How hard is the new CCNP ROUTE?

fadis

Hello,

I'm preparing for the CCNP ROUTE exam and I've noticed that most courses are roughly 12-15 hours long, sometimes even 8 (CBT).

as far as I've studied I've finished DMVPN (Which I already knew and used in my daily routine) and EIGRP and I was shocked that there's almost nothing new other than couple commands (Stub / distribute lists / route maps...)

Is it that easy? or am I missing something?

Regards,

azaghul

Is it that easy?
I'm working through the BGP end of ROUTE (and sometimes finding it a struggle, an enjoyable one though), and I think it comes down to your individual exposure and experience to a topic (DMVPN for you). We use BGP in a big way, but how often do you really make changes to it? Unless you're adding sites or subnets, it just runs.

As for the training, I wouldn't consider CBT worthwhile any more...way too short and too little detail...as a high level intro maybe. Again it comes down to your individual exposure and experience to a topic, are you learning it from scratch and need depth/good walk through? Or are you augmenting what you know and and filling in the gaps?

FrankGuthrie

Agree about CBT, nice for an introduction, but to little detail. Prefer INE for that reason.

negru_tudor

I'm doing switch now and honestly I'd say CBT is just enough to get you started. Then Live Lessons and the most thorough is hands down INE - I found them quite dry at a CCNA level and even CCNP Voice but for Routing and Switching...INE are the best.

Cisco Inferno

Sorry to derail, but Has anyone used Cisco Learning Network Premium Labs?

For school at UMUC, we are using Testout for MCSA. I absolutely love it. Sure it's all simulations, but imagine the time it would take to configure servers from scratch. plus, anyone with some experience has done most of these in the past and can easily see it on a live network. This cutdown in setup time has really helped me focus on the studying part. I would say it is 95% like the real deal.

For CCNP Studies, (9 months for r/s), we are to use the CLN Premium labs (yea yea $100 each test).
What i know so far, is that there are some 38 labs for route and a fat amount for switch and tshoot. After watching a video with Kevin Wallace showing how it's used and after trying a demo on the website, it looks really good. Real IOU software that is hosted by cisco and preconfigured for the scenario which once again cuts down on time to set up! Since they are hooked up, you can do anything in the IOS that's allowed. There are also loads of in depth videos that you get that feel more like the OCG in video form (all the details that Jeremy may leave out).

Hoping to tackle ROUTE by watching Jeremy (notes), reading Bryant's book (highlight and add to notes), then CLN premium videos and labs.
Also GNS3 scenarios to review. Oh, and plenty of Academic CCNP:Route scenario projects, discussions, assignments.