CCNP in 4 weeks ?

Turgon

arsalan921 wrote: »

i am very thankful to all of you who told about their experience and how much time you people gave for this certification. CCNP.

4 months is the longest period available in colleges here for CCNP, no college takes longer than this in my area. so before going for these classes i will first go through the material for a month and then go for classes. after 4 months i will see in what position i am, how much i am prepared then will schedule tests accordingly. during this period i will give my full time to this course only.

OR

after reading replies thinking of that the other option could be to look for an internship here and then study along with some part-time job as classes for CCNP are at night and in day time i can find a part-time job, may be it would better prepare me for my course. but going with this option would definitely take more time than 1st option.


@bilscott
no i haven't given ccna yet, i will give ccna and ccnp together. ccna i have self-studied and for ccnp i am joining college so want to practice on some real cisco devices before giving ccna.

Im not entirely sure college is going to teach you anything you cant learn on your own. Have you considered saving yourself some money and time by simply studying for the CCNP yourself? That's what I did and it worked for me. Some of the college routes to Cisco qualifications seem rather drawn out to me. Simply get the right books and some equipment and immerse yourself in the exam preparations. We have an active CCNP forum here and many people going the self study route. I got some of my best reading for the switching exam done while down the launderette back in 2000.

mella060

arsalan921 wrote: »

@bilscott
i will give ccna and ccnp together. ccna i have self-studied and for ccnp i am joining college so want to practice on some real cisco devices before giving ccna.

Maybe focus on the CCNA for the time being. You need ALOT of hands on experiance with either a simulator or some real gear before attempting the CCNA exam. It would be very hard to pass the exam without completing alot of hands on lab work. You need to be very proficient with basic configuration and troubleshooting of cisco devices.

chrisone

agreed, you need to focus on CCNA before CCNP.

CCNA is much harder than CCNP, because its a new field of technology for you, which covers a vast amount of topics in one test. CCNA is new technology and a new way (Cisco's way) of studying/learning and getting used to the Cisco Way.

At least with CCNP you already have a basic understanding of all the technologies involved in the certification because CCNA covers 90% of the topics briefly.

I would suggest focus on CCNA before you even have a thought about CCNP. If you try to do both you will fail because its seriously information overload. You need to focus on CCNA and block out everything else, including any other certs non cisco. Believe me when i say this, because CCNA is new information to you, you will need all the time and dedication for CCNA.

Going for CCNP without a CCNA is like signing up for a race without having a license or knowing how to start a car.

Also cisco prohibits anyone from obtaining a CCNP without a valid CCNA. Just the rules of the game...

ColbyG

chrisone wrote: »

CCNA is much harder than CCNP

Hahahahaha. Good one.

arsalan921

@Turgon,

i will try to study on my own and will see whether i am able to get things easily, will then decide what to do..

thank you for encouraging.

gbadman

I see a lot of people here are saying it took them a certain number of months despite their years of experience. The assumption being that all that experience should make the study time much shorter.
But is that really necessarily the case? After all the work world and the exam/theory world are quite different. So it's quite conceivable that someone could be pulled into spending a lot of time trying to bring the two into alignment, thereby cancelling out any advantage that their experience gives them. The less experienced student has the advantage of having a clean slate, and being able to take the theory as given.

I have no real experience of working with cisco equipment in the work world (though I have a decent lab). I hope to do each of the CCNP exams in two months. Being an incurable procrastinator I know I'll most probably slip. But I hope at least that the theory of an exam in two months isn't too wide of the mark.

stlsmoore

gbadman wrote: »

I see a lot of people here are saying it took them a certain number of months despite their years of experience. The assumption being that all that experience should make the study time much shorter.
But is that really necessarily the case? After all the work world and the exam/theory world are quite different. So it's quite conceivable that someone could be pulled into spending a lot of time trying to bring the two into alignment, thereby cancelling out any advantage that their experience gives them. The less experienced student has the advantage of having a clean slate, and being able to take the theory as given.

I have no real experience of working with cisco equipment in the work world (though I have a decent lab). I hope to do each of the CCNP exams in two months. Being an incurable procrastinator I know I'll most probably slip. But I hope at least that the theory of an exam in two months isn't too wide of the mark.

I was just thinking about this today, I don't have a lot of network engineering experience yet so my way of thinking is the Cisco exam/theory way still rather than how it works in the real world. I seen this post:

http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccnp/28518-ccnp-sequence.html

That user had years of experience but still struggled to pass his CCNA while it only took me about 2 months from start to finish to past first try. Even still though I'm estimating that it's going to take me 4-7 months on the BSCI alone. I plan on going from front to back through the study guide doing as many labs as possible via GNS3. then doubling back with the Cisco exam and lab guide which I believe should be adequate enough to get me through that exam. I don't think I'll need quite as much material and prep for whatever exams there will be when they update the CCNP.

gbadman

stlsmoore wrote: »

I was just thinking about this today, I don't have a lot of network engineering experience yet so my way of thinking is the Cisco exam/theory way still rather than how it works in the real world. I seen this post:

http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccnp/28518-ccnp-sequence.html

That user had years of experience but still struggled to pass his CCNA while it only took me about 2 months from start to finish to past first try. Even still though I'm estimating that it's going to take me 4-7 months on the BSCI alone. I plan on going from front to back through the study guide doing as many labs as possible via GNS3. then doubling back with the Cisco exam and lab guide which I believe should be adequate enough to get me through that exam. I don't think I'll need quite as much material and prep for whatever exams there will be when they update the CCNP.

Yeah. It all depends on the person. Plus some people are more academic than others. You have to have the intellectual ability to grasp some complex concepts. And since work by its nature (at least for most people) doesn't give you exposure to as broad a range of topics as are covered in the curriculum, you're not likely to be able to get a leg up from the "oh, I've seen that before" effect for everything.
We all know people who have years of experience with networks and yet break into a cold sweat at the mention of CIDR, even after going through the course material.

That's a cool blog you have there. It must take you as much time to maintain that as it does for actual study! But it's a wonderful demo of how it SHOULD be done.

stlsmoore

Thanks, the blog really doesn't take up to much time. Whenever I finish my studying for the day I take a snap shot of one of the labs I'm working on and briefly discuss what I studied for that day. Takes all of 10-15 minutes usually and it helps me re-enforce everything I learned. Along with keeping a neat journal to go back and see how far I came and I'm hoping it may help land future opportunities if a prospective employer happens to come across it!

gorebrush

Nice to see that the OP is taking the advice and not going for this method of studying.

As for my experience
Took me 2 months to do 640-802
6 weeks for BSCI
failed the first attempt of BCMSN with 2 months
about to go take it again on monday with another 2 months of BCMSN study