About to take the ICND1

the_dude7

I finished the sort of crash course I took on the CCNA over a month ago but due to work haven't been able to buckle down and give studying on my own enough time until now. I was originally going to take the combined test but since I'm pretty much totally new to this domain it's probably best to split them up... there's a ton of information to remember.

So I remember being told the exam was 50-60 questions with about 2-5 labs. Does that go for the combined CCNA test, meaning that the individual halves are only 25-30 questions and 1-3 labs? If so, that would be sweet. But I don't think that's the case is it? Based on what I'm seeing online. Would that mean the combined test is twice as long, or the same length with just different questions?

I've gone over Lammle's book twice now... the second go around made me understand things better. Although tbh I have caught a few minor or careless mistakes or errors in his book. Like some of the information wasn't consistent or he forgot to include some steps in the step by step labs. But the fact that I'm able to notice that is a good thing, I guess.

I've been taking these practice quizzes sent to me by the people from the class I was taking and am getting around 80%. Problem is, there's lots of errors in the quiz questions themselves (wording as well as outright wrong "right" answers in the multiple choices), something they owned up to as being "possible" once I confronted them about it. I feel like whoever made these quizzes wasn't putting much attention into it. It's really annoying, because my scores are lower than they'd be normally, and thus not a good assessment of my readiness/preparedness for this exam And there's questions that I now don't know if they're right or not, which throws me off. Also, the quizzes have questions from both INCD1 and 2, further skewing things.

Anyone know of some solid practice exam questions?

I feel like I have the concepts down pretty solidly, it's just the multitude of little commands that I gotta memorize.. especially for the labs. That's what I'm nervous about.

huntert

i recommend that you use boson ex max sim which is a set of practice questions and netsim from boson that comes with labs. i also would recommend that you use networklessons.com which costs 29.00 a month and has lessons from ccent up to ccie. the site is not real fancy but it has a lot of good info. also if you go to netacad.com you can take some free courses about packettracer and get packettracer for free.

Cisco Inferno

do Boson. They have a sale where you can get it for $74.99. I just purchased it for ICND2 for recertifying.

yes there are plenty of commands, but it only gets worse. labbing over and over until you are dead is a good technique. lots better than flashcards.

the_dude7

Eh, after paying over 2000 for that course (which covers the cost of the exam) I don't really want to pay for anything anymore. I do of course have packet tracer and have been using it. I may try that other one, GNS. I've also been using those Udemy videos and doing the labs with them, which are pretty entertaining but I realize it's not good to only do guided labs...

I was hoping there would be some place I could find free reliable exam prep questions, since the guys I went with don't seem to really care that much about more than just your money, and put only some token amount of effort into helping you out, despite all the support they said they'd give you initially. Like I can't even meet with the original teacher anymore to ask questions like they promised.

About the Boson stuff, it seems there are mixed opinions about it in the reviews. Most say it was good and close to the exam questions, some saying even harder than exam, while others say only one or two questions were even remotely close to it... Gotta separate the planted reviews from the authentic ones lol.

I think my weakest point is that I just haven't done enough labs. Buying actual equipment is not an option for me at the moment (maybe for the next part of the exam or a future cert). I do use simulators but where do I find labs to do? As in things to practice/set up? Do I just keep doing the same guided ones in the book over and over? Is it about memorizing the commands or actually adapting to a variety of situations and truly *learning*? Should I just challenge myself to set up a certain kind of network in the objectives, without guidance from anything else?

duta74

You can buy this:
CCENT ICND1 100-105 Network Simulator, Download Version | Pearson IT Certification
for only 34.99$ using discount code: HOL2017. Code expires 31 December.
Also you can buy this:
CCNA Routing and Switching ICND2 200-105 Network Simulator, Download Version | Pearson IT Certification
for ICND2

Nisseki

Following guided labs at the start is great but what you need to do now is to be more creative.

Create your own labs with your own IP addressing scheme and try to remember setting up vlans etc from memory.

You can also download other people's labs that are broken on purpose, it really does help with building troubleshooting skills.

huntert

netsim from boson has guided exams but you can set up your own labs from it as well. the ex max sim from boson helped me a lot but i did not lab enough. It took me 4 tries to pass icnd1 but i am doing a lot more labs for icnd2 and it helps you to understand and remember.

boxerboy1168

Nisseki wrote: »

Following guided labs at the start is great but what you need to do now is to be more creative.

Create your own labs with your own IP addressing scheme and try to remember setting up vlans etc from memory.

You can also download other people's labs that are broken on purpose, it really does help with building troubleshooting skills.

from where?