CCENT readiness?

nel

i know everyone is different but i just wanted to know peoples stories of when they felt they were ready for the ccent who have took the ccent exam recently??

im studying for this and i know there is no def answer but i feel i know the material well enough but with it being my first cisco exam im a little unsure!

hodgey87

hi,

im in exactly the same postion i feel that i ready but keep putting the exam off. i think this is all down to nerves.

CiscoCerts

nel wrote:

i know everyone is different but i just wanted to know peoples stories of when they felt they were ready for the ccent who have took the ccent exam recently??

im studying for this and i know there is no def answer but i feel i know the material well enough but with it being my first cisco exam im a little unsure!

If you feel you're ready then you are!

aragoen_celtdra

Now that I look back, I can't say that I was totally ready when I took the exam. It was really hard to say because I didn't have any idea what the test was gonna be like - was it going to be very similar to the mock practice exams I took or will the questions look very foreign to me?

I came into the exam confident because I have spent a lot of time studying (3 months total putting in 4-6 hours a day, 7 days a week). But readiness and confidence are differnet things. I really felt like 3 months was cramming. The amount of preparation I took was really the minimum amount required to "pass" the test. I put quotes in there because I felt that passing an exam doesn't mean that you have mastered a subject. It can mean that sometimes, but not always. For me, personally, It'll take more time and lots of real world, hands on experience to be able to say that I know the material.

So in short, i felt like I knew what i needed to know to pass the exam, but i definitely did not have complete mastery of it.

You can't go wrong with over studying and over preparation. That can only help you for the more advanced subjects.

dazerski

I am nervous too... Excited yet nervous. I feel like I am grasping the hands-on stuff better than things like network theory.

I know I have read multiple times from MikeJ412 that hands-on stuff is key. Which is great because again, I feel like I am picking that stuff up fairly well. I can't explain the importance (in my personal experience so far) of having the actual hardware/IOS to play around with. I need more though!

I went online to VUEs test site and signed up an account and looked for locations. I was shocked to see the CCENT test here is only $125. I don't know why but I thought it was going to be much much more. $125 is a lot of money to me but I think if I didn't make it the 1st time around, I wouldn't be so discouraged that I wouldn't take it again ASAP. Still... I really long to pass the 1st time.

Turgon

Cisco my friends is a long journey! I have been at it 10 years. How ready do you think I feel for the CCIE exam? Well not quite ready.. yet..but I was a CCNA candidate once!

Honest self appraisal is always best. Look at the study requirement and assess honestly how you have measured up to it! Some practice tests help here after significant reading time and ideally some hands on..ligitimate practice tests

If things look good there then it's time to give the test a whirl. If things work out..good. If they don't..reevaluate!

Allways remember networking is a long term thing..even grizzled CCIE's meet situations in the field that fox them..at least initially! Get the most you can from your cisco studies. The harder you study for Cisco at this level..the better you will be better on!

Good luck!

aragoen_celtdra

Turgon wrote:

Cisco my friends is a long journey! ... Get the most you can from your cisco studies. The harder you study for Cisco at this level..the better you will be better on!

This is the advise that I should really be inculcating in my head.

Sometimes I get too excited about moving on to the next level that I push myself to finish the CCNA quickly so I can move on to the more "meatier" stuff. The problem is, I'm probably missing out on the more fundamental things I should be mastering in the beginning.

Turgon

aragoen_celtdra wrote:

Turgon wrote:

Cisco my friends is a long journey! ... Get the most you can from your cisco studies. The harder you study for Cisco at this level..the better you will be better on!

This is the advise that I should really be inculcating in my head.

Sometimes I get too excited about moving on to the next level that I push myself to finish the CCNA quickly so I can move on to the more "meatier" stuff. The problem is, I'm probably missing out on the more fundamental things I should be mastering in the beginning.

It's a long term thing..really. I know a great deal but still learning! One has to decide if one want's the short road or the long road! So far as networking is concerned..the road is long! Remember..services like MS/Sun/Novell change and get waxed..transport is still required!