How do you study? (study technique)

nickelito

Hello,

Im curious to know which way you find is most effective when studying for certs?

Do you:

1. Study one technology until you know it like the back of your hand until you move on to the next, and only come back to it for review before the exam.

or..

2. Read from first chapter to the last (or watch the first video to the last) and then go back and go deeper on your weak points, until you feel ready to take the exam?


I tend to lean to alternative 2, I read until I hit an area where I have a hard time grasping, stick on it until my knowledge gets deeper, and then I come back to review and hopefully its easier this time around since i had time to lt things sink in.
I take notes all along, but unfortunately i never use them, not even for review, which might be a bit uneffective.

Id love to hear what works best for you!

ande0255

I have just been going through the topics in order, seems most material starts with EIGRP-OSPF-Redistribution-ACL/NAT/VPN-BGP-IPV6 for the ROUTE material.

I haven't made it to the end of the EIGRP segment yet as I'm encountering a lot of other errors I want to figure out before moving forward with the material, but I tend to watch the video and take a lot of notes, then when I lab it up refer back to my notes and write down any additional notes or findings from labbing.

I plan to integrate ROUTE simplified in there somewhere, but it will be in conjunction with the videos, or for me that would set the timeline of earning the CCNP at like 18 months or something.

Labbing what you learn I think is most important though, it teaches you much more beyond the material, at least in my case quite a bit.

joetest

Read about a topic in book 1, watch some vids on it if things needs to be clarified and do some labs to watch it in action. Rinse and repeat until all topics has been covered.

Do the same again from different sources from the first.

daniel280187

Hi Nickelito,

I use three sources to study - Videos, Books and Lot of practice.

I am following the topic structure of this book (Implementing Cisco IP Routing (Route) - Foundation Learning Guide), so for example the Chapter 4 (Where I am at the moment) is all about redistribution, so I do the following.

1 -Videos: I go through Keith Baker Videos (LiveLessons - CCNP Routing and Switching ROUTE 300-101) first to get an idea of what the topic is about. These are short videos with key information that you will find useful to understand the topic. It provides you with good tables, diagrams and pictures to understand the technology. I usually create a Word document for each topic which I fill with notes of the most important bits of all 3 sources.

2 - Book: After getting some knowledge on the topic with the initial video reviewing you can get deep with the information provided in the book. It is usually far more thorough than a video and gives you lots of example and real situations. So what I do is to read all the chapter from the book and Again, taking notes of key information updating my Word file.

3 - Labbing: After reviewing videos and the book I then lab configurations I saw on the books or that I think I can use to put in practice all the content learned. Chris Bryant videos on the Udemy web a very good for labbing as he first explains you the topic and then labs them to demonstrate how it works and the reasoning behind it.

I will do the same for all the topics and then after finishing everything I will take an intensive week to lab more configurations and go through all my notes again.

There is no correct way to study, I mean not one that will suit everybody but I have found these has helped me in the past to get my certs. I am Interested as well to know what others use.

beads

Regardless of the medium. Physiology wins over determination - every time.

I read in 20 minute segments. At this point I know 10% of the material.

Mentally, I review the material I just read, asking questions in a Q&A format. 20 percent.

Teaching the subject will boost your understanding up to 70 percent.

Applying said skills in a real practical aspect boosts your understanding to 80 percent.

Long term practice gets you to mastery. Hence why so many people complain endlessly at the "difficulty" of an exam when people have no practical experience in the field but yield to the idea that a certification is a substitute for knowledge and experience.

- b/eads