interspersing CCNP with non-CCNP exams ??

kaynaan

Hi guys I need a little bit of advice in formulating my plan of attack on my much feared adversary (CCNP)

ok now, seroiusly , My CCNA is about to expire in a few months and i really need to get at least 1 CCNP exam (probably BSCI) out of they way before then.

I have been told that the CCNP exams now incorporate a ton of wireless stuff especially in the switching exam so here is my strategy.

1- Do the BSCI within a 3 or 4 months to halt the expiration date on my CCNA

2- do a CWNA cert so i can be really grounded in the Wireless.

3- proceed with the remaining CCNP exams.

I would appreciate some feedback from the heavyweights, who might have a better idea or critique mine.

joshgibson82

To me, the BSCI was much more difficult than the BCMSN and I thought I knew routing better. I took the BSCI first and the BCMSN second. If I had to pass one in a hurry, I would go for the BCMSN. I guess it all depends on what you are more comfortable with.

The ONT on the other hand, is by far the thinnest book of them all, so maybe you should go for it first if you are familiar with VoIP and QoS.

Just my 3 or 4 cents...

mikej412

That's fine. You just have to remember that Cisco Exams are "good" for 3 years (Cisco Specialist exams for 2) -- so you have 3 years from "start to finish" to achieve the CCNP.

Your CCNA will get recertified and start a new 3 year CCNA Certification clock with each CCNP exam -- so the important thing is to get that 1st exam passed to keep your CCNA (which is a prerequisite for the CCNP).

I think it only feels like a ton of wireless to people who haven't done any wireless networking at all.

kaynaan

Thank you fellows for your advice.

joshgibson82 wrote:

The ONT on the other hand, is by far the thinnest book of them all, so maybe you should go for it first if you are familiar with VoIP and QoS.

Just my 3 or 4 cents...

This is a good idead because i do have some exposure to voip and Qos

and a limited use of a lab that has alot of voip equipment if this is the 'thinest'' sounds like a better target for me.

tech-airman

kaynaan wrote:

Hi guys I need a little bit of advice in formulating my plan of attack on my much feared adversary (CCNP)

ok now, seroiusly , My CCNA is about to expire in a few months and i really need to get at least 1 CCNP exam (probably BSCI) out of they way before then.

I have been told that the CCNP exams now incorporate a ton of wireless stuff especially in the switching exam so here is my strategy.

1- Do the BSCI within a 3 or 4 months to halt the expiration date on my CCNA

2- do a CWNA cert so i can be really grounded in the Wireless.

3- proceed with the remaining CCNP exams.

I would appreciate some feedback from the heavyweights, who might have a better idea or critique mine.

kaynaan,

As Mike mentioned, by taking and passing the 642-901 BSCI exam in order to recertify your CCNA will buy you 3 more years of life for your CCNA, it will also mark the beginning of your 3 year CCNP time frame. If you don't complete all 4 exams for the CCNP within 3 years, then you might have to fall back, study for the expired exams, retake the current exam for the expired exams, and maybe you might become a CCNP after taking more than 4 exams. Unless you just love stress, here's a more gradual suggestion.

1. Study for the 640-816 ICND2 exam material then take and pass the 640-816 ICND2 exam to solidly recertify your CCNA.
2. While your 3 year CCNA clock is ticking down, decide which first CCNP exam you'd like to take:
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3. 642-901 BSCI
4. 642-812 BCMSN
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5. In order for me to prepare myself for the Wireless section of the BCMSN, I took the "Fundamentals of Wireless LANs" course at my local Cisco Networking Academy. This course was definitely above and beyond the Wireless section of the Cisco Press "Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN)" book but at least it gave me a very solid foundation. If you want the material of the "Fundamentals of Wireless LANs" course without the Cisco Networking Academy attendance due to personal time commitments, there's the Cisco Press "Fundamentals of Wireless LANs Companion Guide (Cisco Networking Academy)" book.

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Since you're mentioning that you're planning to take and pass the 642-901 BSCI in 3~4 months in order to recertify your CCNA in time, then that means you took and passed the 640-801 CCNA generation of exams to become CCNA certified approximately Sept 2005. The time from Sept 2005 to June 2008 is plenty of time for your CCNA level knowledge and skills to deteriorate. The new 640-802 CCNA generation of exams covers more Wireless than the 640-801 CCNA generations of exams (which covered 0 Wireless), so maybe use the 640-816 ICND2 studies as your "introduction to Wireless" studies?

I'm currently enrolled in the CCNP: Building Scalable Internetworks v5.0 course at my local Cisco Networking Academy. This course is 8 weeks long. Since they're a Cisco Networking Academy, they're required to have the equipment and IOS to be able to do every single one of the Labs. So if you're possibly "cash flow challenged" so you have to wait for the income in order to purchase all your equipment for self-study purposes, then having to wait for shipping delays, your "3~4 month time frame" may become not be feasible. Also what I'm learning is that you need to be solid on your wired routing stuff from the CCNA level to be able to hit the ground running for the 642-901 BSCI material. That's why I'm suggesting that you get spooled up by taking and passing the 642-816 ICND2 exam. You should know stuff like static routing, the overall routing process, RIPv1, RIPv2 (know ALL the reasons why classless subnetting is better than classful subnetting, as well as the shortcomings of RIPv2 even with classless subnetting), EIGRP (basic), and single area OSPF rock solid before going into the 642-901 BSCI material.

If you take your time to study well between recertifying your CCNA and your first CCNP exam, then you'll conserve the overall 3 year time frame earn your CCNP. Since each CCNP exam pass will automatically recertify your CCNA, essentially you'd just need to make sure that you pass at least 1 additional CCNP exam before one year has gone by.

Good luck in accomplishing your goal.

Source:

1. CCNA - Caeer Certifications & Paths - Cisco Systems - http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/le2/le0/le9/learning_certification_type_home.html
2. Fundamentals of Wireless LANs Companion Guide (Cisco Networking Academy) - http://www.ciscopress.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=1587131196

scheistermeister

I took the old CCNA composite exam in Jan of this year for my CCNA (if you are in the Net Acad you can take the old CCNA exams until sometime in July of this year). Then I took a break from testing on Cisco and just recently started again with the BCMSN (which to me was very easy). Right now I am getting ready to take the ONT within the next week. Personally I think the BCMSN and ONT are the easiest out of all the CCNP classes I have been through in the Net Academy and would suggest either one as a one for someone to use to recertify.

kaynaan

Tech-airman

your assumptions are spot on:

- i took the 640-801 in late 2005
- have not applied much of what I've learned therefore it has deteriorated significantly


my main problem is my knowledge of Computer networks is 'lopsided' by that i mean:

1- I have alot of 'Academic' knowledge but very little practical real world.

2- I know alot of trivial things in great detail but many of the stuff considered 'basic' i am missing for example for a course i did i wrote my own implementation of 'traceroute' in C , but i had trouble doing cabling.

2- I'm no slouch, infact Im top of my class with a 3.8 GPA but many of my classmates are CCNP's we even have 2 CCIE's and this problem, i believe will become an obstacle to me as i move into the more advanced courses in my Masters.

*before anybody goes the courses i've taken in the first year have been low level layer I stuff mostly communications & signalling, my engineering background is the only reason i have been able to outscore my CCIE classmates* but in the second year we move into Advanced routing & traffic Engineering so i am expecting to take a 'licking'

3- I can do:

- Voip & Qos
- Multicasting

but i dont know anything about:

- route mapping & route redistribution
-bgp
-ISIS

so you see I'm all over the place.


currently I work as Dekstop support/Network support so im working my way up the ladder but nonetheless it's time to roll up my sleeves and conquer the beast that is the CCNP.

My objective is not only to prevent my CCNA from expiring but I am interested in what the CCNP has to offer :

- fill out some of my holes
- the knowledge
- better career oppurtinity.

for those who have given advice, i do appreciate it thanks.

Paul Boz

If you still have your old CCNA study material go over it and nail the BSCI. Its not as hard as many people make it out to be if you have the time and dedication to actually learning the material. Read over the routing protocols at a CCNA level to backfill your memory loss then go deeper until you've satisfied the requirements of the BSCI. You get a freebie exam if you fail it so you don't have to worry about not being ready or not. If you think you're good on it take it. If you fail it, at least you know most of the questions you'll see the second time and you can fill in the knowledge you don't have. You have to approach it with vigor if you have time limits.

scheistermeister

Paul Boz wrote:

If you still have your old CCNA study material go over it and nail the BSCI. Its not as hard as many people make it out to be if you have the time and dedication to actually learning the material. Read over the routing protocols at a CCNA level to backfill your memory loss then go deeper until you've satisfied the requirements of the BSCI. You get a freebie exam if you fail it so you don't have to worry about not being ready or not. If you think you're good on it take it. If you fail it, at least you know most of the questions you'll see the second time and you can fill in the knowledge you don't have. You have to approach it with vigor if you have time limits.

The same goes with the old CCNA and the new BCMSN. I thought it was the easiest CCNP class I have been through since a whole lot of it was covered by the old CCNA.