Passed ICND1, some questions on ICND2

dfurasek

Although I've been reading these forums for a while, and I am grateful for what I've learned from many of you, this is my first-time post. I'm glad to say that I passed my CCENT this week with a score of 934 over a 832 minimum. For those interested, my self-study resources over the past couple months were:

- Lammle's latest ICND1 book (my primary resource)
- The very good ITPro.TV videos that came with the book
- The ACE/Sybex practice quizzes and flashcards that came with the book
- The recently-discontinued LammleSim simulator (a bit clunky but useful nonetheless)
- An older version (for the previous Cisco exams) of the "Titanium Edition" simulator from RouterSim/Sybex
- Playing around a bit with Packet Tracer

I now have to ask for some advice, especially from those who have already taken both of the separate ICND1 and ICND2 tests. For a variety of reasons, January and February are the best time of year for me to work on such things as IT certifications, but moving forward in pursuit of the CCNA R/S, I see two choices...

1. Wait a year, review the ICND1 material, and dive into ICND2.

2. Double down and keep going now with the ICND2 material.

My question is: Without compromising a Cisco NDA, how "compartmentalized" are the two tests?? Obviously, I don't doubt for a second that there is a significant amount of foundational knowledge from ICND1 that will be essential for ICND2. However, for those that have taken both, did you encounter questions on the second exam that were directly related to the objectives for the first, or is it safe to say that the questions were primarily targeted towards its own published objectives?

I know that the combined test has fewer questions than the sum of the two separate tests, so I'm wondering if part of the second test is designed to prove that you remember specific things from the first. I also know that if I was going for something like CCNA Wireless, that would mostly be a new realm of knowledge, so I'm wondering if the ICND2 for CCNA R/S is more "connected" to ICND1 than the other types of CCNA exams.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

huntert

i would say try to keep going. If you wait too long Cisco could end up coming out with a new test in 2019.

dfurasek

If I do decide to wait until next year, I would likely take the test in the spring, and I would think/hope that Cisco would use the current tests for at least three years, which would put the replacement dates sometime in the fall at the earliest. Still, I probably had not adequately considered that possibility, so thanks very much for the tip.

shortstop20

I would not wait if you can help it.

The tests always build on one another so you should expect the ICND2 objectives to ask you things related to ICND2 but the question will have it's foundations built on things in ICND1.

It's going to work that way even up to CCNP and CCIE.

TechGuru80

It’s possible things have changed, but for me...ICND1 was “do you know xyz”, and ICND2 was “ok let’s see how well you know it.” Basically you had to know the topics more in depth and be able to both configure and troubleshoot.

Honestly if I was going to do things again, I would have completed CCNP and then started looking at other specialties. It was almost impossible to get a call back for networking jobs with just a CCNA, but with a CCNP people seem to have a lot better luck...I was headed into security anyways so it didn’t matter as much.

dfurasek

Well, I decided to press on and take ICND2 sooner rather than later, and I'm glad I did, because I passed with 892/811 just today. Thanks to all for the advice on not waiting until next year.

TheComputerPlumber

Congrats man!!!! please help with your study plan did you take ccna r&s or ccna wireless??? Impressive 2 months later you passed ICND2!! That’s so awesome and motivating are these your first certs?

[Deleted User]

Congrats! Go right into ICND2. If you wait you will forget information and will have to play catchup later on. If you want to pass the ICND2 fast, consider the CCNA in 60 days ebook and review days 31-60. Good luck!

dfurasek

I might tackle Wireless at some point in the future, but this was all R/S via the two-test (ICND1 and ICND2) route. My study plan for ICND2 was pretty much the same as what I described for ICND1 in the original post, along with the addition of the Lammle bonus material mentioned here:


https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/thread/117496

To answer your other question, my only other networking cert at this point is the CompTIA N+ that I did a little over a year ago.

TheComputerPlumber

Awesome thank you. Congrats once again... I'm thinking I want to get wireless too. Maybe I'll go your route R/S then pursue wireless after that or Data Center. I'm not really sure yet. I just want to make the big $$$!

Thanks you have motivated me more after reading this thread.