CCNA Exam - Questions

centinal

I have been working for an isp for 2 years
now and know quite abit about routing and have been studying really hard for the CCNA exam. I'm not looking for any cheating info, but those of you who have taken the exam, ive got one question the questions that cisco ask you, do they ask "select two answers" or "select all that apply". Just out of curiousity. Ohh and is the test really really hard, seen as ive prolly got about 3 months hard study under me belt, and two routrs and a 1900 switch ive been playing with for 1 month or so?? I get the feeling that these study guides over prepare you or is that just me??? Let me know anyways. Im taking the test in one week btw.

Webmaster

Welcome centinal,

They almost always tell you how much answers to choose.

The studyguides do overprepare you, especially when it comes to router commands. You probably don't need to worry about the router simulations considering you have actual experience. The commands questioned in the exam are the very basic commands for which even a router simulator would over prepare you.
I wouldn't rate the exam really really hard if you know the network basics AND have hands-on experience with routers and switches AND you read a study guide (I prefer Cisco Press, or anything from Todd Lammle) than the exam is very do-able

I hope this helps!

Good luck on your exam and let us know how it went.

centinal

Thanks for that mate....i passed on saturday morning and am very happy.....its my ticket out of my current job methinks......any ideas what sort of salary CCNAs get on average??

;o)

I found the exam easy as i had a sybex study guide and notes (read both 3 times) and a 6CD course with todd lamle taking you thought the steps/objectives.....recommend that to anyone.

On to CCNP, anyone recommend any materials for the 4 exams?

centinal

BTW...like the site mate

Webmaster

Congratulations!

CCNA should make you more valuable on the job market, but the salary depends a lot on the (ccna-) tasks you perform on the job, so it is pretty much undoable to give an average.
CCNA was for me a ticket out of a 'current' job, finally I was able to go from sys admin to network admin.

You now got the hands-on and the certification, which should definitely improve your odds.

Good luck with the CCNP! (be sure to try out the new BSCI exam I have uploaded a couple of days ago. )
I'm working on a link directory and there will be some good resources in it, I'll try to post a couple in the CCNP forums.

And thanks for the compliment about the site!

Brando146

Hello there! First posting.. I wanted to sort of continue on in this line of questioning. I wanted to know from you "webmaster", how did you go about getting your first job after you finished the certs?

By this I mean, that I am in the middle of a career change, attending a Year Long "network Engineer" program with multiple platforms with their certs, including MCSE, CUSA, Novell Netware 5.1 and of course Cisco CCNA.

I have heard many arguments regarding certifications versus experience.. The present economy aside, what would you advise someone like me who used to build airplanes but is now knee deep in the IT field having obtained 4 cert designations thus far??

P.S> Great site you have here!

Webmaster

Welcome Brando,

I was lucky enough to have a job in IT before I got my first cert (CNA 3.12). I started out at a very small company with 2 people being the 'IT departement'... and I wasn't one of them. In a couple of months I went from archiving/data entry to macros in lotus and ms access to application support to desktop support (bought my first pc when I was 12 ) and a couple of months after that I was adding users, home dirs, login scripts etc. to a Netware 3.12 server. I wanted to do more with the servers and the network environment but they wouldn't let me go any further. So I got my CNA, that resulted in 'supervisor' access but after two years improving all that could be improved I still didn't get paid accordingly.
I took a job at an out-source company and they were very willing to pay all the costs to get all the certs I wanted. Although not at first, since I was working at large companies now I had to work myself up again starting with a call-desk job and my 'boss' felt I didn't need MCSE for that. So instead of letting them pay an expensive course I asked for a book (NT 4 workstation) and 1 exam voucher, I passed the first time and from that point on I was really lucky: when I was studying for NT 4 server they got me a job administering 2 NT 4 servers, when I was studying for proxy 2 the company I worked for at that moment needed a proxy server, and even when I was studying for Exchange 5.5 another company I worked for needed two exchange server on two different locations.
When I got my CCNA working at company where I was implementing exchange servers I noticed they didn't have any access-lists configured on the router directly connected to the internet, so I asked if I could do a quick pilot (about the same time I was at the chapter Access Lists in my ccna book. ) this enabled me to get hands-on and study for the exams at the same time.
I never waited till the job came to me, it took a lot of convincing sometimes but also being there at the right moment had a lot to do with it.

Brando146 wrote:

The present economy aside, what would you advise someone like me who used to build airplanes but is now knee deep in the IT field having obtained 4 cert designations thus far??

The first thing I did when I started to realise certifications really helped but I still needed proof of hands-on experience is build up a resume by taking short term jobs, pretty much every I could get.
You probably do get a lot of hands-on during a year long program, but employers also 'appreciate' experience actually working in the IT field, not just experience with certain hard- or software.

I hope this is somewhat useful

Johan

Brando146

Thanks very much Johan for the advice. I will take it with much enthusiasm. You are correct in assuming my year long program we have lots of hands on lab simulations and such.

Funny you mentioning access-lists, as I have just completed the CCNA module and if this were a month ago, I wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about, so something must be sinking in!