Cisco CCENT Study Materials/Books/Videos?

TLITDLe

Good afternoon all,

So after countless hours of studying, today I passed my CompTIA A+ (201-901/902)! My next plan is to study and test for the Cisco CCENT 100-105 ICND1 certification. I am currently a help desk technician for a managed service provider so I do get a sense of what is coming but do not have any knowledge of Cisco products (besides very basic utilization of Cisco Meraki firewall).

What study materials are popular that will help me through success? Exam Cram? Do I need to purchase any particular products to practice with? Sorry if this is vague, I just don't know where to start!

Thank you for all your incoming suggestions,

David

TLITDLe

I forgot to add. I have 1 year of help desk experience.

CertifiedMonkey

Books
Odom - Really good, but can be dry (I used this as my primary resource)
Lammle - Easy to read, might not be as in-depth as Odom (Didn't use it as much as Odom)

If you really want to dig DEEP into the material:
Introduction to Networks v5.1 Companion Guide
Routing and Switching Essentials v6.0 Companion Guide

Note: All of the books listed can be found on Safaribooksonline (~$39/month subscription)

Videos
Kevin Wallace 100-105 on Safaribooksonline.com
INE 100-105 Videos (~$50)

Labs
Packet Tracer (free download on NetAcad)
Boson NetSim ($99)

Exams
PeasonITCertification 100-105 Exam (Included w/ physical book or you can buy the PDF version of the book as well)
Boson Exsim ($99)

I'm sure alot of the stuff can be found on Google/Youtube as well, but you'd have to piece together the material yourself.

rob42

I've been quite amazed by the stuff you can get without spending any money at all.

This is a good place to start Free Cisco CCNA and CCNP study guides

I've got the the Official Cert Guides by W. Odom: ICND1 100-101 & ICND2 200-101.

I also find the CCNA Certified Network Associate Study Guide Third Edition by Todd Lammle really good.



It's a free pdf. I can't provide a link as I didn't make a note of it, but it can't be that hard to find.

One of the challenges I found was about making notes and organizing them in a way that was easy to refer back to, also, retaining the information (in my head) that I'd been reading about. Both of these issues have been addressed now as I've developed a system that works well for me.

I've not yet spent any money on CBT, INE or itpro.tv. I know that some people recommend them, but I'm on a very limited budget and prefer to buy Lab equipment as and when I've got some spare cash. You can get by with Cisco Packet Tracer (it's a simulation package, in case you didn't know), but having the equipment makes it much more 'real'. Also, you learn stuff that you can't, using CPT.

All the best with your studies.

TLITDLe

Thank you both for the great suggestions. I'll add everything to my list of study resources. I do have a free year subscription to itpro.tv that I will take advantage of if everyone suggests me to. Guess it would be dumb not to right?

As far as lab equipment. I enjoy hands-on studying. What specific products can I purchase and use that is recommended for CCENT?

Spiegel

It essentially falls in the same realm of this thread main topic but my main question is this. I currently got the the Official Cert Guides by W. Odom: ICND1 100-101. I bought the book a long time ago and never had the time to study for the exam because of work and general life stuff. I understand that Cisco has updated the exam and there is now a new version of the book that has removed some objects covered in the old book and/or have moved them to the ICND2 section. I know the old books will still cover a lot of the materials covered in the new exam but is getting the new book worth it to cover the new items?

rob42

I'm studying from the W. Odom ICND1 100-101 & ICND2 200-101 books and my understanding is that it's more about what has been removed from the new exam than what has been added. RIP (so I believe) is not needed for the CCNA exam, but I've been advised to study RIP as it's still used in the real world; ditto for VTP.

edit to add: Frame Relay, has been removed from the new exam.