Reasonable Timeline?

g7morris

Hello TechExam gurus,

Chalk this post up to nerves and losing sight of place in the studying forest. Need some positive reinforcement and guidance please! Also hopefully this will help someone else out with same thoughts, questions or predicament.

Here is the skinny.

Class/Course:
Took a CCNA course at a local community college from May 23 to June 20th. It met on Tuesdays & Thursdays for 4 hours. 5pm-9pm. Instructor was good and explained a lot of material. Also gave out very good detailed notes/Powerpoint slides. Kept up with all of the assigned reading, labs and active during class. Even took notes of my own.

Books covered and used:
-W. Odom - Cisco Press CCNA Self Study-Intro & ICND
-T. Lammle- Sybex 5th Edition Cisco Certified Network Associate
-In addition, went out and bought Exam Cram 2nd Edition CCNA 640-801 for additional frame of reference.

Hardware/Labs
-Bought RouterSim 5.0 for NAT feature.
-Purchased 2950 switch, 1720 & 2610 routers with cable from CiscoKits.com. Have setup and am configuring interfaces, ACLS, VLANs as we speak...

Have covered/read all of the material and now planning study review session for final prep for exam.

Plan for each day:

-1 hour subnetting, hex and decimal conversions. building subnet calculator for exam
-2 hours reviewing, drilling and using flash cards
-1 hour labs, using routersims & hardware
-1 hour testing using MeasureUp.com, CDs with practice questions and Cisco.com website

4-5 hours total a day and of course double on weekends.

Timetable: Shooting for taking the 640-801 on July 5th in the morning.

So the question is does this seem like a reasonable effort towards passing in the next 16 days?

Or have I greatly amused the CCNA gods and gurus and need to be reasonable about my timetable?

Anything to add in the aresenal of study tools?
Thanks in advance.

Humper

Go and find out if it's doable

mikej412

g7morris wrote:

Timetable: Shooting for taking the 640-801 on July 5th in the morning.

Hum.... day after the 4th of July.... fireworks late at night... early morning test. Are you in the US? I'd rethink that part of your plan if you are -- unless you've already decided that you'll be too nervous to sleep and are using the fireworks as an excuse to cover your sleeplessness.

As for your plan -- modify it as you go along. If you've got subnetting down from the Sybex book, test yourself, and if you're good now -- schedule another practice next week and use that subnetting time for additional study on a weak point. I put the subnetting practice web links in the CCNA "hello everybody" thread today. And check out those flash links ModemHumper just posted tonight.

Reviewing, drilling, flash cards -- sounds great. Hands-on -- sounds great. As you get closer to the exam, adjust your time as needed.

Practice tests -- should be fine if you do them once to identify weak points for further study and review. More then once (maybe twice) and they are flash cards (which you already have).

Oh -- you didn't mention your experience level before the class. Were there exams or evaluations during the class? Any idea where you stand right now in relation to the objectives posted on the cisco website for the CCNA exam?

The plan does sound good -- the only wildcard left is you.

g7morris

Thanks for the replies.

I can appreciate that there is always that element of these exams, the "just do it approach". Sometimes that is the only thing to do.

The class itself had a couple of "mini" quizzes and reviews but nothing so formal as to be graded. I was getting better over time.

My experience is that I've been a network admin, PC Tech/slave, tech support etc., etc. for more than 5 years. I've tested software, installed OSes and even setup networks. Now while mainly I've been playing with SOHO devices, a Cisco router has floated my way before. Granted I was logging in to collect stats not configure but even so they were familar. I have a BA, a MCP and Network +. I've also taken other classes for scripting, programming, dbase etc.

I feel like I stand around 50% in the relations to the objectives. I feel a bit nervous given the amount to cover and the amount of commands to know. I'm sure I'm being hard on myself but what better way to push oneself. I think once I have a couple of days of testing with MeasureUp and a few other resources, I'll be able to provide a better a picuture.

As for the 5th of July, yes I am a proud New Englander and live where Daniel Shays once led men in revolt but I will not be partying. Not to be cornball but passing this CCNA could prove to be an "independence day!" of sorts. I plan on being locked away, tuning out the fireworks and going over STP, VTP, ISDN, EIGRP, OSPF, etc.

Cheers all and thanks for taking the time to help out.

wizarddeath

Kind of where I am, I Am about to fins my college course on Cisco for the CCNA exam, it met 5 saturdays 6 hours a day. Read the sybex CCNA 5th ed book. Completed that book, Finshed the labs, using subnetingquestions.com, I plan on taking the test next week....Ive done some of the practice test(it doesn't seem TO bad).

I would say for your level of study, you should be A-ok.(I think anyway, Ill let you know for sure after next week) ;p

mikej412

g7morris wrote:

My experience is that I've been a network admin, PC Tech/slave, tech support etc., etc. for more than 5 years. I've tested software, installed OSes and even setup networks.

Ah... so you got the skills.

Yep -- with your plan, you should do fine.

If we were betting, I be in for $100 on a first try pass.

g7morris

Thanks for the encouragement everyone.

I will come up for air on July 5th.

Time to lock myself away to study.

Have found Cisco's Prep center to be a wealth of knowledge, even the cartoons. If they could only get Ren & Stimpy to explain subnetting...

Cheers.

homerj742

I loved that subnetting cartoon.

Trailerisf

g7morris wrote:

Thanks for the encouragement everyone.

I will come up for air on July 5th.

Time to lock myself away to study.

Have found Cisco's Prep center to be a wealth of knowledge, even the cartoons. If they could only get Ren & Stimpy to explain subnetting...

Cheers.

Yeah you'll do fine... Network + will give you a good jumpstart... Your experience will help "guess" the questions you don't know... The time you spend studying will absorb into your brain...


You've got it passed before you even go there.

g7morris

Yeah you'll do fine... Network + will give you a good jumpstart... Your experience will help "guess" the questions you don't know... The time you spend studying will absorb into your brain...

Appreciate the sentiment however reality seems to be quite different. Spent 4-5 hours during the weekdays and 8+ on the weekends since the 1st post and still don't feel ready. Have taken most of the Measureup.com tests and passed, even taken the Cisco.com questions and passed. But at this point I think I've just memorized the questions by osmosis and repitition.

So...ACLs, VLAN routing configuration, ISDN reference points and devices, and summarization is just kicking my ***. Granted I can explain it to my wife but am losing some of the commands, syntax over time and I keep freezing on quizzes. Did the Cisco.com sims but no help...still forgetting and not retaining.

Any tips or handy mneumonic devices especially for ACLS?

I know this is last minute but I just came up for air tonight.

Test is tomorrow @ 9:30 am.

Feel about 70-75% but not 849/1000. Damn. Oh well, I'll stop posting and keep studying.

Thanks for listening and good luck everyone. Keep at it. Don't give up. Ever.

wizarddeath

Let us know how you do!!! Goodluck!!!

Mines tomorrow at 1:15 pm. Exam is pretty straight forward. If you do fail the first time, no biggie(quite a few people failed the first time....myself included.) Youll know your weak areas then.

g7morris

Wizarddeath. best of luck to ya.

Again big points for the www.subnettingquestions.com URL. saved my butt there.

I think you'll crush the exam this time.

I'm hoping to put a dent into it tomorrow.

Back to reading.....

Cheers. I'll post either way in the evening.

mikej412

Good Luck!

Watch your time management on the exam. Cisco even tells you not to spend more than 10 minutes on the sims.

Try and relax -- and don't worry, I didn't bet the cat food money on you.

webistan

Don't be afraid to fail after you've done your best I've learned that if you aren't anxious about failing, you can direct your mental energy to succeed than worrying about failure:)

Olajuwon

Good luck dude. Let us know how it goes tommorrow.

Danman32

Good luck! If for some reason you do not pass, you can then get access to Cisco's prep site: http://forums.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/PrepCenter?page=main

From there you can do several practice and sample sims.

I don't know why Cisco has it that you can't access the prep center to prepare for the CCNA, until you have taken one of their tests. Most of us take the one test combo, so effectively you can't prepare with them unless you don't pass.

mikej412

Danman32 wrote:

I don't know why Cisco has it that you can't access the prep center to prepare for the CCNA, until you have taken one of their tests.

A regular cisco.com guest level registration is good enough for access to the prep center. Its the Cisco Certification Community that requires a certification or CQS -- and even then some of the content/forums is/are available elsewhere on the Cisco web site through different links.

Danman32

They must have changed it then. I even read an old interview where you needed to take (not necessarily pass) at least one Cisco exam to get access to the prep center, as you needed a Cisco ID to enable access.

Puffy Elvis

Well, this may be a bit late... but I would recommend tripling your lab time. I also took the exam today (July 5th) and failed with an 837. I also ran out of time (by a lot).

My experience was that you really need to know how to troubleshoot quickly and the best way to do that is plenty of lab configurations.

In any case, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. If you pass, CONGRATS!!!

If not, don't feel bad... I hear it takes an average of 3 tries.

g7morris

Well that sucked. Brain totally froze. No biggie though. Got a good look. Know EXACTLY what I need to focus on and now i plan on leveling it. Thanks for the encouragement. This forum rocks. Good luck everyone else and STUDY, STUDY, STUDY!