Starting CCNP, self study/official certification book?

Trifidw

Hello.

In June I passed the CCNA and now want to start the CCNP. Looking here BSCI is what is recommended to start with so will also follow with that. Previously I had access to the Cisco online curriculum which I found good, but I believe you can't gain access to it for CCNP without applying and paying for an accademy so a book is the only way to go... Looking on Amazon there are 2 official books, the self study and the Official certification guide. Which one of these is better? Or is a 3rd party one recommended?

Thanks for reading.

kpjungle

Trifidw wrote:

Hello.

In June I passed the CCNA and now want to start the CCNP. Looking here BSCI is what is recommended to start with so will also follow with that. Previously I had access to the Cisco online curriculum which I found good, but I believe you can't gain access to it for CCNP without applying and paying for an accademy so a book is the only way to go... Looking on Amazon there are 2 official books, the self study and the Official certification guide. Which one of these is better? Or is a 3rd party one recommended?

Thanks for reading.

Hi, I had the same question when i was about to buy books for the CCNP track.
In short, I have them both. The self-study guide tends to be more thorough on covering the topics, in the sense that they really want you to learn the material. The exam certification guide is meant as a final preparation on the topics tested on the exam.

I use the self-study guide to learn the topics, and the exam certification guide when there's something in the study-guide i dont comprehend.

I can also recommend 3 other good sources of information.

1) The lab portfolio for the exam. Has lots of labs and gives you some challenges to think about.
2) Command guide. Contains all the commands nessecary for what you have learned. Good condensed way of getting to know the commands.
3) The reference sheets. Summed down version of the topics tested on the exam. This is an online resource you buy from Cisco Press. It is not very expensive, and gives you yet another angle of attack on the subjects.

wat08

I've got the official exam certification guide by Stewart and I'm not thrilled about it. It gets the point across but could be written better. I've heard good things about the self study guide though.

Trifidw

I bought the self study book today. Should be here tomorrow.

WRKNonCCNP

I would recommend the Self Study guide over the exam cert guide (if you had to choose only one) because it provides more depth on each of the topics. I think that the self-study guides provide a better resource for after you complete the certification, whereas the exam cert guides lose some of their usefulness after you pass the exam. If you can get both, i think they do complement each other, but they have different purposes. (My $.02)

keenon

i would suggest also doing alot of labs, if you have the gear to do so. all if not majority of the routing related topics can be done in dynamips

Trifidw

keenon wrote:

i would suggest also doing alot of labs, if you have the gear to do so. all if not majority of the routing related topics can be done in dynamips

I plan to buy the equipment, I had a access to the equipment during the CCNA and made use of it at every mention of commands this has resulted in me being confident using it in my job in a real world environment (a hospital, so pretty important that it stays up!).

nel

The self study is more in depth than the cert guide. i have the self study on the BSCI and the exam guide for the BCMSN. and although not on the same exam there is a big difference in depth between the books for each exam.

Like someone said, they compliment each other as i feel sometimes the self study goes too much in depth and clouds the main point with too much info whereas the exam guide gets straight to the point but misses some important background info on the topic.

Either way you back up your book with other material like cisco doc cd etc.

Get the lab portfolio as its a great addition to your study materials! well worth the 20 quid imo!