Cisco 642-813 Foundation learning book

hi guys,

revising for my 642-813, i bought this book called "implementing cisco switched network foundation learning 642-813", i found it very difficult to read and the style is incredibly unintuitive?! the official Exam Certification Guide was so easy and i have finished all chapters on that, however reading the Foundation Learning is like preparing for a completely different exam? half of the stuff in there is not even on the Official Certification Exam book? whats going on?

did you guys find it the same? are there any other books out there that have an easier style of writing

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Comments

Ryan82

David Hucaby authored the exam certification guide and is a great author IMO. The authors for the foundation guide, I don't recognize. I do remember the old BCMSN books leaving me with the same feelings that you describe though.

It is to be expected that there will be information in the foundation guide not found in the certification guide. Generally, unless you have lots of experience the certification guides are not sufficient. The old BSCI certification guide wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.

Don't forget to check out David Hucaby's blog for some additional material in preparing for the SWITCH exam.

If you can afford it, I would also recommend the Train Signal videos.

tndfr

hucaby is really good, i was also watching some of his videos for the 642-813.

every one can be a good technical person, not everyone can be a good teacher...

Panzer919

I think the foundation books are great, the only downside is that sometimes they will start giving you information about something then move on and go back to it later. Bugs the crap outa me when I'm taking notes!

BroadcastStorm

There's so many topics in the FLG that I did not find on David Huccaby's video mentor series, some part of the book made me pull my hair but some of them are very informative, I suggest taking your time with the harder topic cause it can definitely go over your head if rushed, if you find yourself confused mix it with different videos from train/cbt or video mentor. I think some part of the book is made for people who have good experience IMO.

jtecs

This book is the "ebook deal of day" on ciscopress.com and being sold for $9.99 today. Just a heads up in case some of you need it and haven't checked out the site in a while.

larue38462

I feel you for sure man. I read through the foundation learning guide first (but on a very slow pace) and found it incredibly dry. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the cert guide after about a week and have taken notes on all the through thus far. Huckabee is just a better writer and presents the information in a way that is much easier to digest and enjoy while doing so. I plan to finish up the cert guide, re-read the FLG, and get comfortable with the lab manual before I take the test. I also have the Chris Bryant CCNP Bulldog video series for the 813 and they're not bad. I've always been a big fan of practice exams to verify my knowledge before the exam, but haven't found any for the Switch yet. Anybody know of good practice exams (no **** or anything of the sort) for the switch?

tndfr wrote: »

hi guys,

revising for my 642-813, i bought this book called "implementing cisco switched network foundation learning 642-813", i found it very difficult to read and the style is incredibly unintuitive?! the official Exam Certification Guide was so easy and i have finished all chapters on that, however reading the Foundation Learning is like preparing for a completely different exam? half of the stuff in there is not even on the Official Certification Exam book? whats going on?

did you guys find it the same? are there any other books out there that have an easier style of writing

BroadcastStorm

Yes, if anyone can post a proven practice exam resource, we would gladly appreciate it!

Ryan82

BOSON has some legit practice engines. Their exams seem to vary though in terms of their difficulty level compared to the actual exams.

spencega

Ryan82 wrote: »

BOSON has some legit practice engines. Their exams seem to vary though in terms of their difficulty level compared to the actual exams.

I am going to take the SWITCH exam tomorrow. I used only the Foundation Learning Guide and the Boson Exsim Max practice test. I hope it is enough.

spencega

So I came very close, but not good enough. I thought the Boson and the FLG were both pretty close as far as matching the difficulty of the exam, although the simulations were much lengthier on the exam, combining a few tasks into one giant sim.

The big problem is the way the exam is written though. So many of the questions were extremely gray area. Even for Cisco. And yes there were SEVERAL questions that were just wrong. Can you imagine getting a question about a certain device, let's say SW2, and you look at the topology and there is absolutely NO SW2 at all!!!

I was so pissed.

Then there are tons of questions where it's like "what in the hell are they trying to test for?"