I'm waking away from the MCSA to get my CCNA Security.

Fulcrum45

Can't do it anymore. I took the 70-410 and ALMOST passed it but even that wasn't enough to get me motivated to go back and take it again knowing I still have 2 more exams following that. MS has me bored to tears whereas I can't wait to start digging into this stuff. As of right now I have the OCG, an ASA5520 I picked up from EBay, ITProTV videos and packet tracer. Anything else you fine TE folks can recommend?

Second question: Do we have an idea of when Cisco is looking to replace the 210-260 with something newer?

JoJoCal19

Everyone says the OCG sucks as a sole resource. Also recommended is the 31 Days Until book, as well as the Cisco Next-generation Security Solutions book. The CBT videos are said to be the better suited videos for it. Good luck on your pursuit!

robo78

Fulcrum45 wrote: »

Second question: Do we have an idea of when Cisco is looking to replace the 210-260 with something newer?

i hope not so soon. Current exam is now in its version 3. My guess is it will last maybe few months, but as you know, the security field is rapidly changing so v4 is very possible to come in near future. Bigger changes like from 640-554 (last test date was Dec01/2015) to 210-260 are not expected yet - about those Cisco inform us in advance.

Fulcrum45

I loved CBT for when I was taking my CCENT and yeah, I've heard the OCG was bad also. I'm going to look into the 31 days before book though, thanks!

Phileeeeeeep651

I would absolutely not use the OCG as a sole resource, I paired with CBT nuggets and Boson practice exams (WGU). Knowing what I know now, I would have added in another book, something with a little more detail in AMP, FirePOWER, etc. Felt like the OCG did a poor job on specifically the Content and Endpoint Security portion of the exam blueprint, other than that I felt it prepared me well enough.

wseyller

So I have heard the OCG is not good and not to use as a sole resource. But I have also heard a few say they stopped using it after a few chapters and couldn't stand to read it anymore. My question is should I not waste my time at all on it and spend that time on other resources.

Also I wonder which resource to start off with first. the 31 days book as I've heard good about that one or put that off until reading a different book. I only have the cbt nuggets so far. I am about to start at day 1.

Fulcrum45

I've worked a few chapters in the OCG and right now it feels like nothing but Sec+ info. He brings up a lot of acronyms but kinda leaves you hanging with how it ties in. I dunno. I'm going to hang onto it as a partial resource but I'm not expecting much from it.

chopsticks

Took me a while to know OCG stands for Official Cisco Guide.

p@r0tuXus

It stands for "Official Cert Guide."

Fulcrum45

chopsticks wrote: »

Took me a while to know OCG stands for Official Cisco Guide.

Haha, it took me way longer than I care to admit before I figured it out.

Krusader

Agree with you. I found studying for my MCSA pretty painful. The exams are horrible.
Got a lot of enjoyment studying for my Cisco and VMware certs.
Learning how Microsoft do things gets pretty tedious