Materials:
Subnetting:
I spent around 30 minutes a day for many days (10 or more) practicing subnetting questions over and over until the numbers stuck in my head. I learnt both the decimal and binary process but in order to be quick at the process you should exclusively use decimal. Learn the 8x and 16x well or just remember that 128 is a network ID for all subnet masks.
Study:
I completed a chapter a day and recorded everything into a spreadsheet. I made sure everything was dated and that if I had to miss a day due to an event I would just shift everything +1 day and move on. I would not stress about getting behind or being delayed which helped immensely.
I got into a routine of waking up at 5 am in the morning and study for a few hours before my day started. I found that a very important part of studying is having a very consistent routine. Also for me waking up at 5 am avoided a lot of distraction and noise that middle of the day and the afternoon generated.
I did make the mistake of leaving a lot of labbing toward the end. I felt a little rushed in the last few weeks of my study so this will change for next time around. It took 2 months 1 day to study for the exam with all the materials above. I completed all of the labbing in the last 2-3 weeks which kept it fresh but it was painful grinding through lab after lab to get them done. I'll need to reconsider my strategy for this for ICND2.
I left taking the exams until the last 7 days before my exams as it becomes just way too easy to learn the answers and questions from the banks. Also learn that a fail on these practice exams around the 700-800 is a good indication that you just need a few more facts or made a few silly mistakes (keep pushing on!)
Labbing:
I almost exclusively used Packet Tracer for study, using some physical gear at the very end (last 2 days) to just get my brain into the mindset of taking requirements and turning them into a physical network. It's actually challenging when you spent so much time logically planning stuff out to go and actually wire it up for real.
Thanks for listening! If you have any questions shoot!
Community:
How could I forget! Community was also a major part of my study too. Reading the posts of others and trying to help out on this forum, over on /r/ccna and over at Cisco Learning network helped immensely. Seeing other people's responses and being able to help others solve their problems really forced me to think outside my comfort zone.
