Passed ICND1

Passed ICND1 with a 925 - Lurked here for awhile and just wanted to say thanks to everyone on the forum. It's been encouraging to see others attain their goals.

For self study:

I used the ICND1 Exam Certification Guide by Wendell Odom. Went through the book 2 times in detail, 3rd time for a quick refresh. I've learned that writing key points and facts helps much -- not as much for looking at later, but that the process of writing helps retain the subject matter. The Boson questions are brutal like everyone says, but that's good too.

CBT Nuggets: I really don't mind going cover to cover on book, but for people who do, this is a good study aid. Worth it for the subnetting teachings alone. While i do use Wendell's method in Cisco Press for the most part, the details of their steps can make subnetting more confusing than it really is.

Lab equipment: After reading Wendll's blog, I picked up a 3640,2600, and 2500 series router + 2950 switch on a Skeletek C20U rack. There's no way around it, you're going to need actual rack time (real or sim) to learn. I ordered from cisokits and while it probably wasn't the cheapest route, they have good equip and were fast on shipping. Starting out I unsure on buying from ebay etc in that I'd end up with a router with no ram,WICs etc. Ciscokits also threw in a lab book which was pretty cool because it's hard to make labs up yourself.

640-802 Network Simulator Cisco Press: Not sure how many people checked this out yet. I had this on backorder from borders for some time and they kept pushing the release date. A few days ago I got an email from cisco press saying if you buy the downloadable version now, you'll get a cheaper price. The only catch is that only ICND1 is available, but you can download ICND2 for free on the full release date (April). I really wanted the book part of it, but I was still a little unsure on my skills, so I downloaded it about 3 days ago. At first I wasn't impressed because it would not install on my Vista laptop, but once I got it running it was pretty nice. I would say not as powerful as packet tracer, but the learning curve of packet tracer made me not want to mess with it. With the Cisco sim, you can jump right in and do what you need to do.

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Comments

aordal

Very Cool! Big congrats on a very nice score.

mikej412

Congratulations!

Megadeth4168

Congrats!

jscimeca715

I take the ICND1 on Friday and this sounds exactly like my learning process. I haven't gotten real equipment, but I'm using three simulators (Boson, old Packet Tracer, and the Cisco Sim). I also didn't get the CBT nuggets, but I learned Subnetting a different way than Odom's book.

What are your thoughts on the exam experience? I'm not looking for exam content, but how you felt time-wise and such. I've been paying a lot of attention this week to sim's and such so that I can save time on those.

Any help would be appreciated.

zorak

jscimeca715 wrote: »

I take the ICND1 on Friday and this sounds exactly like my learning process. I haven't gotten real equipment, but I'm using three simulators (Boson, old Packet Tracer, and the Cisco Sim). I also didn't get the CBT nuggets, but I learned Subnetting a different way than Odom's book.

What are your thoughts on the exam experience? I'm not looking for exam content, but how you felt time-wise and such. I've been paying a lot of attention this week to sim's and such so that I can save time on those.

Any help would be appreciated.

Well time-wise it was pretty close. I finished up with about 15min left. You'll want to keep an eye on time with the sims. If find yourself taking more than 10-12min you might want to move on depending where you are. I see you have a+ and net+ too. One thing with Cisco certs, you don't have the option to flag questions and go back. Probably heard this before too, but know your subnetting to the point where you just do the work and not think of the process -- like multiplication or basic math. Most importantly though, rest up the night before;full 8 hrs sleep. Best of luck to you!

luke_bibby

congrats

on to 640-816!

Just of curiosity, how did you find the course material as compared to net+?

jscimeca715

zorak wrote: »

Well time-wise it was pretty close. I finished up with about 15min left. You'll want to keep an eye on time with the sims. If find yourself taking more than 10-12min you might want to move on depending where you are. I see you have a+ and net+ too. One thing with Cisco certs, you don't have the option to flag questions and go back. Probably heard this before too, but know your subnetting to the point where you just do the work and not think of the process -- like multiplication or basic math. Most importantly though, rest up the night before;full 8 hrs sleep. Best of luck to you!

Excellent advice, I really appreciate it. I've heard that you can't skip questions so I'm prepared for that. I've also tried to keep my sims to around 5-7 mins by making a few processes for different scenarios. Subnetting has gotten very strong over the past couple of weeks so I'm pretty confident right now.

Congrats on the pass and good luck with the second exam.

captobvious

Congrats on the pass.

I have to agree, having a home lab and getting time to configure the equipment before you take the test made it easier to understand what was required. Plus, if you screwed up your configs, it gave you valuable practice in troubleshooting.

SurferdudeHB

Congrats! And thank you for the feedback.