Need some advice from the Vets

VAHokie56

Hello all,
This is my first post in this forum so I apologize in advance to ask a redundant question. I am about to take my A+ exam at the end of this month and then plan to move to CCNA right after. I have completed two switching & routing courses using cisco equipment but I was thinking of enrolling in the cisco academy for test preperation. Is the CCNA discovery a worth while course to prepare for this exam?

Thanks!

miller811

The CCNA can be completed with self study, and hands on lab.
It sounds like you already have some experience with training and the products, I would not spend the time or money taking a class. You can always go the two exam route. there a plenty of good books and multimedia training available that would allow you to work at you own pace.

thenjduke

I would go the self study route. I thought about the CCNA Discovery too but I been in the field for 15 years and when I went to the practice class it was very slow and boring for me. I have found self study to be more rewarding.

VAHokie56

What books/method do you recommend?. Also do I really need to buy a whole bunch of equipment? I always found packet tracer to be really fun and usefull.

veritas_libertas

I am personally going for the CCENT and then taking the ICND2 to get the CCNA. I am Wendell Odom's certification guide, and so far I really like how it is written. He also does a CCNA book.

Amazon.com: CCENT/CCNA ICND1 Official Exam Certification Guide, 2nd Edition (9781587201820): Wendell Odom: Books

mikej412

I started my Cisco Certifications with the CCNA Network Academy -- but my local Community College had a web based self paced option (with final exams in the proctored test center on campus). It was nice to have access to the school lab and a bit of structure.

For the CCNP I would have had to shift to the Regional Network Academy -- but two counties over was too far to travel. So after the CCNA I shifted to self study and added some Cisco equipment to my home data center (and added a Cisco wing to the home library).

Met44

VAHokie56 wrote:

Is the CCNA discovery a worth while course to prepare for this exam?

The class is worth while to someone who does not already have a good grasp of the material -- whether or not the class will be worth the time to you will be dependent upon how confident you are about your knowledge of the material.

If you took the routing and switching courses fairly recently and still feel good about the knowledge in them, you should be on the right track. You should also know the theory behind routing and switching (OSI model, subnetting and VLSM, etc). That is a part of what you would go over in the CCNA discovery, and you will need to know it for the exam.

By the way, what were the routing and switching courses you took? Were they part of the Cisco Network Academy or separate from it?

VAHokie56

The courses I took where at a tech school around my town. The course book was entirely cisco material but it was not a cisco press book I belive.
The school offerd a CCNA course that used all the cisco books but they wanted a cool 6k for it. I am thinking about getting a good self study guide and enrolling in another advanced switching and routing course at the local community college and hopefully be ready by the end of that term. Any self study book recommendations ?

mikej412

VAHokie56 wrote: »

Any self study book recommendations ?

From the forum CCNA FAQ:

Odom Certification Library AND Todd's Sybex book (6th Edition)
The Wendell Odom Cisco Press CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802), 3rd Edition and Todd Lammle's CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide: Exam 640-802, 6th Edition are the books most recommended by TechExams.Net members.

Odom has the content & depth to prepare you for the CCNA and create the foundation you'd need for future advanced Cisco studies.

Todd's book is a fun read and a good review for the CCNA exam (or a warm up for the Odom books) -- and is GREAT for subnetting.