how many hours a week do you study?

The Prize Is Lobster

as of right now I am about at the halfway point and I took a test and did pretty poorly on it. I figure I definetly need to step up the pace a bit, and the study habits thread was a good reference point.


Beyond that, how many hours a week are you spending studying? To those of you who have passed...how long did it take/how often/etc?

NightShade1

Well when i studied for CCNA ummm maybe like 2 hours a day for like dunno 3 or 4 months??

Just try to understand the basic concepts for real and practice a lot with a laboratory and you will be fine.... I did fine by doing that

MrfixitRight

I try to get at least 3-4 hours a day reading or doing labs or something CCNA related. But then, I'm going thru CCNA classes and have to complete the whole thing in another couple of weeks. In my 6th week of studies and started 4 1/2 weeks ago. (Has it been that long???) And of course it helps that the school has routers and switches set up for hands-on labs. And of course, reading and posting to this forum has been a lot of help! But you may have to go a different route, that's just me, nose to the grindstone. Don't get me wrong, I do take my breaks too. (Missed a whole weekend of studies last weekend, just had to take a break!) Good luck to you!

emsrescue

I have averaged about 10 hours a week over 6 Months including 4 day schools.

Jon

Paul Boz

I spend about 3 hours a day studying for school and 2 or 3 studying Cisco and Scientific Atlanta. I never stop learning

Darthn3ss

... all i can say is not nearly enough.

although i did pass my first exam today with a 97, so i guess i'm doing something right.

rjbarlow

Approximately 3 or 4 hours a day, but not all days, over 1 month, but maybe is not enough...

iproute

Roughly 5 hours during the week then 8 hours on the weekend. Been doing this for about a month. I also had a 32 hour boot camp style class and have taken 4 vacation days where I knocked down about 8 hours per day. Currenelty, I score 90ish consistently on practice exams (of various flavors including the ones from the Cisco and Sybex books). I take INTRO on 5/4. Hope I'm ready.

markzab

I think once you start getting the core knowledge out of the way it will take some of you guys less time to prep for a test. I'm only doing about 2-3 (max) hours per day and maybe about 5-6 days a week and am pushing for 2 months/test max. I had better numbers in the past but I was younger and didn't have as many responsibilities.

I'm pretty sure that many of you will notice your TTP (time to pass...hmm, I like that) will start to drop once you pass your 1st or 2nd NP test. Info will start to overlap and you'll get your own system going. Also, the little voice in your head saying "wait, dont take it yet, study for another week" will be gone and logic will take over.

kafifi13

I know what you mean about the voice. I scheduled out my INTRO a month in advance and wishing it was only 2 weeks max. i'm taking it this Monday so we'll see how it goes. I have the worst luck though, My PC crashed which sucks and need to borrow another Pc from work or something to re-install all of my simulators and find those practice tests i downloaded.

markzab

kafifi13 wrote:

I know what you mean about the voice. I scheduled out my INTRO a month in advance and wishing it was only 2 weeks max. i'm taking it this Monday so we'll see how it goes. I have the worst luck though, My PC crashed which sucks and need to borrow another Pc from work or something to re-install all of my simulators and find those practice tests i downloaded.

The voice strikes again!

Slowhand

I get four hours a week allocated to cert-studying at work (two hours, two days per week). Those for hours are my "guaranteed" hours, and I usually try to squeeze in a few more here and there, throughout the week. Well, come to think of it, when it's slow, I can spend almost 20 hours a week studying, but that's pretty rare. Thanks to getting the time at work, and the attitude of my employers that I should be using what I'm studying, I don't really take all that much time outside of work to study. When I'm doing a Cisco cert, my bosses put me on routing and switching projects. When I'm doing Microsoft certs, I'm working with AD or with Exchange. The same goes for Linux, various security certs, etc.

The only time I'll spend studying outside of work hours is a few days or a week prior to the actual exam. Since I work full-time and go to school in the evenings, it's a little tricky to find the time to study, so I usually save that kind of time-management for "crunch-time". All in all, I guess I average anywhere from 5 - 15 hours per week of studying for whatever cert I'm doing, (not including the actual project time where I'm beating my head against the wall, trying to figure out why something's not working).

aquilla

To quote someone else earlier on - "not nearly enough". My workload at work has increased dramatically and I no longer have time to sit and read a CCNA book for half an hour!

I try to get about 3 hours of studying a night, but I find some of that time taken up with doing 'work' duties. I know I shouldn't take work home, but it's the only way it will get done until we get some more staff!!

The Prize Is Lobster

related to this, is there anyone who is going the self study route that would be interested in reviewing/quizzing thru AIM or the like? I dont know how helpful it'd be, but I have my girlfriend run thru flash cards and ask me questions. While it helps, she doesnt understand the material and if I give an answer that isnt verbatim she thinks its wrong.

markzab

The Prize Is Lobster wrote:

related to this, is there anyone who is going the self study route that would be interested in reviewing/quizzing thru AIM or the like? I dont know how helpful it'd be, but I have my girlfriend run thru flash cards and ask me questions. While it helps, she doesnt understand the material and if I give an answer that isnt verbatim she thinks its wrong.

That's the point. When you can sit there and explain why your answer was actually correct you're retaining a lot more than you might think.

The Prize Is Lobster

yeah thats true.

Rearden

Studying not as many as I'd like to. It's the last week of the semester at my College and I'm swamped with work. However, I do have a feeling I'll be able to make my presentation on dynamic programming fit nicely with networking.

impelse

10 hours a week, doing for 6 months.

Aquabat [banned]

7 hours a week for 4 months

Daniel333

I've been studying about... oh. 4 hours on Wednesdays and then maybe another one hour worth when I get free time at work on Saturdays. I probably spend half my Wednesdays reviewing what I forgot from the previous week.

markzab

Daniel333 wrote:

I've been studying about... oh. 4 hours on Wednesdays and then maybe another 1 worth when I get free time at work on Saturdays. So much much at all, I probably spend half my Wednesdays reviewing what I forgot from the previous week.

Hey, look at it this way, pretty soon you'll be a master at Chapter 1, the OSI model.