CCNA EXAM FIRST TIME

Mapua_ECE_96

HI there,

Im currently reviewing for the CCNA exams for the first time. Is it advisable if i take the exam without attending the review school ? what i mean is just sel review?


regards.

happy420golucky

That really depends on you my friend. You have to ask yourself:

What is your learning style?Are you more likely to understand concepts being explained by an instructor? Or can you learn by studying books and material on your own?
Can you afford to go to this course/school if need be? See you have to ask yourself that.

Personnally, I can study on my own pretty well. When it comes to hard concepts that totally have me at a loss, I like to have an instructor there to have on the spot questions answered for me. So I decided to save up the money and take the CCNA course on my own and will be taking a CCNP course in the next month. Thank god my company is going to be paying for the CCNP course. If they wouldn't have done it, I still would have ended up paying.

Paul Boz

Most people here will probably tell you that spending lots of money on bootcamps and Cisco Academy courses is a waste of money. You can pick up a good book (I like the Sybex offering) and learn everything you need to know for the one and two test routes. If you REALLY need some form of instruction, there are ample training videos out there (Train Signal, CBT Nuggets, and Mind Leaders) come to mind. The only people I know that have used the Cisco Academy are people who's employers paid for it.

Pash

I spent £8,000 on a full 2year bootcamp for:

A+

N+

MCSE core + any elective

CCNA

All course books and prepared mateirals. Including some very nice lab equipment.

Job Gurantee at the end, all exams to be passed before this became valid though.

You could retake the courses as many times as you liked during those 2 years, and the tutors were always available to chat to. As you can see I didnt pass all the exams so I didnt get the job gurantee, which i was disappointed at.

This was back before I knew much about IT aside from the very basic stuff. In hindsight I probably would of just got some books myself and some CBT nuggets.....and gone on my own. But I did meet some very knowledgeable tutors and industry vets there, so that in itself was a massive bonus. So it depends on how you like to learn, hands on with support from others or on your own where you dont have access to everything you might need.

Cheers,

sprkymrk

Paul Boz wrote:

The only people I know that have used the Cisco Academy are people who's employers paid for it.

I know many that take this as part of their college/university curriculum as well.

Netstudent

Ya thats kinda what I do, but it's not really the academy. So much cisco material overlaps with my Routing and switching classes and my Data communication classes. So it really gives me a chance to pick up those certs as I'm going along in my degree program. It's funny though because everyone in one my classes would rather me teach the classes than the instructor. Partly because he sucks and because i'm pretty good with this stuff. Me being a student allows me to explain it in a way the other students can understand.

wait2dominate

sprkymrk wrote:

Paul Boz wrote:

The only people I know that have used the Cisco Academy are people who's employers paid for it.

I know many that take this as part of their college/university curriculum as well.

That's why I'm taking the Academy classes. I'm still learning it on my own from the books though, as a previous instructor I had left me with little faith in the program.

But as other posters have said...it's really up to your learning style. If you are already IT and can book learn, I'd do that. If you need the 'stability' and the constant learning pace that a class will offer, if that makes sense, go that route.

In the long run, it's what works for you to learn it, not what works for others. Weigh out previous experiences with classes/self learning and go from there. And it helps to have a grasp on general IT beforehand. I've seen to many people in the classes have a hard time because they didn't know basic things.

ilcram19

i took the acadamy course it doesn garantee you gonna pass the ccna test...i will recomend self study....read,read, techexam, read then read so more, plus for ccna u dont really need a lab..another advantage u be ccna soone than with the course

Darthn3ss

Pick up the sybex CCNA book. its good stuff. The cisco Intro/ICND books are also decent, but since they updated the CCNA you may want to wait until new material comes out before you start studying for it.