Books

bishop7

Well, I just learned that the CCNA Self-study guide books i've been reading are now obsolete (about 10 days after the fact...)

I see the new Self-Study guide isn't due to be released until December.

Are there any other recommendations until they are released (i'm assuming there are going to be 2 of them) or if there is something better I should look into? I suppose the books they have released (the exam cert guides, etc) are no substitue...

mikej412

The CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802), 3rd Edition by Odom are the books most of us here suggest for the CCNA -- and they are available now.

The other recommended CCNA book is Certified Network Associate Study Guide: Exam 640-802, 6th Edition by Todd Lammle. This is also the best book for subnetting -- and its also available now.

Cisco give 5-6 months warning when there is a major Certification change, and we had a flurry of people here attempting to beat the November 6th deadline. But the exam can also be tweaked at almost any time, so it's a good idea to check the Cisco Certification Exam page and keep a printed copy of the exam topics while you are studying and check it against the online page so you can easily notice if they make a change to the exam topics.

bishop7

Awesome, thanks for the links and the heads-up!

I'm just curious... what are the differences between the 'Exam Certification Guides' and the 'Self-Study Guides' (ie. http://www.ciscopress.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=1587051613 )

I had finished reading the INTRO book just last week and was going to delve into the old ICND book this week.

[edited for additional question]

mobri09

I have to order the new Sybex Book. Mike did you pick it up yet?

bighornsheep

bishop7 wrote:

I'm just curious... what are the differences between the 'Exam Certification Guides' and the 'Self-Study Guides' (ie. http://www.ciscopress.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=1587051613 )

The cert guides tend to focus on the exam preparation component, I find that they usually give more practice questions but less "case study" type of scenarios.

For the CCNA books, I've read the exam cert guides by Odom and I own the self-study guide by Mcquerry, the self-study guides are much better, more details, and more case studies to think about why things are the way they are.

r_durant

bishop7 wrote:

Well, I just learned that the CCNA Self-study guide books i've been reading are now obsolete (about 10 days after the fact...)

I wouldn't go as far as to say the books are obsolete...the new books build on those from the 801, the fundamental material shouldn't change, but the 802 books would obviously have in the new material...so you haven't wasted time by reading the Intro...

I'm sure when you start reading the 802 books you'll say 'oh i know that'...

Just my 2 cents...

bishop7

The cert guides tend to focus on the exam preparation component, I find that they usually give more practice questions but less "case study" type of scenarios.

For the CCNA books, I've read the exam cert guides by Odom and I own the self-study guide by Mcquerry, the self-study guides are much better, more details, and more case studies to think about why things are the way they are.

Yeah, as a newcomer to most of this stuff the self-study guides are probably my best bet -- i'm not just picking this up to get 4 letters in front of my name, but I dont' have enough money right now for the courses... unfortunately, the FIRST in the series of guides by McQuerry isn't coming out until late December, and who knows when the next in the series will be released for the second exam.