ICND1 passed in under 2 months of study

securityorc

Cisco's new direction might take away some of the luster, but I was already committed to studying for this and I want to get the CCNA R&S before it becomes Cisco's equivalent of a CISSP. I passed this with a score of 942 and wanted to share my study resources.

Reading

- Todd Lammle's 100-105 Study Guide - I find his writing style easy to digest

- Odom's ICND1 Official Cert Guide - didn't read fully, I used it after Lammle's chapters to find alternate explanations or go more in depth on certain topics. What I really liked about this book were its illustrations, the tables and pictures helped a lot with some information

- Professor Messer's ICND1 notes - towards the end I didn't feel too ready and had overlooked some topics in my own notes, like VTP for example, so I paid the 20 bucks for these notes. They're decent but not entirely necessary and I could have done without. Also I noticed some duplicate content here and there

Video

- CBT Nuggets, highly recommend

- ICND1 course on Cybrary, used more as a recap, ok for a free resource

Labs

- I started with Packet Tracer and did David Bombal's PT course on Udemy and various labs on the internet

https://www.packettracerlab.com/

https://www.packettracernetwork.com/labs/packettracerlabs.html

https://www.freeccnaworkbook.com/workbooks/ccna

- the best practice resource I found was Boson's NetSim. It already had lots of labs and none of PT's limitations. I will definitely use this for the 2nd part as well and this was my main confidence booster. There's a discount on their site, if anyone is interested

- for subnetting, I practiced again on various sites, bu this one was my favorite: https://www.lammle.com/ip-subnet-practice-page/

Other than the above, I went through various practice questions and tests from the internet and the CCNA Practice Test book. I didn't need to use the Boson Exam Simulator, which I've also heard many good things about. I'll see how it goes in a few months for ICND2

dkorzhevin

Great review! Congrats

jaso

Congrats!

pudgy

securityorc, did you have any prior experience or did you go from 0 to CCNA in under 2 months?

itguy4life

Thanks for the great info Sir! However, I would like to add another good site that provides good practice exams that will help you pass your icnd1 exam. Actually, I have tried it myself and was really satisfied with the results you could actually try it out for yourself. www(dot)certlibrary(dot)com/info/100-105   Best of luck!

securityorc

@pudgy Yes, I did have prior experience with networking in general through my infosec experience and self-study, as well as the CCNA Cyber Ops. But it was the first time I touched the CLI of Cisco devices, and previously I hadn't gone all the way to master some topics, like subnetting for instance.

Doing the CCNA R&S is a personal goal and not required by my work or anything, but I'm already seeing how I now have a deeper understanding of some topics after the ICND1 and I'm happy with the ROI. Now I'm neck-deep in routing protocols and STP for the second part =D

Infosec_Sam

Congrats on the pass! Do you have a schedule in mind for your ICND2? I'm sitting on my CCENT as well, so I'm itching to get my CCNA completed before the Cisco changes!

securityorc

I think in around 2 months I'll be ready for ICND2, but with holidays coming up and other activities that I'm focusing on in parallel, I'm sure I'll take more time preparing for the second part.

Swift6

Good work. Keep up the momentum.

Lunchbocks

Congrats, and thanks for the study rundown. I am using Stormwinds Studio, CBT Nuggets, Chris Bryant's CCNA Video Boot Camp on Udemy, and Odom's ICND1 Official Cert Guide. I have 3 switches and 3 routers for a lab along with Boson's Netsim. Also, thanks for pointing me towards Lammle's Subnet practice page.  I need that!

I am hoping to test in 6 - 8 weeks.

DatabaseHead

Most IT professionals would benefit from taking the R&S IMO.