CCNA preparation advices

Hello guys,

First i'm proud to be part in such a community.

From april last year i followed the CCNA classes at a Cisco Academy. Now i'm on CCNA 4 and will finish it in a week or so.

I studied in class, and at home for a year, i had contact with real equipment but i don't have a job in what i apply all the things learned, so some of them are now blurring.
After i finish the CCNA 4 i'm planning to go for the certification but until then to reserve some time to review all, make more labs as i am reviewing.
I kind of need to take this from the first touch cause the money isn't great where i'm from and a 250$ fee means half of my monthly salary.

What i have :

- I have access to the Cisco Academy curriculum, wich i read once but i want to read it again.
- I have also the Tod Lammle - CCNA study guide 6th ed. - but i read a little and i see that is not covering the currilculum as the course is, it's fun to read it but i don't know how much will help me.
- I plan to get my hands on Wendel Odom ICDN1&2 for consulting as i will review things.
- From now i will need to work in a software simulation environment - Packet Tracer i think even if is not the same as real equipments.

What i don't have and i saw that was useful to ones:

- CBT Nuggets videos - i saw here on the forum that this video training helped a lot of people.
- Boson ExSim or other exam simulation software.
- Real equipment from now on

What do you think about my chances using the tools i've got?
What where for your the big problems? I saw a lot of people having troubles with ACLs and NAT. I haven't read yet the curriculum about these.

Any advice from you guys will help.
Thanks in advance!

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Comments

alan2308

Well, first off the good news is that if you took the actual Academy classes, you'll get a voucher for half off if you did well enough in the classes. There will also be a practice exam that covers everything made available once you complete CCNA4. If you do well on it, you'll destroy the actual CCNA. I found that exam, and the classes in general, to be much more difficult and in depth than the actual CCNA exam.

I would book the exam for a 2-3 weeks after you finish the classes and review everything. At this point you don't need 10 different study sources and 6 more months of intense study to get through it all. Pick a book, or a video, and go through it. Google books has previews of Todd Lammle and Wendell Odom's books. See who's writing style you prefer. At this point in the game, you can also consider Todd Lammle's Fast Pass or 31 Days Before Your CCNA Exam, which were written for people in your situation. Packet Tracer will be enough for you now, don't worry about buying a lab at this point. And don't forget to visit the official exam topics at Cisco.

Good luck and welcome to the forum!

capitanuionut

alan2308 wrote: »

Well, first off the good news is that if you took the actual Academy classes, you'll get a voucher for half off if you did well enough in the classes. There will also be a practice exam that covers everything made available once you complete CCNA4. If you do well on it, you'll destroy the actual CCNA. I found that exam, and the classes in general, to be much more difficult and in depth than the actual CCNA exam.

I would book the exam for a 2-3 weeks after you finish the classes and review everything. At this point you don't need 10 different study sources and 6 more months of intense study to get through it all. Pick a book, or a video, and go through it. Google books has previews of Todd Lammle and Wendell Odom's books. See who's writing style you prefer. At this point in the game, you can also consider Todd Lammle's Fast Pass or 31 Days Before Your CCNA Exam, which were written for people in your situation. Packet Tracer will be enough for you now, don't worry about buying a lab at this point. And don't forget to visit the official exam topics at Cisco.

Good luck and welcome to the forum!

Ohh... I see that you are more confident that I am. I worry because it's a lot of time since last april but indeed I learned at the time and it's a question of reviewing and I sense that i need to do more labs in some parts, and review subnetting cause i cannot do now the question as i was a year ago when i learned about it(and here i'm reffering to time).
I know about the voucher and also that i will have a CCNA Final Exam Practice at the final of this module, and this is a solution to find out where i really don't remember things and focus more on those parts.

Thanks for your advice, I'm also waiting other opinions.
I will finish CCNA4 and then i will start reviewing, and see what's happening, maybe even put here questions i cannot find an answer for.

Greetings!

ehnde

capitanuionut wrote: »

Hello guys,

First i'm proud to be part in such a community.

From april last year i followed the CCNA classes at a Cisco Academy. Now i'm on CCNA 4 and will finish it in a week or so.

I studied in class, and at home for a year, i had contact with real equipment but i don't have a job in what i apply all the things learned, so some of them are now blurring.
After i finish the CCNA 4 i'm planning to go for the certification but until then to reserve some time to review all, make more labs as i am reviewing.
I kind of need to take this from the first touch cause the money isn't great where i'm from and a 250$ fee means half of my monthly salary.

What i have :

- I have access to the Cisco Academy curriculum, wich i read once but i want to read it again.
- I have also the Tod Lammle - CCNA study guide 6th ed. - but i read a little and i see that is not covering the currilculum as the course is, it's fun to read it but i don't know how much will help me.
- I plan to get my hands on Wendel Odom ICDN1&2 for consulting as i will review things.
- From now i will need to work in a software simulation environment - Packet Tracer i think even if is not the same as real equipments.

What i don't have and i saw that was useful to ones:

- CBT Nuggets videos - i saw here on the forum that this video training helped a lot of people.
- Boson ExSim or other exam simulation software.
- Real equipment from now on

What do you think about my chances using the tools i've got?
What where for your the big problems? I saw a lot of people having troubles with ACLs and NAT. I haven't read yet the curriculum about these.

Any advice from you guys will help.
Thanks in advance!

I could recall specific things Jeremy Ciora said in the CBT nugget videos when I was taking my exam. He's so animated and makes the material more interesting, definitely recommended.

I, too, did the Cisco Academy in 2004 but only did the first 3 (didn't finish). I figured I could study on my own and be fine. This was correct, but at that time I didn't finish my studies.

I remember mike (the cisco moderator here on TE) saying to treat the CCIE lab practice like an exercise regime and "build up your muscles" or something to that effect. You should do this for your lab work. 30 minutes to an hour a day 5 - 7 days a week. Consistency is more important that intensity. You'll definitely want to review material you haven't touched in awhile and make sure you still know it well!

I think packet tracer will do everything you need it to do for the 640-802.

Can you subnet in your head? I couldn't till 2 days ago. It was a HUGE help to have this mastered. Subnetting is at the core of many test questions.

This is my labbing strategy...say for a WAN protocol.

Set up your routers and switches (real equipment, or GNS3, or packet tracer) according to a lab like the ones here: Free CCNA Workbook or anywhere. Configure your devices for OSPF according to specific instructions, such as those on that website. Wipe your configurations then do it again, do it again. And again.....then try to do it from memory.

If you can successfully configure OSPF/EIGRP/RIPv2 for your network topology from memory, you could try a challenge lab (google "ccna OSPF challenge lab").

This works well for ACLs, router on a stick, NAT, etc.

I also like to take a question on subnettingquestions.com - Free Subnetting Questions and Answers Randomly Generated Online and apply it to my topologies.

Good luck!