Wendell Odem or Steve McQuerry

Hey everyone,

Any thoughts on which one of these guys is better. I had to a Wendell Odem book for a little bit, ICND1, the book was real long and contained 18 chapters. Now I have a Steve McQuerry book and there are 3 times less chapters compared to Wendell's. I know Wendell Odem is real popular but do guys think Steve would do? I will obviously be using some other source to study as well, I am just at the starting point and going through a book a my first task in preparation.

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nicklauscombs

I am using the Odom books however a fantastic second source is Todd Lammle's book from Sybex press cyou should definitely look into this

peanutnoggin

nicklauscombs wrote:

I am using the Odom books however a fantastic second source is Todd Lammle's book from Sybex press cyou should definitely look into this

+1, I've used the Odom books about a year and a half ago. In comparison with the Todd Lammle book, I would give the edge to Lammle. I'm unsure of the McQuerry book. I haven't heard much on it. Perform a search on McQuerry in the TE search, you should come up with some more info on the book. Hope this helps.

~Peanut Head

nicklauscombs

Lammle's book has such an easy to read writing style i love it

LBC90805

I feel the Odom books, being from Cisco, tend to be much more technical. Going further in depth than Lammle's books. Todd gives you what you need to pass and does it in a much easier and friendlier tone.

I used Odom's ICND1 book to pass the CCENT. Also CBT nuggets and packet tracer for command line practice. That was it. For the 816 I'm using Odom's ICND2 with CBTnuggets and also have Todd's exam cram that I haven't cracked open yet. I started using a dated version of Boson netsim. It makes you configure antiquated equipment such as 1900 switches and commands associated with ISDN and such. Stuff that isn't covered on the current CCNA. So I feel like I'm wasting some of my time but ultimately I figure I won't hurt to learn it.

coffeeking

Thanks guys for the replies. Looks like not a lot of people have heard of Steve McQuerry, but I think I will still use it as something to start with, since I didn't have to pay for the book why not go ahead and use it. Then I think I will go with Lammle's book, it seems to be pretty popular. Thanks again for the input.

peanutnoggin

coffeeking wrote:

but I think I will still use it as something to start with, since I didn't have to pay for the book why not go ahead and use it.

Free is always good!

Let us know what you think of the book.

~Peanut Head

coffeeking

Will do.

Haven't really started on it yet. Compared to Odem's, this book contains a less number of chapters, like 6 for ICND1..one of the reason why I thought this book might not be very informative, since there are only 6 chapters covering all ICND1 objectives, but will go through the book and let you know how it is.

Aaronfb

I've read Steve's and Odems book. Both cover the same material from two different angles. Steve's is the learning books, Odem's is the preparation book. Odem's lays out what to study and know (memorize these commands, memorize this table, define these words). Steve gives you the material. There is quite a bit of duplication between the two books. If you have the means I would recommend both, if you don't have the means get Odem's. Odems's comes with the subnetting DVD and the practice question CD. I've read the CCENT material in Lammle's book and personally prefer Steves and Odem's books more. I found Lammle's writing style a bit annoying and not the best for learning. His labs are great but that's about it IMHO.

coffeeking

Aaronfb, you are right it seems that Steve doesn't given you great details and just tell you about the stuff and how it works, Odem goes into way more details. Since for right now I have Steve's, so I am planning to go over them to an idea of all the stuff in CCNA objectives, and then I also have the Cisco Academy CCNA package, which one of my friend used and passed the exam, it comes with the simulators and stuff. So I am planning to do the books first and then the Cisco Academy package, and hopefuly that should get me to pass the exam.

suffah

I'm reading both Odom's and Lammle's books and I say that two sources are always better than one.

I'm a bit concerned now.
Are you saying that the Exam Certification Guide by Wendell Odom is better than the Self Study Guide by Steve McQuerry?

I bought the latter but I can still exchange it as the course may be postponed.
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