CCNP Route Study Time

pujan96

Hi all,

Am starting my CCNP route study time today.

Bit of background, im 21 working full time as a junior network admin, passed the CCNA last october, have since then passed the Palo Alto ACE and recapped the CCNA material at the start of the new year till mid Feb. Looked into ASAs for abit and after that and am now looking to do the CCNP exams, starting with route.

I plan to study an hour or 2 on the weekdays and 3 to 4 on the weekends.

Can anyone advise on how far away should I book the test? Was thinking 2 months should be sufficent.

Thanks
Pujan

Welly_59

In my opinion that is nowhere near enough time.

It took me 6 months for route, studying for around the same amount of hours per week. It was around 250 hours of study to complete

negru_tudor

Unless you're some sort of mini-genius, 2 months is too optimistic. Took me since August 2017 - Feb 2018 to study and pass ROUTE. Another 5-6 months for SWITCH and around another month for TSHOOT.

shortstop20

pujan96 wrote: »

Hi all,

Am starting my CCNP route study time today.

Bit of background, im 21 working full time as a junior network admin, passed the CCNA last october, have since then passed the Palo Alto ACE and recapped the CCNA material at the start of the new year till mid Feb. Looked into ASAs for abit and after that and am now looking to do the CCNP exams, starting with route.

I plan to study an hour or 2 on the weekdays and 3 to 4 on the weekends.

Can anyone advise on how far away should I book the test? Was thinking 2 months should be sufficent.

Thanks
Pujan

Unless you have alot of routing experience, 2 months is not enough. Even if you do, it still might not be enough.

I would plan on 6 months.

pujan96

Thanks for the info fellow networkers,just got my 1st 90 mins done

Agree this might take longer than expected...

Let me provision 4 to 6 months and see how it goes, maybe start doing boson tests before booking the exam

Ismaeljrp

I'd look at it more in terms of hours as "months" is too ambiguous.

As Welly_59 mentions, 250 hours is a good estimate. You can take 250-300 hours as a good amount to prepare. Just divide that into whatever amount of time you can fit in your daily schedule. Although I'd make the study time the #1 priority outside of work, and schedule the rest of your life around that. A nice 20 hours a week can get you there under 4 months.

I prefer to study heavily on a shorter time-frame, so about 25-30hrs a week or so, it helps because you don't get the on-set of skill fade from spreading out your study too much. This also the approach most people preparing for CCIE take, as the massive amount they have to learn really puts them in that kind of situation. If you only study 1 hour per day, by the time you're done with a book you'll find you forgot everything from the first half. So do take that in consideration.

mj30250

These exams can be brutal. It's easy to get lulled into thinking that the material's not all that bad as you're reading through the books for the first time. Be prepared to spend a lot of time re-reading, consulting alternate materials (the official books do NOT cover everything on the exams), labbing, reading, labbing, reading, etc. At your study rate, six months might be possible if you're in possession of an uncommonly strong memory.

Ismaeljrp

Flash cards are extremely helpful with memorization of details, like timers, costs, metrics, area types... things of that nature.

Good lab material is a necessity.

Try:
How to Master CCNP books
101 CCNP Labs from Paul Browning

kloppyo

mj30250 wrote: »

These exams can be brutal. It's easy to get lulled into thinking that the material's not all that bad as you're reading through the books for the first time. Be prepared to spend a lot of time re-reading, consulting alternate materials (the official books do NOT cover everything on the exams), labbing, reading, labbing, reading, etc. At your study rate, six months might be possible if you're in possession of an uncommonly strong memory.

What do you think is the best way to identify the areas not covered in the OCG? I was thinking I would check off the exam blueprint bulletpoints as I'm going through and see what's left. By official books I assume you mean the OCG. What about the FLG? Thanks