Am I crazy, does ICND2 have way less material???

I feel like i'm taking crazy pills. The exam cram ICND2 information is only like 130 pages in my CCNA book while ICND1 is 250+ pages.

It really seems like all you get into in ICND2 is NAT, ACL, some WAN (Frame), Advanced switching, OSPF and lightly into EIGRP. Then you cover IPv6 and some VPN stuff.

I feel like I should be studying more but i've been through 2 books this week. Exam Cram CCNA 3rd and Cisco Press ICND2. Did anyone else run into this?

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Comments

jamesleecoleman

I didn't really notice. I just looked at the amount of pages in the ICND1 and ICND2 books. I thinkt he ICND2 is more because it builds off alot of the ICND1 material.

wbosher

The exam cram ICND2 information is only like 130 pages in my CCNA book while ICND1 is 250+ pages.

The only thing I can think of is that ICND1 has a lot more theory than ICND2, which has a lot more configuration. Config takes up a lot less space in a book than diagrams explaining data flow and OSI etc...

PhildoBaggins

I think that must be it. There are deeper concepts in ICND2 but much less backing material to convey the concepts. I've read through at this point (72.105%) of this CCNA Exam Cram 3rd ed in 3.5 hours and I feel like its just a lot less material to cover. This could be because I studied ICND2 along with ICND1 so STP, VTP, PVSTP RSTP ACL NAT etc.... are so 3 months ago lol.

PhildoBaggins

I took all the switching questions from the book (this is what I have been studying the past week the heaviest) and I only missed 1 question so I guess its clicking, I think i'm just over studying this stuff lol. If the remaining sections net me good scores on the practice tests then I'll just schedule for ICND2 for next week or so

Mierdin

Since ICND1 is supposed to be an introduction to networking in general, there's a lot of content aimed at getting people wired to think in networking terms....then the rest is memorization, since you can then apply ICND2 and beyond concepts to the fundamentals you've already learned.

QHalo

I thought ICND2 was the harder of the two exams but I did better on it than ICND1. Lab until your eyes bleed.

xenodamus

I used the Odem books and ICND1 was around 500 pages vs. ICND2 at 600 or so. I felt like the ICND2 had more information to take in. That might be because I already had a solid foundation in networking and didn't have to spend much brain power on what a switch/router/MAC is.

PhildoBaggins

I have labbed about 10-15 hours a week since August lol so I should be around 150 or more hours of CCNA based labs at this point.

Here is my latest lab, I do a full tear down and rebuild once a week.

I have an 831 running 12.4 for my ACL NAT and other test related items, but thats not hooked up to my current setup.

earweed

It looks like, from just your lab set up, you should be ready. I'm just now starting ICND1 studies so that lab drawing is basically beyond me comprehending exactly what you are doing but hopefully I will get to the point that I can understand it in the next few months.

Mierdin

Good lord that's a lot of OSPF areas to have for just a CCNA lab......but power to ya I suppose.....definitely looks sexy in viso. ^-^

PhildoBaggins

Mierdin wrote: »

Good lord that's a lot of OSPF areas to have for just a CCNA lab......but power to ya I suppose.....definitely looks sexy in viso. ^-^

Yeah I know its overdone, I actually need to move my ROaS from area 5 to area 1. I'll do that tonight lol while the wife sleeps.

wedge1988

you must be taking crazy pills $:\$

lol, jk.

I've read the ICND1 book, finnished it 2 days ago. Just started the ICND2 book. However, i've watched all the CBT Nuggets videos for both ICND1 & 2

So my impression is this:

ICND1 - Same as any new path, always harder to start from scratch than from a base understanding. ICND1 teaches you the fundamentals necessary for configuring a cisco network

ICND2 - Uses the stuff from ICND1, to configure scenarios and configurations that were previously withheld. (Kind why cisco added the SDM in ICND1 rather than too many commands)

Does that seem like a fair analysis?

PhildoBaggins

Im feeling pretty dang positive about ICND 2 and that is scarring me lol. I am in my last few steps before I schedule and take it.

I am re-reading my exam cram and taking notes on every major section. (should be done Sunday by 4pm)
I will lightly read over the main points in the Cisco Press Odom book and notate indepth areas for lab purposes.
I will tear down my overdone CCENT lab and rebuild it with emphasis on summarization, EIGRP and OSPF configs (easy cheesy for CCNA level) and HEAVY on the ACLs and proper application.
I then have my "31 days before your CCNA exam" and I'll compress it into 1 week of after work study.

I can supernet and subnet pretty good in my brains so I may not need to memorize my subnet chart again but I will still **** it on the dry erase once the test officially starts.

I will take the final 3-4 days before the test to lab the crap out of everything which I do daily anyways

Any further suggestions ?

I plan to immediately jump into CCNP ROUTING once I pass since I have the CCNP-rs foundation library in transit to my house woo hoo. I'm super excited about that.

PhildoBaggins

I just combined multiple books worth of test questions from my exam crams, cisco press, etc... and I hit 94.9% averaged over 157 questions.

I have another 150-200 or so questions between the test software that came with books.... I think i'm ready for the test lol, it really does seem much simpler than ICND2 but I guess thats how it should be, this test is definitely focused on just VLSM, Switching, ACL, and OSPF / EIGRP with a few tid bits of RIPv2/VPN/IPv6