What is the hardest topic to study for CCNA?

Here's a poll mainly to see on which topics we should focus in our practice exams and TechNotes. The options correspond pretty much with the exam objectives.

Johan

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Comments

SoCo4Fun

Personally I think the WAN technologies are the most difficult. For some reason they just dont click with me.

Webmaster

the majority seems to agree with you and so do I, besides the related commands and media, the most of the "WAN protocols" require you to memorize a lot of facts, terms and abbreviations
On account of the results in the poll I will try hard to write something really good and useful for our upcoming WAN TechNotes

I'm currently working one about ISDN, after that I'll write one about Frame Relay followed by the remaining WAN topics such as HDLC, PPP etc.

SoCo4Fun

That would be great to have a really good write up on WAN technologies. Ive read the chapter in my Sybex book and it just doesnt sink in.

mishoo

hiye

is subnetting is a part of ccna paper

:

can any one have the outline for the paper ..

mishal

AnimeFrusionSmoothie

hmm... WAN wasn't a problem for me.. Routing Protocols i got a 33% on

ss1020

If you are still studying, make sure you know the "reliability" of a routing protocol, otherwise known as Administrative Distance.
Ranked by trustworthiness. The lower the AD, the better.

Kasor

It is a combination of routing and WAN...

bertbloggs

I've just voted for LAN, and I'm in the 1%.
Why ?
I find all that novell/ipx/token-ring stuff does not fit in to any pattern

Webmaster

I agree that if you know nothing about both LAN and WAN they both are as hard to learn. But it is much easier to get hands-on with LAN (home lab for example) than WAN technologies.

Webmaster

Btw... Novell/IPX and Token Ring are topics that you won't find on the current CCNA exams...

Hawaiian

Hardest part for me has been understanding subnetting and supernetting

Sartan

There are so many conventions and alternate wordings for the same thing in CCNA...
successor route.. feasible successor route.. hop count hop distance administrative distance cost delay bandwidth speed link speed areas blah ARG!!
my advice, don't do eigrp right after you study ospf. my mind is exploding!

Narcissa

Hawaiian wrote:

Hardest part for me has been understanding subnetting and supernetting

yeah, i think that has to be the most annoying ( but not hardest ) part of the CCNA to understand. took me forever to get it.. and hrm, i think ive forgotton by now. but.. i dont see why its not up there, :P

viper75

Hawaiian wrote:

Hardest part for me has been understanding subnetting and supernetting

I have to agree with Hawaiian. I was having minor problems with WAN Technologies, but it's now starting to sink in. It would be nice to see some material here on subnetting.

That's the only thing that has been keeping me from hitting the CCNA exam. For some reason it's not sinking in as fast as I would like it too.

smooth7905

subnetting, supernetting, and route sumarization are not that difficult to understand. When you finally understand the concept its like riding a bike you should never forget. Plus i had quite a few questions involving subnetting and one of my router sim questions had subbnetting in it.

DaPunnisher

Hawaiian wrote:

Hardest part for me has been understanding subnetting and supernetting

true that!

DaPunnisher

viper75 wrote:

I have to agree with Hawaiian. I was having minor problems with WAN Technologies, but it's now starting to sink in. It would be nice to see some material here on subnetting.

Have you looked at http://www.learntosubnet.com/?

kbays

As for as Subnetting goes I happened to have an excellent insructor at school. So that wasnt hard.. Bur extended ACLs are killing me. There are so many different was to creat them.. Kbays

Ten9t6

Most of the students I deal with on a daily basis, have more problems with ACLs.

swtlrich

Subnetting Class C is pretty easy, but I have difficulty keeping focused when subnetting Class B or A, remembering every subnet zero allowed.

viper75

I HATE WAN Technologies!!!

Drakonblayde

Subnetting I don't have a big problem with until it gets into route summarization and some aspects of VLSM still have my head reeling. Other than that, just remember proper syntax on an ACL can be a bear and a half if you're not used to implementing them. Fortunetly, WAN technologies don't bug me that much, not after 3 years of having to support them for an ISP.

TheCiscoKid

I would agree with the ACLs, that was by far the worst section of Cisco II. Wildcardmasks and deny any any permit any any ........confusing.

Subnetting for me was easy to learn, if you convert the IP to binary and go from there it is really not that hard. I wrote a great paper on it last year and I could send it to anyone who needs some extra help.

KMAN24

Correct me if I am wrong.....Athough I am anxious to be a high level Cisco Admin, my Cisco teach quoted the following. "You will not be responsible for Supernetting or Route Summarization on the exam. Is she wrong ?

As far as the other topic is concerned, I agree that the WAN technolgies are the hardest to get down. ISDN with all the A, TA NT etc........Frame with all the LMI, DLCI, PVC etc. I am really stressed with how much time to put forth in my studies of WAN technolgies for this CCNA exam.

Longbow

For me ACL's are the worst. I won't take the test (again) until I get it down.

As for subneting - subneting isn't difficult once you get it. But for the test you have to be quick. I think that if you are at the point were it doesn't come automatically (you should be able to do it in your head) you are going to run into trouble on the test time wise.

weekend

For me I think it's WAN protocol

Paddington

WAN seems to be the hardest to grab for me aswell.
Im in a Cisco academy class atm taking the final chapter tests in 2 days.

kadshah

I finaly mastered sunnetting Clas B & C but i ocassionally make mistakes
with Class A. I get so frustrated from having read Todd's explanation on
subnetting Class A for the 10th time and still not getting it. Drives me to drink.

Undertow

Why is subnetting absent from the list??

Webmaster

It can be considered part of Router protocols (IP), but you are right, it should have been in the list as a separate topic.