Beginning Study Path to CCNA....

I am looking to get some input from others on here about my study path to achieving my CCNA. I have been working in IT for a little over a year and a half now, the first 8 months I worked for a hospital doing the "jack of all trades" IT work- PC's, network, phones, printers, accounts, everything.

For the past year I have worked for a different hospital in a Desktop Support role, answering phones, triaging and troubleshooting PC and application issues.

I achieved my A+ back in July, and I just completed by Network+ and Security+ last month.

I am looking to pursue a possible career in networking, as I am not interested in staying in the Desktop Support role forever.

I will most likely pick up Todd Lammle's CCNA Study Guide book to use as my primary resource. I also have access to Cisco Packet Tracer, and through my work I am going to be able to acquire some older Cisco switches and routers to play with. I plan to start out by reading the book and then doing labs/configuring things with the real equipment and in Packet Tracer as I go along and learn things.

I do not have a time frame for this, and that's something I would like some input on. I have a baby on the way so I may not be able to put a lot of time into this in addition to going to school and working full time, but if I can figure out how much time I need to study/practice and work it around everything else, i'd like to be able to achieve my CCNA before July if possible.

If anyone has any tips, guidance on ways I can be smarter and more efficient at preparing for CCNA, please let me know.

Thanks.

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Comments

networker050184

I'd suggest using the Odom books rather than Lammle as your primary source. While I haven't gone through the current versions, Odom's books were a lot more detailed with better coverage then Lammle's when I went through.

cyberguypr

I am also juggling work, school, wife/kid and side jobs while studying for certs. I can't study as much/fast as I would like but as long as you don't stop or halt down to a crawl you should be OK.

You already did one of the most important steps: set a time frame. When I was younger I studied for Win2000 certs without setting a date as a goal and it just didn't work out. Last year I worked on 5 exams and although I had to make slight adjustments on the exam dates everything worked out OK. My current goal is 70-680 by end of February and CCNA no later than end of August.

Keep it going and never stop, no matter what life throws at you.

shaX 07

Does anyone know if either the Lammle or Odom CCNA books are available on audio CD? I was thinking to myself yesterday-- I have a 1 hour commute each way to work every single day, so for 10 hours per week I am just driving on the highway bored out of my mind. I could certainly benefit from listening to these books on CD to guide my studies along more quickly...

seekrit

No, not that I'm aware of. But Train-Signal CCNA DVD 2 does has the audio only files for you to put on disk, ipod, whatever..

badboyeee

For Network+ I used to listen to Train Signal videos thru my smartphone when im driving.

Are you doing the one or two exam route??

shaX 07

badboyeee wrote: »

For Network+ I used to listen to Train Signal videos thru my smartphone when im driving.

Are you doing the one or two exam route??

Haven't exactly decided yet. I'm thinking about the 2 exam route, since it's less material to know per exam and it would help me break it out and put less pressure on myself to try to remember Everything for 1 exam.

alan2308

shaX 07 wrote: »

Does anyone know if either the Lammle or Odom CCNA books are available on audio CD? I was thinking to myself yesterday-- I have a 1 hour commute each way to work every single day, so for 10 hours per week I am just driving on the highway bored out of my mind. I could certainly benefit from listening to these books on CD to guide my studies along more quickly...

Lammle has audio. I believe TrainSignal does as well.