Study plan / Study habits

phreak

I asked this in the CCNA forum but was refered to ask here.


I am looking to find out from the best-of-the-best, what your study habits or plans are. How do you approach your books each night?

Do you start a plan to read X chapters a night/week and get X number of labs done?

dtlokee

Study plan, make one and stick to it. I don't set an amount of material I am going to cover, just the amount of time I am going to set aside for study. I usually start with reading a book to get the overview and make notes of anything that isn't sitting well to remind myself to go do more digging on the topic, and I make note cards for any terms or acronyms I need to memorize. As I go through the book I will try to devise some labs to do based on what I'm reading, to test the technology, and write them down in a notebook. When I finish the book I will go back and start doing labwork based on the end of chapter labs and the ones I came up with. I will usually go back and re-read the book along with any whitepapers I found on the subjects (also pay attention to the end of the chapter becuase they may have URLs there) Making any notes for future reference. It has done me well so far.

sprkymrk

Turgon's thread in the CCIE forum has an ongoing documentary of his study habits, have you checked that out?

I believe his mantra is "Slow, steady, and consistent". In other words you can't "cram" the CCIE. You have to constantly review what you know (or knew) and really absorb what the books and labs teach you. It's an exam you cannot approach in the traditional "I'll study 2 hours a day for 3 months to be ready" sense. It's an accumulation of knowledge gained and learned over time with no shortcuts. At least that is my take on his methodology.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23875

phreak

I just finished reading his study log. Very good plan.


I just am looking for a few different methods so that I can maybe use parts of them in my own plan. I still am trying to get past the CCNA, but I want to build a study plan that will carry me all the way through the IE.