Sitting the CCDA tomorrow! ##UPDATE PASSED##

liquid6

Read through the Diana Teare CCDA book, and looking through the Quick Reference Sheets. Just completed my CCNP last month, strange sitting an exam that feels easy. Hopefully that doesn't mean that I haven't done enough study!! I guess time will only tell...

Looking to crack onto the CCDP before our baby is due in September...then CCIP next year and possibly looking to start a run at the CCIE.

Really like these forums, people seem to be nice unlike some of the other forums I have seen over the years.


Thanks,
Mark

shednik

Best of luck to ya liquid6 there are a few CCNPs that have taken the exam and felt it was easy due to their studies from the NP...none the less good luck and let us know how you do. I plan to sit this one sometime in the spring.

malcybood

Liquid,

I passed this exam on Friday. Here's an extract from my previous post on the exam lowdown (witout breaking the NDA)

So the lowdown on the exam and my study techniques;

- In total 9 months self study along with some network design experience from work
- Diane Teare Book second edition (Excellent book highly recommended)
- ciscopress book by bruno / jordan (ok but a bit light on subject matter to pass the exam),
- reference sheets by Kevin Wallace (640-863)
- Transcender 640-863 (£80 but worth it, very good prep)
- CBT Nuggets for BCMSN (wireless very helpful)
- Various Cisco SRND docs (mainly on voice, wireless and security) from cisco website. You can find pretty much every piece of info that is required and not in the books here http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns656/networking_solutions_program_home.html

I studied some evenings through the week when I wasn't doing fun stuff like playing football or at the gym lol but the main study time was on the train commute of 2.5 hours each way to see my girlfriend on weekends. I was already comfortable with around 60% of the syllabus course material from CCNA studies and work experience, so I concentrated on voice, security, wireless and routing protocol selection / IPV6, data center design (as cisco want you to know it!) areas. I did study the other topics just not in as much detail.

The exam had some obscure questions, including one which related to a Cat OS command, that's all I'll say but it was one that came from left field.

Anybody looking to sit this I'd say you probably need a good knowledge of the cisco product set what technology purpose is of different products in the wireless, security and voice areas. Know the enterprise model like the back of your hand, know how to calculate bandwidth required for voice calls and how many calls can be made etc, codec selection based on customer criteria and route summarization / IP addressing. You also need to know the purpose and basic characteristics of OSPF, IS-IS, EIGRP, BGP (4), RIPng and when to select them.

I think that sums it about up, extremely pleased to have this one under my belt.

Next up I have a Nortel Certification that I need to pass for work (being sent on a course) then sitting the NCTS - Converged IPT exam - this has to be done by August / Sep. After this I'm planning on putting myself through the CCNP network academy at university evening class which starts later this year.

Hope this helps
Malc

btowntech

Good luck!

APA

Good Luck mate

I too wish to sit this exam and CCDP exams later this year. CCNP and a few other things come first though Look forward to seeing your 'I passed' update!!!

Paul Boz

We're in the same boat my friend. I'm sitting it within the next week and finished the CCNP a few months ago.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices how brutally easy this material is. I didn't want to say that for fear of sounding cocky but if it's the going theme I'll go with it.

Best of luck.

liquid6

Just did a final run through with some final questions and now heading to bed(with some light reading of Routing TCP/IP vol 1 to put me to sleep).

I'll let everyone know how I get on tomorrow!


Mark

malcybood

Mark,

Good luck!

Malc

ITdude

Good luck and let us know how you did. I kinda liked this one in a weird way.

liquid6

It was as expected, pretty easy. There were a few tricky questions but just having done the CCNP made most of the questions seem easy.

Now if I had done this exam before my CCNP or CCNA i would have really struggled.

I really wish there were more CCDP, current exam materials out there! I loved the CCNP exams where you could watch 2 sets of Videos, read 3 or 4 books and do a ton of labs to prepare. The design stuff seems a bit fluffy...but oh well!


Thanks for the encouragement guys and look forward to studying for the ARCH exam, but really looking forward to the CCIP studies.

Thanks,
mark

Paul Boz

hehe good job man. As soon as I read that you recently nailed the CCNP I had great confidence in you. Are you jumping directly into the ARCH exam? I'm sitting the DESIGN exam either Wednesday or Thursday of this week depending on my wife's work schedule.

If you're jumping straight into the design we should collaborate.

nel

Congrats man, well done!

darkerosxx

Congrats liquid!

Without breaking the NDA, would you be able to explain why Cisco suggests having BCMSN knowledge before taking the CCDA?

liquid6

darkerosxx - I think that they want you to have a general knowledge of RPVST+, VTP, DTP, VLANs, trunks, etc...

I don't think you need to have passed or even read the BCMSN material, but if you have the questions that relate to the content covered will be easy.

If you look over Chapter 3 in the quick reference sheet I think it covers most of what you need to know. Now if you wanted to know the background, alternative technologies you would want to either learn from Cisco.com or use the BCMSN material.

Hope that helped, let me know if you have any specific questions and I can try to answer them.

Thanks,
Mark

APA

Congratz

astorrs

Congrats

darkerosxx

liquid6 wrote:

darkerosxx - I think that they want you to have a general knowledge of RPVST+, VTP, DTP, VLANs, trunks, etc...

I don't think you need to have passed or even read the BCMSN material, but if you have the questions that relate to the content covered will be easy.

If you look over Chapter 3 in the quick reference sheet I think it covers most of what you need to know. Now if you wanted to know the background, alternative technologies you would want to either learn from Cisco.com or use the BCMSN material.

Hope that helped, let me know if you have any specific questions and I can try to answer them.

Thanks,
Mark

Appreciate that, Mark! I'm starting on CCDA and your thoughts helped me figure a plan of attack. I hope you'll stick around so I can ask you lots of questions! lol

Again, congrats on CCDA!

btowntech

Congrats!!

malcybood

congrats on the pass

ITdude

Congrats and good work!

mikej412

Congratulations!