Cisco Networking Academy or Cisco Training Partner?

taxidiara

Hello i need your help: i want to get a CCNA certification and i want to know what is better:
A Cisco Networking Academy or a Cisco Training Partner? I am an electrical engineer but i dont have any experience in networking.
Cisco Networking Academy : 280 hours 8 months.
Cisco Training Partner: 70 hours 1 month.

If i take the short one will i be able to pass the exam or learn anything?

Thanx in advance.

viper75

Ok, If you have no experience then I would highly suggest you to take the Academy. I took the Academy and Graduated from it. There's a lot to learn and "Cisco Training Partnet: 70 hours 1 month" is NOT ENOUGH!!!

Same thing with the Cisco Academy. The Acad. is still not enough for you to be ready for the exam...unless you hit the books from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed...studying 24/7 which I don't think anyone can do. There's a lot of time that needs to be put in studying for this exam.

I work with Cisco routers and switches at my job, I configure every switch that comes in, and basic configurations on the routers not all. I finished the Acad. this past March I think and I'm still not ready to take the exam...well almost ready.

Just want to give you the heads up now. You're going to have to put a lot of time into this...it's no walk in the park specially for some like you that has no experience. There are a ton of things you'll to have to memorize. Do some more research on this so you can prepare yourself for the long road ahead.

I want to also tell you that in the Cisco Acad. you get a test every week sometimes 2 a week depending on your class times...it might be different for you. Look at the exam objectives to see what you'll be tested on.

This site is a great source of information for any Cert. exam.

Feel free to ask any questions.

I don't want to make it sound like it's impossible...but you should know what's ahead.

Do you know anything about computers?

taxidiara wrote:

A Cisco Networking Academy or a Cisco Training Partner? I am an electrical engineer but i dont have any experience in networking.
Cisco Networking Academy : 280 hours 8 months.
Cisco Training Partner: 70 hours 1 month.

If i take the short one will i be able to pass the exam or learn anything?

Thanx in advance.

viper75

Maybe you should look into the N+ exam 1st before you go for the CCNA. The N+ will help you build a foundation for the CCNA. Being that your new to this I think this might be the best and easiest thing for you to do. The N+ will help you understand things more for the CCNA courses. That's just my opinion, but do what you think will be best for you.

From what I heard Semester 1 of the Cisco Acad. is the N+ course. I know Cisco did some changes to their Curriculum.

Best of Luck!!!

Let us know what you decide to do.

taxidiara

Thank you. I guess i have no choice. Cisco Networking Academy.
the way i see it i gain hands on experience and its important.
Employers prefer someone with experience ( not CCNA certified but completed the academy) or someone CCNa certified (with self study ) ?

henkk

Okay Viper, you make CCNA sound REALLY tough...

I have every intention to do CCNA self-study using the CCNA study guide Deluxe Edition from Sybex.

How difficult would CCNA be compared to Network+, considering that I have a fair amount of experience in small networks, but no experience with Cisco routers?

Thanks for you advice, sure am glad I've done Network+ (re-certified 3 days ago)!

xwesleyxwillisx

to offer some insight i'm going to be taking the second year of the Cisco Academy starting in September... last september i started the academy and finished in June... i am going to be 17 on the 10th... after finishing the 1st two semesters of the academy i signed up to take the Cisco INTRO test... the first of two tests that can get you your CCNA (instead of just taking the one test)... well i studied hard for a month after completing the academy... and wouldn't you know it i passed... if a 16 year old can do it than just about anyone can... as long as you have a strong willing to learn and truely appreciate the material

i also just recently passed the network+ exam... both certifications are related but also very different... Cisco is inteded to teach you to use their hardware while N+ is Vendor neutral... also with network+ you will not learn anything about routing or how to program network devices... making N+ the truely beginner cert... that's not to say CCNA isn't achievable without prior knowldge... i'm 1/2 way to it and i started knowing nothing practically about networking

best of luck

viper75

Sorry henkk, I don't mean to make it sound that tough. It's tough, but not like I made it out to be. Ok I guess the reason why it was tough when I was in school for it was because after the 2nd semester (Routing Basics) the Curriculum got updated...the same time the 640-607 exam was being retired, so my class got caught up in the middle of all that. The routing basics semester (2) was easy, when I came back for switching basics it was a different story. It was much tougher, new material from the CCNP exam. The when I hit semester (4) WAN Technologies it got a little bit harder because they (Cisco) had done another upgrade.

We got caught in a bad time having Cisco use us as ginnie pigs with all the changes and updates they were doing to the their curriculum. It wasn't fun, but I made all 3 semester with an (A).

I don't know how the Cisco Acad. is now...I did hear that they made more changes. You may want to look at the Cisco site and find out what was changed.

The CCNA exam goes in to more detailed info. about networking and it's vendor specific to Cisco.

henkk wrote:

Okay Viper, you make CCNA sound REALLY tough...

I have every intention to do CCNA self-study using the CCNA study guide Deluxe Edition from Sybex.

How difficult would CCNA be compared to Network+, considering that I have a fair amount of experience in small networks, but no experience with Cisco routers?

Thanks for you advice, sure am glad I've done Network+ (re-certified 3 days ago)!