Cisco NetAcademy.

CCNA: 4 Courses
CCNP: 3 Courses (was 4 back prior to the 2010 revision of the CCNP)

I took the NetAcademy courses back when I was in college (2001). The schools I went to offered some classes on 6/8-week quarters, so CCNA 1-4 took about 7-8 months. Had I taken it on full (12/16 week) semesters, it would have been 2 years. I really liked the 6/8 week quarters.

Chev Chellios

Thanks Carl, sound advice! I will be doing that going forward

volfkhat

theodoxa wrote: »

I took the NetAcademy courses back when I was in college (2001). The schools I went to offered some classes on 6/8-week quarters, so CCNA 1-4 took about 7-8 months.

Ah, okay. That makes more sense.
I was imagining the traditional 16 week semester.

7-8 months sounds very reasonable; with plenty of time to actually "understand" the concepts :]