8hrs daily for BSCI

alexaquino

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone is doing good!

I'm currently unemployed (because of global crisis) and making my free time to learn about cisco networking. I finished my CCNA and passed the exam last 19-apr-09. I find it interesting, so I continue and currently preparing for BSCI exam to make my cisco knowledge solid.

The reason I post a new thread is to ask for advice on how to study and absorb everything covered in BSCI.

Q:

1.) Is average of 8 hours a day for only a month would be enough to pass the BSCI exam?
2.) Should I buy R & S or use GNS3 only?
3.) What is the difference between Trainsignal and CBTnuggets video?
4.) What materials should I use?
5.) Is there anything that I need to practice everyday like subnetting in CCNA?

Any feedback would be much appreciated. TNX!

dynamik

I'd vary your studying as much as possible. I think you're going to have retention problems if you try to just read or watch a CBT for 8 hours straight. Read for an hour, do a lab, watch a CBT, review your notes, take a few practice test questions, repeat.

Mrock4

1) 8 hrs a day for a month is probably overkill, IMO. Maybe 4 hours a day so you don't go crazy with information overload. You'd still cover all the material.

2) GNS3 can cover pretty much 100% of the BSCI as there's no switching.

3) Not much. I've heard a lot of people recommend Trainsignal, I use CBT Nuggets..don't see a huge difference. I personally enjoy Jeremy Ciora from CBT Nuggets' teaching style.

4) I used Cisco Press materials for BSCI prep, some cisco docs, and lots of Dynamips/Dynagen time.

5) The best thing you can do for the BSCI (again, IMO) is lab, lab, lab. A lot of the questions will be geared to test your interpretation of certain scenarios based on output and such. That being said, you can't just read a book for some of it, you need to have seen a similar output before, and make sense of it. I would read through the BSCI self-study guide, lab, watch some nuggets, lab, and repeat, as dynamik said.

ColbyG

read, vids, lab, vids, read, lab, etc, etc

IMO, that was the hardest NP exam by far. It's very deep and there is a lot of stuff to remember, and understand. I prefer physical gear, but Dynamips is great and would be more than enough for BSCI. As for Trainsignal vs CBTNuggets, I really like the nuggets, Cioara keeps things interesting, where Bryant is very boring, IMO.

mikej412

Make sure you start with the Cisco Press BSCI Self Study Guide, then read the Cisco Press BSCI Exam Certification Guide.

The Quick Reference Sheets are good for review and to use to see if you've covered all the topics mentioned in the exam blueprint.

The Cisco Press BSCI Lab Portfolio (the Cisco Network Academy BSCI Labs) would also be good if you want some good labs to test your skills.

Some people have mentioned the Cisco Press Command Reference books as being useful.

You'll want to "lab up" while you're reading to help reinforce the material in your mind -- and Dynamips (with Dynagen or GNS3) should be fine.

If you're serious about spending that much time studying, then do mix it up with reading, labs, and the CBT Videos. Make sure you schedule in some "review time" to go over your notes and lab up the configurations you've already done so that you don't forget the material, and hopefully move it into your long term memory.

You may even want to break your day up into morning, afternoon, and evening sessions, rather than try to study and learn for 8 hours straight. Maybe make Saturday your review day, and take Sunday off (or use it to page through the next chapters and plan your study schedule for the up coming week).

Good Luck!

Sepiraph

alexaquino wrote: »

Hi everyone,
Q:

1.) Is average of 8 hours a day for only a month would be enough to pass the BSCI exam?
2.) Should I buy R & S or use GNS3 only?
3.) What is the difference between Trainsignal and CBTnuggets video?
4.) What materials should I use?
5.) Is there anything that I need to practice everyday like subnetting in CCNA?

Any feedback would be much appreciated. TNX!

1) 8hr/day for 30 days is IMO quite enough to pass the BSCI, assuming you have actual work experience with routing and is doing as much lab as possible.

2) Dynagen is fine for all of BSCI's need.

3) Cant comment since I dont use video.

4) Personal preference, I use the lab portfolio. But why should anyone limit themselves to one (or a few) book when you have the internet/world at your fingertip?

5) Practice routing.

cowood2676

THe advice I would give is only to take your time...If you plan on going for your CCIE many of the core elements are learned here....

alexaquino

First of all, thank you very much for the good advice. It will help me how to learn things and pass the exam.

It's funny how I prepare for 640-802. I studied 8 hrs a day for 3 months and it almost makes me insane But it helps me to do good in exam and pass it with a high score.
Having zero background with cisco is difficult to achieve whatever you want to achieve. But I keep on learning to achieve my goals.

Anyway, I'll keep posting for my development.
Once again, Thank you very much to all! I appreciate your time on replying

Forsaken_GA

Passing the exam is one goal, certainly, but you also have to be able to retain what you learn. I make it a habit when studying to, at some point, take at least a week long break, won't touch exam topic material only, games, tv and other brain rotting stuff (besides work, of course) the entire week. Then when I come back to it, the first thing I do is take a practice exam and see how I did. That generally gives me a very good idea where I'm having a problem retaining what I learned, so I can focus on that instead of sweating the stuff I already know

yuriz43

I just wanted to add that you should spend a great deal of time setting up labs.... Create scenarios that make use of all the technologies covered in the BSCI. Spend a lot of time with show commands, and understand all of the information in the output of each.

Some topics you should be carefull not to overlook:

Multicast
ISIS
IPV6