Passing CCNA first time - 1 exam route
mfieldhouse
Member Posts: 41 ■■□□□□□□□□
in CCNA & CCENT
I've been a member of the forum for quite a while now and found a lot of useful information and support, so thanks! This is my first post however; I wanted to wait until I had something useful to contribute - so here it is.
Ever since I made the decision to study for the CCNA, I was determined to go the 1 exam route and pass first time. I took the test today and passed with a 881/1000
Here's how I did it -
I've been working in Systems Administration for 2 and a half years now, over the past year, in my most recent job - I've been able to get daily exposure to an international network of routers and switches, running anything you could ever want - BGP, EIGRP, OSPF, DMVPN, HSRP, you name it!
I do not have my own lab at home, or have ever even used a router simulator (they're just far too fiddly!). To become confident at the Cisco command line - having hands on experience is essential.
Learning materials used -
- CCNA Official Exam Certification Library by Wendell Odom
- Sybex CCNA Fast Pass
- http://subnettingquestions.com/
The books by Wendell Odom are excellent, and include everything you need to pass CCNA - including the Boson Exam Simulator. The Sybex book alone wouldn't be sufficient enough - but it's great to read when Odom's books become a bit dry!
When I first got the Odom books back in February, I fired up the exam simulator - got 30% :O
After finishing the first book and dabbling in the second - 60%
This is when I realised - I had to read both books cover to cover, and this would be my advice to anyone. Never assume that things work a certain way - the Exam is so detailed that you must go over each topic thoroughly.
Read the books, do the Exam simulator, check your results and find your weak areas, read into those areas more - do the Exam simulator again, and repeat
- until you start getting 85% or more. Go through the questions on subnettingquestions.com - until you can answer them correctly in 10 - 20 seconds.
The last Exam simulator score I got, before taking the official Exam, was 88%.
There were scary moments during the exam, particularly when I spent 15 minutes on a Sim, 4 questions before the end. Just stick at it, if you've got the time available use it. When answering questions - read the question and answers thoroughly, choose your answers, read the question again and have a think about whether or not your answer really makes sense. If it does - move onto the next question.
Hope that helps! BSCI for me next
Ever since I made the decision to study for the CCNA, I was determined to go the 1 exam route and pass first time. I took the test today and passed with a 881/1000
Here's how I did it -I've been working in Systems Administration for 2 and a half years now, over the past year, in my most recent job - I've been able to get daily exposure to an international network of routers and switches, running anything you could ever want - BGP, EIGRP, OSPF, DMVPN, HSRP, you name it!
I do not have my own lab at home, or have ever even used a router simulator (they're just far too fiddly!). To become confident at the Cisco command line - having hands on experience is essential.
Learning materials used -
- CCNA Official Exam Certification Library by Wendell Odom
- Sybex CCNA Fast Pass
- http://subnettingquestions.com/
The books by Wendell Odom are excellent, and include everything you need to pass CCNA - including the Boson Exam Simulator. The Sybex book alone wouldn't be sufficient enough - but it's great to read when Odom's books become a bit dry!
When I first got the Odom books back in February, I fired up the exam simulator - got 30% :O
After finishing the first book and dabbling in the second - 60%
This is when I realised - I had to read both books cover to cover, and this would be my advice to anyone. Never assume that things work a certain way - the Exam is so detailed that you must go over each topic thoroughly.
Read the books, do the Exam simulator, check your results and find your weak areas, read into those areas more - do the Exam simulator again, and repeat
- until you start getting 85% or more. Go through the questions on subnettingquestions.com - until you can answer them correctly in 10 - 20 seconds.The last Exam simulator score I got, before taking the official Exam, was 88%.
There were scary moments during the exam, particularly when I spent 15 minutes on a Sim, 4 questions before the end. Just stick at it, if you've got the time available use it. When answering questions - read the question and answers thoroughly, choose your answers, read the question again and have a think about whether or not your answer really makes sense. If it does - move onto the next question.
Hope that helps! BSCI for me next
Comments
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7255carl
Member Posts: 1,544 ■■■□□□□□□□
congrats, i hope to be posting a similar result in about 6 weeks
W.I.P CCNA Cyber Ops -
examseeker
Member Posts: 118
Thanks for the advice.. I am taking my full exam this Thursday night.. so, I should probably skim back through Odom's books - I've read them once........ hope that's enough..
