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How hard are these exams?

OctalDump

I am considering doing CCNA Wireless and CWNA together. Is the CWNA a difficult exam? How would it compare to Cisco or other exams?

I'm also interested in CWSP, but since it needs CWNA, that seems like the place to start.

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Comments

rowelld

They are both different exams. CCNA Wireless will have a big focus on Cisco technologies. CWNA is vendor agnostic and will focus on Wireless fundamentals. I haven't taken CCNA Wireless but it can be difficult if you don't have access to the equipment to fully understand how Cisco does wireless.

CWNA can be difficult if you don't put in the time to study. I read the CWNA study guide and took the exam within 4-5 months of studying for about 1-2 hours a day. But I also have previous experience.

scottm32768

You don't really have to have equipment for the CCNA Wireless level, but it certainly helps. The Cisco Press book will go a long way to helping you pass that. If you do CWNA first, it'll make the CCNA-W easier. Doing CCNA-W first won't help make the CWNA much easier because it has insufficient focus on Wi-Fi and RF, soiIn some ways I think it makes it a bit harder.

There's a lot of info on studying for the CCNA-W exam on the Cisco Learning Network (https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/groups/ccna-wireless-study-group). My recommendation would be to focus on CWNA, pass that, then fill in the Cisco specific knowledge and do the CCNA-W. Studying for multiple exams (even if somewhat related) at the same time doesn't work very well.

n0rg

I took both the CWNA and CWSP. Unfortunately, need to take them both again. Being from Amateur Radio and the FCC General Radiotelephone era, I've been interested in wireless communications. I read both books, went through Tom Carpenter's course and still came up short. CWNP even gave me a second shot for my CWNA when their site went wacko and prevented me from getting to my practice exams. Bottom line, much like other practical exams such as the CEH - if you don't have current experience, you will fall short. That's not to say if you double down on your studies that you won't pass, just a bit harder. Some of the questions come down to: did you answer it the CWNP way or the right way. Rowelld correctly sums up the differences. Good luck with your studies and exams.

DonRickles

I did the CWNA exam first and then the CCNA-W was cake. I work exclusively with wireless technologies though so I have lots of hands on time. The CWNA curriculum is more thorough with RF theory and 802.11 principles. I would highly recommend getting CWNA first. I am working on CWDP at the moment and my boss tells me CCDA is in my near future. Good Luck!

OctalDump

So I am in the middle of CCNA Wireless, since I am doing some Cisco stuff also. I've got a book for CWNA which I've looked through. There's a good amount of theory in the CCNA Wireless (at least 50% is fundamentals that aren't Cisco specific), but the CWNA seems to go a bit deeper in this area.

I think if I were to make recommendations, I'd say that they are complementary, and you could do them in either order, although the CCNA Wireless is likely to be easier of the two, especially if you've already drunk the Cisco Kool-aid.

Also for the CCNA Wireless, you can get by with some recent APs and a virtualised Wireless LAN Controller (free 30 days' trial) and a switch and router (to do router on a stick, although a switch with layer 3 switching would also work).

doctorlexus

I'm debating between CWNA and CCNA Wireless. Cisco has a fairly well-known name, so I imagine their certs naturally carry some weight. I don't know much about the reputation of the organization behind CWNA, though.

Experienced_ISN'T_old

OctalDump wrote: »

I am considering doing CCNA Wireless and CWNA together. Is the CWNA a difficult exam? How would it compare to Cisco or other exams?

I'm also interested in CWSP, but since it needs CWNA, that seems like the place to start.

Dude, they're hard enough and that's exactly the way I want it so I can get repped once I get them. I'm trying to, atleast be the first to get new 3.0 ICND1 (and CCNA) before I attack the wireless but I Want to work in wireless first, its the inverse effect. I am planning on "attacking" wireless certs once I Atleast get the 3.0 ICND1 but keep in mind there are others like Nortel, Bay Area NEtworks, Aruba..basically you can even do networking with Linksys and Netgear, haha

Kuvuli21

What are good practice exams for the CWNA PWO-106? I have the Sybex book and their practice exams, just curious as after my MS cert exams I plan to go get the CWNA Cert as well. Trying to get some information so I can map the rest of 2016 and beginning first quarter of 2017 out for my certification plan.

jhntbright

Buy CWNP official practice exam on their website; this helps a lot.

khaledit2015

I think it is difficult for some no it deepens how smart u are always

Freeguy

I'm a little late, but I've gone through both the CCNA and CWNA programs so I'd like to throw in my two cents.

The CWNP program is completely vendor agnostic, so there aren't any questions about CLI or buggy simulators to bang your head against. I have a great deal of respect for the curriculum and it's done a lot for my professional career, as the knowledge gained is useful across multiple product lines. As far as the difficulty is concerned, I would consider them to be more challenging than most - about even with Cisco, but in a different way.

There's no hands on, but they REALLY love the "choose all applicable" multiple choice questions... which means that every question is really five questions in one. And they sure love their corner cases, too. So while you don't need to memorize CLI like you do with Cisco, you need to have a very solid understanding of the course content.