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Passed Bcran today 944, and extremely happy to have this nightmare over with.I've dreamt about the bcran for a month, the exam was ok, i really prepared for this exam and used multiple sources, no one source is enough for this exam.The problem with the brcan is that its a very broad spec and literally anything can appear on the exam, in the end i got lucky i suppose,i was very worried going in.
Sources used..

Ciscopress self study
Ciscopress cert guide
Cisco network Academy
Knowledge net
Cisco interactive mentor
Cisco website along with some rfc's

Thanks Mike, as i saw you wrote on a thread the mentor was good, anyway i agree, very good for isdn.The Cisco press books are pretty bad.
Impossible to pass on only Cisco Press,the self study guide is for the bin
the cert guide is ok for a backup.
Probably the best combo is the knowledgenet and network academy.
Good luck to who ever takes this on as its a pain to study for.

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Comments

Webmaster

Congrats Ed!

mikej412

Congratulations!

jescab

CONGRATZ dude.........

Sa'ad

Congrats Ed!

How long did you study for? I started studying for this about over a month ago and still struggling. I actually quit reading about 2 weeks ago after getting bored with studying.

I think you did this really fast. Give me any tips that might motivate me. Thanks a bunch!

the_return_of_the_Ring

Good job, congrats!

yeah same question as Saad. how long had you prepared?

EdTheLad

Sa'ad wrote:

Congrats Ed!

How long did you study for? I started studying for this about over a month ago and still struggling. I actually quit reading about 2 weeks ago after getting bored with studying.

I think you did this really fast. Give me any tips that might motivate me. Thanks a bunch!

Thanks, guys
It took me a month exactly,i could have done its about 3 days earlier if i didnt go out for afew beers last week,that set my schedule back.
Actually the post you wrote about how long it would take gave me motivation from the start,so my plan from the get go was to finish within the month.
Basically i ate,drank and slept bcran, ask my girlfriend i think i saw her maybe twice in the month.
I learnt from mistakes i made with the bsci.I think im a worrier when it comes to study, i learn chapter 1 real good,move to chapter 2 and by the time im finished on chapter 2 i start thinking i forgot a little about chapter 1 and end up going back and reading it again.I did this continuosly with bsci and while it made my foundations of routing pretty good it also made me think overkill.
So this time i decided to experiment a little and test the 1 month stategy, i read the chapters understanding maybe 85% and moving to the next,my goal was to finish all the blueprint so i could have an idea on how much info i needed.So after about 2 weeks i finished everything and grouped the topics together to create a better study structure for myself.
1) Group 1 VPN,AAA
2) Group 2 ISDN,Backup ddr
3) Group 3 FR,Qos
4) Group 4 Broadband
5) Group 5 Modems,PPP
At times i was getting mixed up with commands between Qos,VPN and FR shaping, i just wrote out all the commands together and compared the differences.Also since my lab has been stuck in customs for the last month i hadnt really any hands on apart from the ISDN ccie mentor which for me was excellent,it helps with ppp,isdn and nat.Anyway i will gets the hands on part done during the CIT.
Hope someone finds what i wrote above useful? Anyway read my original post for a source guide, you need to learn from multiple sources to pass this one,learn dsl configs well i.e. pppoe,pppoa,rfc1483 and also how to config a cable modem, all this info is on the cisco site and the knowledgenet book,no mention of this in the cisco press,also WRED isnt really mentioned in the cisco press.So what im trying to say is if you just learnt from cisco press you would have a hugh shock when sitting the exam.Now i take a week break before i start the switching exam.I dont think i'll be able for the month this time as the world cup is starting.

Ricka182

congrats!