Cisco Networking Academy - Effective?

SephStorm

I will try not to go into too many details, because I don't know if Cisco has any rules about disclosure. Anyway, I am in a CNA program, and It is wierd.


The way my course is set up, we receive instruction from slides from the CCNA Exploration book. We also have assessments from the cisco website. Now we know the slides are not perfect, and after hearing from graduates, not sufficient for the exam. So on to the book.

I'm sure some of you have read this book, personally I don't like the way the information is presented. After starting the Odom book, it is very annoying.

So as far as the assessments go, I passed most of the ones so far with 80-90% minus subnetting and one I didn't study for. But they are worded so... deceptively. Without going into details, few to none pass the assessments on a first attempt.

Then the test, I haven't taken the exam, but from what I hear, it is ridiculous, why? Because people say the info doesn't come from the book, slides or the assessments. And what does come from the book is written so crazy that it is useless.

I won't give the exact question from the assessment but one was similar to this.

Blah-blah situation. What command will enable the admin to telnet into the router?

1. enable secret "password"
line vty 0 4
login

2 enable secret "password"
line vty 0 2
password "password"
login

3. enable secret "password"
line vty 0
password "password"
login

4 enable secret "password"
line con 0
password "password"
login

5 enable secret "password"
line con 0
login

At first I could not figure out why the en secret pw was on each question. I eliminated 4 and 5 for obvious reasons. 3 was a possibility, but unlikely because generally want to configure all lines at once.
2 I liked, because I had been taught that a password is required for telnet sessions, I didn't like that all the lines weren't being put in, but considered that there may have been a reason for this. 1. I disregarded because of the above, no password. Well, I didn't feel comfortable with the question so I asked about it. After my instructor and I looking at the book, and asking another instructor, we found a small section (indeed a note) stating that the en secret would allow a user to login without setting a vty password.

Tell me that isn't crazy.

Also, we couldn't figure this out in class, there is no such thing in Cisco as UTP (untwisted pair) is there? The instructor figured it was a serial connection, but I think it is a typo, as UTP refers to unshielded twisted pair cabling, and serial cables arent used for LAN connections.

hexem

You were right to think answer 2 is the best answer, the first will not allow you to login without having set a password first, that is the default for telnet, the enable secret has nothing to do with logging in via telnet....however 'no login' will allow someone to login to the vty lines without a password.

SephStorm

Apparently #3 was the correct answer.... Assumedly because he only wanted to configure the line he was on?

muon

i don't know if the academy is effective. i am in it and the only way for me to really tell you is on judgement day... the day i take the ccna exam. if i pass then it is effective and if not then no.

mikej412

SephStorm wrote: »

few to none pass the assessments on a first attempt.

I averaged 99% over the 4 semesters and didn't realize that you could take a "do over" until one of my classmates mentioned it. If you average about a 95% (without "do overs") then you stand a very good chance of passing the CCNA exam(s) on your first try.

I actually did the CCNA Academy self-paced and web-based rather than the classroom option, but I had access to the school lab and did meet my instructor when I went in to the lab on one of the class nights. We used blackboard.com for questions and discussions, and email to schedule the exams. Based on the class average listed for our class on Blackboard.com, most people did the on-line module exams open book since the class average dropped 20 points for the proctored final exam.

I took the CCNA about 3 days after my CCNA 4 final exam -- and the voucher exam and 2 practice CCNA exams -- and passed with no problem.

The Exploration & Discovery online courseware did seem more "comic bookie" than the previous version, but once you figured out the interface, while annoying, the information still seemed to be there. And they did seem to take out some of the annoying repetition on network trivia from the old 3.1 version of the CCNA 1 courseware. And the almost verbatim repeat of the Networking/Subnetting material from CCNA 1 in the CCN2 courseware also looked like it was removed in the Exploration/Discovery courseware.

I did get the books for the old academy courses and did find it easier to read off line, but I would follow along with the online courseware for the eLabs and graphical examples.

I took a couple of weeks to do the CCNA1 course, and then 2 of us did the CCNA2, CCNA3, and CCNA4 during an 8 week summer session.

rage_hog

Well Seph, exactly. I have just completed the first three books at the academy and this was a common problem. The pace was a little slow for me as an advanced user. However, what you need to do to be successful with Cisco is dont fight it just do what they ask and be done with it. True, some (alot) of the answers are not in the book word for word.
Adapt and overcome. Learn.

Why they are pushing terminal software that costs money when there are many free ones out there is beyond me. They do have a hard-on for Wireshark though. Over all I did learn alot of new stuff which has already come in quite handy at work as they have just announced we will be monitoring and managing all the cisco equipment in a rather large setup. Mostly VLAN.

johnwest43

Must have been a typo.
UTP stands for unshielded twisted pair.

SephStorm

its annoying, i can only take CCNA 1&2, for now. Again, I have to say, there are people passing this course, who need a lot of work before they could possibly sit for a CCNA or even CCENT exam, I think.

I'm going to pass this CCNA1, start studying for the actual CCENT (again), and take it after I finish this course. Why oh why do they make me wait?

rage_hog

Yes. many typo's. And a few in the subnet labs as well. For me it was a good thing because I noticed something was not right and adjusted. On the other hand they went wayyyy into depth on some things. Which again was good.

hexem

SephStorm wrote: »

its annoying, i can only take CCNA 1&2, for now. Again, I have to say, there are people passing this course, who need a lot of work before they could possibly sit for a CCNA or even CCENT exam, I think.

I'm going to pass this CCNA1, start studying for the actual CCENT (again), and take it after I finish this course. Why oh why do they make me wait?

You should be almost there, already having a network+ ....the CCENT exam itself is mostly basic configuration, basic routing, WAN stuff.. pick up a study guide specifically for ICND1 (todd lammle) and go through it .

rage_hog

Here is another good example of what you can look foward to Seph; I just logged in at high noon to take my last chapter test of the quarter and the Cisco site is down for maintenance. For the weekend, the WHOLE weekend. This happens often. One time I went to take a chapter test and the timer said 15 minutes. And did in fact cut me off at 15 minutes. That was when I had 6+ hours left to take the test.

Cisco Academy does not care about chapter tests only the final exam counts at Cisco. At your school, they count the chapter tests towards GPA. So now my GPA is down a chapter at school. Great! I think I will finish out the last book on my own as I have become dis-enchanted with school and the Academy.

SephStorm

yes, and the end of course certificate from Cisco is pretty worthless as well. I have a few official CCENT books, which I will be studying again after this class.

Does anyone know the real difference between this: Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices, Part 1 (ICND1): CCNA Exam 640-802 and ICND1 Exam 640-822, 2nd Edition and the odom book? Which one is suggested?

Bert McGert

I went through the Academy when I decided to break into the field... definitely worth it as someone completely new to networking as a whole. Hands on with the equipment was a huge help.

As with any course, the harder that you work at it yourself outside of the time you're in the classroom, the more you'll get out of it.

CiskHo

SephStorm wrote: »

Does anyone know the real difference between this: Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices, Part 1 (ICND1): CCNA Exam 640-802 and ICND1 Exam 640-822, 2nd Edition and the odom book? Which one is suggested?

I assume you are referring to this Odom book?:
CCENT/CCNA ICND1 Official Exam Certification Guide (CCENT Exam 640-822 and CCNA Exam 640-802), 2nd Edition

Well the one you listed is a Self-Study Guide. The Odom book is an "Official Exam Certification Guide". The Self-Study guides are more for people new to the material. The Official Exam Cert guides are more for people who are not new to the subject matter. I look at the cert guides as being more "meat and potatoes" where the self-study guides may be a bit more "sugar coated" to make comprehension/consumption easier.

Personally I have used both and now I prefer the exam cert guides. I think the SSG books have more intro and background info than you would find in the OECG books.

SephStorm

okay, thanks.

sandman748

SephStorm wrote: »

its annoying, i can only take CCNA 1&2, for now. Again, I have to say, there are people passing this course, who need a lot of work before they could possibly sit for a CCNA or even CCENT exam, I think.

I'm going to pass this CCNA1, start studying for the actual CCENT (again), and take it after I finish this course. Why oh why do they make me wait?

Having just gone through the academy for CCNA and writing both the ICND1 and 2 with no further study, I can say that it provides enough knowledge to pass the exams. I scored above 900 on both exams. I can also say that all 4 courses are required for both exams. CCNA 3 is switching and CCNA4 is on WAN technologies, both of which are on both exams.

Met44

Bert McGert wrote: »

As with any course, the harder that you work at it yourself outside of the time you're in the classroom, the more you'll get out of it.

Agreed. I thought the CCNA Academy classes were very effective at providing the right information to study.

Heero

as long as you take it at as an actual class and do all the labs, you should be sufficiently prepared for the exam (of course you need to review quite a bit as there are 4 courses you take over the course of a year or more normally).

laptop

Cisco Networking Academy - Effective?

Personally, I don't like the Cisco Networking Academy program. I took the first course (Exploration) fundamentals and I dropped it. I had a professor who read off from the slide without further explanation. Then, I have the Cisco press book they recommended us to use. I read the chapter and knew almost everything in detail. We had weekly tests from the Cisco website. It wasn't enough by just reading the book....the test questions within the Cisco website was quite challenging and require you to apply whatever was learned. Some questions have multiple answers too.

Reading the book itself isn't enough. I would read the book + watch CBT movies + hands-on work.