Considering CCNP

im thinking about doing this course - just passed my ccna - can anyone give me some advise on the best books to purchase.

for the ccna i used the networking acadamy books - didnt really like these as i wasnt a member of the acadamy - so is self study books better!! cisco or sybex all in one book

any other tips!!

i did consider the ccsp - im not sure what to do actually - what route to take - i dont have much experience either..

Find more posts tagged with

SAVE $250 on Your CISCO Boot Camp — Use Code "EXAM26"

Exclusively for TechExams members for Infosec Boot Camps starting before April 30, 2026

View CISCO Boot Camps

Comments

wildfire

CCNP is a good logical progresson from CCNA, the BSCI and BCMSN develop on what you have already learnt in CCNA

Book wise I used the Exam certification guides and Learnkey CBT's. The way I look at it is self study books to learn the basics, exam cert guides to build on and pass the exam. For this reason and experience I go straight to the exam cert guides, I warn you though the BSCI is like 19 chapters long, but luckly as if follow that progression they get smaller books in size

I think CCSP is good to tackle after CCNP, although they are both proffesional level certfications I think of things like CCSP/IP/VP a follow on from NP (IMHO)

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

ceejay3001

thanks - i have gone out and bought the sybex ccnp complete book. i would like to aim for doing the 842 891 --get both exams done in one!

is this a good start -- i also got the ccnp netsim

wildfire

wow aiming for the composite exam! That would have been too much for me, theres just so much to learn, but if your receptive and took on board all the routing and switching from CCNA then more than doable, on a side note I think the exam costs 50% more than a single exam so u need to nail it first time to make it cost effective.

ceejay3001

cheers matey

ciscos

you know guys here in Athens (Greece...if you knoe where it is:)))
for 6000e(!) you can go in a cisco academy and attend ccnp class
for 280hours=9 months...

what is your opinion about that?!!

TheShadow

If it is a standard academy, they are basically run by Cisco and the local school is a combination administrator, overseer, lab assistant, and extra lecture provider when needed. The curriculum is Cisco, the tests are Cisco, and you are online to Cisco. Some things never appear on the exams and a few things are sometimes skimmed over if the course does not stay in sync with the current exams. That happened last year with CCNA and some of the semester exams had to be rescored. Attending the academy does not necessarily mean you will pass the various CCNP tests either.

mikej412

ceejay3001 wrote:

i did consider the ccsp - im not sure what to do actually - what route to take - i dont have much experience either..

The CCNP helps with the CCDA and CCSP -- but if there is some sort of opportunity, the other certs can be done first without too much trouble.

The nice thing about the CCNP is that it will take some time to accomplish -- so try to use your CCNA and get some experience if you can.

I had planned on trying the composite exam, so I did BCRAN first to try out my self-study plan. My study plan worked, but then I found out I couldn't count on getting the large block of time uninterrupted to study both topics for the composite exam. I finally just went with the individual exam.

The Cisco Press books (and the Network Academy Books) cover a lot of "extra" material -- but as Cisco modifies the exams (within the blueprint) -- the CP books still cover the required material, while the 3rd party books might not.

I had also planned on doing the CCDA right after the CCNA to get that 2nd quick certification -- but I can't remember now why I did the CCNP 2nd instead. But the CCNP helped a lot with the CCDA, but isn't required.