Passed :-)

essclub

Finally booked and passed the Exam on Friday with a 9XX.

I was worried about this exam as I had lots of stops and starts in studying and did not really enjoy the content too much. That said, in the week leading up to the exam things did seem to fall in to place. The exam was not too bad but even after playing with SDM i spent a fair bit of time verifying things on the the sims so I would say play around with SDM as much as possible and verify configs. The format was very similar to the CCNAV and much easier than the CCENT and CCNA.

I used Cisco press CCNAS official exam book, CBT Nuggets and Train Signal DVD's. I found Train Signal very dry and much less relative than CBT. the Do I know this quizes in the book are very relevant too .

I used a 2950 Switch to brush up on my switch commands (which is recomended ) and a 2621XM and 851W for the SDM stuff as per the CBT nuggets vids.

I have the wireless book and had planned to go down that route next more out of personal interest thanusefullnes of the cert.
Having seen that the CBT Nuggets Route DVD is released however, I am thinking I may go down that road instead, I am not 100% sure yet.

Good luck to anyone else doing the CCNAS and I hope you find it more enjoying than I did.

peanutnoggin

CONGRATS!!! Good luck on your future

-Peanut

JSK

Congrats!

Yeah, I have to admit I have found the exam content to be a bit boring. I just finished the Watkins and Wallace book. Hoping to take my exam by the end of the month at the latest.

alan2308

Congrats!

trio

Good to know dude! goodluck on the upcoming exams!

wirerat

Congrats on the pass!

Ryuksapple84

I took the test without any exp on the ASDM or SDM. It was pretty easy to figure out if you take the time on the exam to play with it. The trick is to understand that all the answers are there in the SDM. Just have to look for them.

Passed with a 922. All in all though... I felt that all this exam did was teach you how to think about security before you get serious.

Netwurk

Congrats!!!

Slowhand

Congrats on the pass, sounds like the exam was pretty straightforward. I would wish you good luck on the Wireless, but sounds like you're basically burning through these CCNA-level tests.

essclub

Slowhand wrote: »

Congrats on the pass, sounds like the exam was pretty straightforward. I would wish you good luck on the Wireless, but sounds like you're basically burning through these CCNA-level tests.

Thanks, I just finished going through the CCNAW CBT Nuggets vides today and I must say that it looks like the easiest so far. I say this because my back ground is traditional telecoms so the RF stuff is not new to me. Also, it looks like I have done the CCNA series in the right order i.e CCNAV, CCNAS then CCNAW as there was some (not much) voice questions on the security course and it looks like an awful lt of securty crossover on the CCNAW. Having said that the CCNAW does not appear to look too interesting and I am not sure how usefull it will be. It looks like it is mainly remembering guis that i dont have access to (or hardware).

I am torn on whether to continue with it as it looks like a natural progression from the security and should not take too long to study for, or go for the CCNP route as I now have the route nuggets and the Cisco official exam guide which arrived today. I have some extra time on my hands now and wonder if it is better spent using this time for the CCNP which is ultimately what I want to go for.
Then again, it seems to make sense to do all the associate levels now, then tackle the profesional level but I am keen to get in to the CCNP stuff.

I have just finished chapter 5 of the official Cisco wireless book so will try and read through the entire book before making my decision. I think I will have a peak at the first couple of CBT route videos tomorrow though

Essclub

AlexMR

the Official Certification Guide is dry, but so far (100 pages) the Official Self study guide ( Amazon.com: Implementing Cisco IOS Network Security (IINS): (CCNA Security exam 640-553) (Authorized Self-Study Guide) eBook: Catherine Paquet: Kindle Store ) is great!!!

I studied extensively both the ROUTE and SWITCH material. I dont know to what extent I am ready for the exams but I know it shouldnt take more than 20hours of study in each (maybe less for the SWITCH) for me to get to "exam level" preparedness. I decided to stop passing exams a few months ago because I have no experience, but not having a certification is not going to help get the experience, neither.

I think I will go back to the CCNP as soon as I pass the CCNA Security, which is a requirement for a few contracts that I will be working on...

What is your current job? What experience with cisco equipment do you have?

jamesp1983

congrats!