My CCNA track

I took the exam 5 years ago and didn't pass.

Fast forward 4 years, I bought the official books and took a bootcamp. I took the exam (new version) and scored 65.

A few things I learned:

1. Unless you have field experience working with the equipment and all you need is a good final review, the bootcamp is not worth the $$$$. There's no way you can get all this information into your brain in 1 week.

2. Time is precious on the exam and it goes by really fast. I ran out of time and couldn't answer the last 3 questions.

I'm a bit confused about the simulators, is there a button that you have to click when you're done with the configuration or do you just click next?

I went through the tutorial before the actual exam started and still found the sim structure very confusing.

After the boot camp, I bought the Simulator from Cisco as well as the video mentor with Mr. Odom.

I guess my exam anxiety doesn't really that much either.

Any tips or suggestions welcomed.

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Comments

mikej412

I just do a copy run start when I'm done with a SIM and have verified it several times -- then I hit the next button and move on.

If you've done enough hands on lab practice, the configure/verify/troubleshoot/etc tasks in the exam blueprint that could show up on the exam as SIMs should be easy.

The Odom Cisco Press CCNA Certification Library & Todd's Sybex CCNA book are a lot cheaper than a bootcamp -- and if you spend enough time with them (and lots of time doing LAB Practice), they should get you past the CCNA exam(s).

alan2308

2URGSE wrote: »

1. Unless you have field experience working with the equipment and all you need is a good final review, the bootcamp is not worth the $$$$. There's no way you can get all this information into your brain in 1 week.

The Cisco Networking Academy program is 4 semesters in addition to the prerequisites needed beforehand. These are the official college courses designed by Cisco. I don't think that most of the people who finished these courses with me would be ready to take the exam when we finished. And that was after 8 months of pretty intense study.

I would sure hope these bootcamps aren't advertising themselves as taking you from zero to CCNA ready in just a week.

Darian929

Like Alan said, Im currently taking the cisco courses at my campus in college. They are 4 classes you can take cisco 1 & 2 and then the next semester cisco 3 & 4... total time would be around 14-15 weeks so almost 4 months.. and honestly it a lot of material during that time.. So I think there is no way you'd learn ccna from 0-finish with one of does bootcamps I just think you'd be overwhelmed and in the end you'd just remember some things and forget really important things. Specially that I think just for lab you need hours and hours of practice just to remember the commands and what they do.

rogue2shadow

I've actually partaken in the Cisco Networking Academy CCNA 1 and 2 courses and they were every bit worth the money. I did it through my community college and it was extremely cheap; the lab hours I got out of it are priceless!

2URGSE

Ya, the bootcamp did say that I will pass it or I can retake the bootcamp for free.

There was an online study course which I was working on 4 months before the bootcamp started. I also started reading the books at that time, but didn't do any labs.

I ended up taking a whole week of PTO from work, the bootcamp had some issues with the labs and it wasn't very good. It was expensive as well. When it was done, I didn't even hear anything back from my sales rep or anything....

4 people took the exam the Friday at the end of the camp, only 1 passed and he already had practical real world experience. From there I figured these bootcamps aren't what they claim to be.

I'm hitting the labs every day now, especially on the weekend. I've been reading the books back to back on my train ride to work. I'm also doing the practice questions/exams on transcender.

I'm learning more and more each day, so I feel I'm making progress.

I hope I will be able to pass next time, it's really frustrating to see your score after 5 months, but as others said, maybe it just requires MORE than I thought I would need study wise.

alan2308

How are you with actual hands on? You can read until you're blue in the face, but you have to supplement that with some actual time on the gear. If you don't have access to real routers and switches, you can set up GNS3, which is a simulator. You can start here.

2URGSE

alan2308 wrote: »

How are you with actual hands on? You can read until you're blue in the face, but you have to supplement that with some actual time on the gear. If you don't have access to real routers and switches, you can set up GNS3, which is a simulator. You can start here.

I bought the official simulator from cisco, and I really like it. It's organized very well by ICND 1 and ICND 2 and those are broken down to topics.

Hands on I think I'm almost intermediate if you're thinking about it from the simulator point of view.

I know most of the basic commands. It just takes time to absorb the material and see how everything works together.

I'm already done with the ICND 1 book and have read the ICND 2 several times.

I think I will retake the exam sometime late August. I feel I'm really close.....man I can almost taste it........:)

Selfmade

you only need Odom or Lammle's book

you need Packet Tracer or real gear

you need a bunch of labs to do to lab out all the exam objectives

that should be all you really need

you don't need anything extraneous, you just have to understand the concepts, be able to lab the scenarios, and know all the commands, and all the important routing protocols, everything associated with switching, frame relay, wireless, troubleshooting, and basic security configurations.

2URGSE

Selfmade wrote: »

you only need Odom or Lammle's book

you need Packet Tracer or real gear

you need a bunch of labs to do to lab out all the exam objectives

that should be all you really need

you don't need anything extraneous, you just have to understand the concepts, be able to lab the scenarios, and know all the commands, and all the important routing protocols, everything associated with switching, frame relay, wireless, troubleshooting, and basic security configurations.

+ 1 Been reading the books by Odom.

Got the Cisco Simulator (heck, just finished some ACL labs...

)

I thought the video mentor would be worth it and it is.....

alan2308

2URGSE wrote: »

I bought the official simulator from cisco, and I really like it. It's organized very well by ICND 1 and ICND 2 and those are broken down to topics.

Hands on I think I'm almost intermediate if you're thinking about it from the simulator point of view.

I know most of the basic commands. It just takes time to absorb the material and see how everything works together.

I'm already done with the ICND 1 book and have read the ICND 2 several times.

I think I will retake the exam sometime late August. I feel I'm really close.....man I can almost taste it........:)

Sounds like you're on the right track. Keep charging, you'll get it.

Qord

I also went through the Networking Academy courses at my local community college. Well worth the time and money.... I think. I don't have a (real)job yet, but I did pass the CCNA on my first try. I looked at all the other pay-for programs out there (the video, audio etc.), and I still think the way I went was the right way to go. Take a look around and see if there's any college near you offering them. Packet Tracer was a huge help to me, since I couldn't afford a real lab setup.

2URGSE

Crap...I don't know what happened to me, but after failing this exam back in May, I totally dropped off the track............

I don't know if it's because of frustration of not passing or something else......

I also wanted to have some fun this summer and enjoy road trips and bbq's......

Hopefully I will pick myself up in the fall...........gosh I'm already starting to forget certain commands............

alan2308

2URGSE wrote: »

Crap...I don't know what happened to me, but after failing this exam back in May, I totally dropped off the track............

I don't know if it's because of frustration of not passing or something else......

I also wanted to have some fun this summer and enjoy road trips and bbq's......

Hopefully I will pick myself up in the fall...........gosh I'm already starting to forget certain commands............

Better get your nose back in the books.

2URGSE

Ok, I'm back on track.

Can anyone comment on these practice questions/flash cards:

Transcender Cisco 640-802 Exam | CCNA Certification Training Products

$139 for 3 years license.

Or if you can recommend something else. I just need to brush up on things and of course I will be getting back into the labs I already have installed.

mikej412

I liked the Cisco Press Flash Cards and Exam Practice Packs when they were available for several of the Cisco Certification Tracks-- and they still have a current CCNA Version: CCNA Flash Cards and Exam Practice Pack (CCENT Exam 640-822 and CCNA Exams 640-816 and 640-802), 3rd Edition

2URGSE

mikej412 wrote: »

I liked the Cisco Press Flash Cards and Exam Practice Packs when they were available for several of the Cisco Certification Tracks-- and they still have a current CCNA Version: CCNA Flash Cards and Exam Practice Pack (CCENT Exam 640-822 and CCNA Exams 640-816 and 640-802), 3rd Edition

Thank you, I will check it out.

Netwurk

The flash cards do look good. Right now they are only $9.99 for the IPhone/IPod Touch version (I think for all tracks, but of course check B4 buying). Price for all other OSes is $19.99

I grabbed the ROUTE set for my IPod Touch. There's not many Cisco Press products you can get for $9.99 so I snatched it up.

2URGSE

Netwurk wrote: »

The flash cards do look good. Right now they are only $9.99 for the IPhone/IPod Touch version (I think for all tracks, but of course check B4 buying). Price for all other OSes is $19.99

I grabbed the ROUTE set for my IPod Touch. There's not many Cisco Press products you can get for $9.99 so I snatched it up.

I am probably one of the only people on this planet without an Iphone/Ipod.

I have a Blackberry 9700.

My commute is pretty crazy, I drive, take a train and then walk 1.5 miles.....