Question about study method?

techtia

I'd like to start studying for the CCENT and I will be relying on the Wendell Odom book. For my CompTIA exams, I would read and take notes along the way but for the CCENT, I noticed the book is huge and if I take notes while reading, that would take a long, long time.

Would you recommend just reading the book through without taking notes along the way?

Thanks

JamesKurtovich

Take the notes. You'll thank yourself later.

The scope of ICND1 is huge and you'll want something to reference when you start trying to recall information from earlier portions of the book.

daan5000

That's how I'm doing it. Using a PDF of Wendell Odom's book on one screen, and summarizing each chapter in a DOCX on another screen. Sure, it can be a lot of work, but just reading it without taking notes will get you nowhere (tried and failed). Also, the first 6 chapters are relatively boring (theoretical topics) but once you're through these chapters it really starts to become fun. If you like, I'll send you my notes so you have an example of how I do it.

Don't let the number of pages scare you off. Once you're through the first 150 pages (or first 200 pages if you count in the introduction), it will really become fun and you'll do 20-30 pages a day easily from that point on.

Maybe some extra tips:

- Try to get your hands on one or multiple real switches. The 3550 are a good option as they are very cheap on eBay and support many features, including interVLAN routing (if you're planning on doing CCNP as well).

- For routing labs, you can use GNS3. Sure there's a learning curve when you're new to GNS, but you can't do without in my opinion. Note that you need at least 8 gigs of RAM because of the virtualization.

- Packet Tracer can also be used for the switching labs. However, do not rely on this program too much because it can behave very strangely. Just use it to practice the core concepts (configuring passwords, configuring IP addresses, etc.)

Good luck!

techtia

Thanks guys. Sure, if you're comfortable posting a small portion of the notes here or through PM, but no big deal.

For the A+ exam, copying notes from the book worked well for memorizing but for the S+, often I had to explain concepts so that took longer and just couldn't copy directly from the book.

Finally was able to see inside Odom book and found that the pages were actually quite small despite the book's thickness. Gave myself 4 weeks for previous CompTIA exams and did read 20-30 pages a day, which was exactly one chapter in the S+ book, but for this exam, will try the schedule of 4-6 weeks.

Glad to see daan5000 mentioned it was fun, this will be my first vendor specific exam so new material and I'm excited to see what new things await. Be even awesomer if I pass!