Study Materials?

Wondering what you all that have passed the exam recommend. I initially passed the CCNA in 2000, but I never re-certified so it's now expired... I am studying to take it again and am reading the Cisco Press books, but i'm not sure if these alone are enough for the exam. I score very very good on the practice exams from these books but i'm still not sure if that alone is a good indicator of how i'll do on the actual exams..

Again...what material are you all using that seems to be very relevant to what the exams cover now days?

Thanks.

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Comments

Slowhand

If you passed the exam once, you should be pretty well-prepared for a retake with just an updated book and a little bit of labtime. You probably need a refresher, more than anything else, along with some literature on updated technologies. Pick up a copy of the Sybex or Cisco press book, and you should be okay.

tsholls1

Hay whats up I got my ccna in 2000 too I am using cisco press and some old notes and books

good luck

dacashflo

I took my CCNA in Feb '03 and I am currently studying to get recertified. I have found that reading over the Cybex book a couple of times and doing some labs at home have greatly refreshed my memory. I actually remembered a lot of it after reading the book, I just need a little fine tuning and some practice exams before I will feel confident enough to pass.

tsholls1

study subnetting and nat and pat

wannanet

Well, don't know what to say. I am pretty bummed at the moment and could do with a little encouragement--and not sure how I'm going to follow up or if I'm going to follow up.

I also passed ccna in 2000 and found it fairly easy. I didn't have much experience with Cisco, but learned the basic configs and setups and used a couple of practice exams for study along with a couple books.

Yesterday I had a difficult awakening when I went to take the test (640-801) and failed pretty miserably. I was basically flummoxed by the sims and the troubleshooting and barely finished in time. What I had used for study was the exam cram book and the current selftest practice exams. The exam is definitely more difficult than it used to be....

I've been checking out these posts a lot in the last couple of days and wondering what if anything can help give me the confidence to go back and try it again. In my job, I unfortunately haven't got any contact with any cisco equipment, but that is always a desire. I've been seeing a lot of praise for the Boson Netsim software, but am wondering what it actually has that can help me. Has it actually got troubleshooting SIMS similar to what the exam might have, or is it just a lab that you play with?

Anyway, didn't mean to have my vent take away from your original question about study materials, but that was my experience and I hope I'll learn something from your post too! /J

dargueta

wannanet, i know what you mean. I've been holding off on the whole exam just because I know it's gotten harder from what i hear. When I originally took it in 2000, I passed it without even studying for it (I worked with cisco routers all day). I took a 3 year break from routers and am finding that reading the material isn't such a bad idea.....there is A LOT that I know already, but there is even more that I didn't really care to learn before that is becoming evident as important.

I am not sure how many people here have used the Cisco Press books alone and passed on those, but they seem very informative and full of information. I am going to finish reading them and then possibly purchase another book, something new and read that before I take the exam...just to make sure I have everything covered.

wannanet

Hey Dargueta,
Thanks for your comments. I've pulled out my old cisco press "Introduction to cisco router configuration" copyrighted in 1999 and started looking thru it. It's funny that I never even thumbed thru it before I took the test this time. And I see why people like it so much--it really is in a pretty readable format. And tho the text is very readable, the binding on the book itself is pretty bad--it's falling to pieces!

I seem to recall that there was a companion book that came with it, but I can't find it anywhere. Now I'm wondering if I ought to just go out and get the updated books. And apart from that I still feel like I might need to go with one of these sim thingies so that I have a little more confidence going in next time....

So you used to work with routers all the time, ehy? I seem to be doing ok working with servers, et al, but it has always been a desire of mine to work with routers and actually be part of a network team. Please keep me updated one way or another!

wannanet

How bout the CCNA certification KIT by Lammle that comes with the study guide book and the virtual lab platinum edition simulator software? Any comments about this software as compared to the Boson Net Sim? There's just so much out there I kind of like the idea of getting a "package."

mikej412

wannanet wrote:

Any comments about this software as compared to the Boson Net Sim?

There is a " I don’t have any equipment should I buy a Simulator?" section in the CCNA Forum FAQ -- you might find some info in those posts.

If you don't expect too much from the simulators, they usually do enough to get you through the CCNA.

bencher

I use video`s from trainsignal and via vpn I can use labs from my work. The video`s do a good job on explaining. But I have just started watching them. Good luck.