Preparing for CCNA

kvermillion1

SO i decided to go straight for CCNA rather than CCENT, since I feel I have a good foundation of networking knowledge and did rather well on the Net+ exam. Question is on the study materials and prep time. I have CBT nuggets videos as well as Labsim. Should this suffice? I have also read through the entire Sybex book once before, and have that for reference material. I am honestly going to attempt this in two weeks and think I can do it. Let me know your thoughts on materials and also preptime. Thanks!!

instant000

The number one skill you need for CCNA: Time Management. I had a friend fail because she could not complete the test in time, not because she did not know the material.

After that, make sure that you can subnet in your head, or are at least can remember how to draw out a subnetting ****-chart. Subnetting isn't so much a tested skill, as it is an assumed skill.

Then again, my recollection is based on 2006. No telling how much it changed since that time, as I let mine expire, due to non-usage.

MrRyte

I would add this: try to find as many practice exams as possible.

mikej412

MrRyte wrote: »

I would add this: try to find as many practice exams as possible.

Since most searches for practice exams will bring up **** and **** sites, I think someone who actually wants to get a networking job someday would be better off spending their time reading and learning the material and using one good practice exam to gauge their knowledge and readiness for the exam, rather than trying to find as many practice exams as possible.

Out of 700+ questions in the old Cisco Press CCIE R&S Flash Cards and Practice Exams product, I only made it to question 217 before I wanted to slash my wrist with a spork. I was averaging over 90% my first (and only) time through the questions, so I just went and took (and Passed) the CCIE R&S Written.

kvermillion1

Mike, since you clearly have a ton of experience with these Cisco exams let me ask you.....I have Labsim and CBT nuggets videos, and quite frankly, these videos are a struggle for me to watch and literally take FOREVER to get through. But everyone raves about them. I also have the Sybex book and though its lengthly it offers a ton of written labs at the end of each chapter to really gauge your knowledge. Any suggestions on which might be a better route to go. I was thinking maybe read the book and do the questions, then use the videos to watch on actual simulations, etc....

mikej412

I'm not a "video person" -- but I did like the CBT Nuggets I've seen. But videos are usually an additional resource.

If you don't have lots of Cisco Experience and Knowledge going into your CCNA studies, then you really want to read Wendell Odom's Cisco Press CCNA Certification Library if you're thinking about a Cisco career.

If you're an experienced Box Jockey and have some experience networking boxes together (and plan to stay on the server side but would like to get invited to the networking group's pizza parties and Keg Fridays), you might be able to get by with Todd's book. It is an fun read compared to Wendell's book (and has some good exercises to do), but usually I'd only suggest it as an only source to an on-the-job-trained CiscoHead with a bunch of experience in a large network/data center who's finally going for the certification.

I've never seen LabSIM, but I've seen a few posts made by people I don't know personally who swear that Labsim is the next best thing to sliced white bread -- and none of them seemed to be first time posters (or spammers or one-post wonders) of unsolicited testimonials.

Is WGU using Labsim? Anyone?

in3d

mikej412 wrote: »

Is WGU using Labsim? Anyone?

Yes they are. It's a bit much for me but i have some other resources to look at.

Geek1969

I prefer to read also, but I do enjoy listening to Jeremy on high speed as an overview/preview of the material.

MickQ

Geek1969 wrote: »

I prefer to read also, but I do enjoy listening to Jeremy on high speed as an overview/preview of the material.

Yep. Jeremy on 2x makes it much easier once you have a decent background in it.

I was holding off on the cisco stuff til after I got my MCSE. The real world kicked in and a big client of mine had problems with their cisco infrastructure. Basically, the guys who installed it had done a decent job, but didn't leave much room for expansion. So my journey began.
I started off with Lammle's 6th ed. of the CCNA course. That was a nice intro. Then I went through Odom's. That filled in any blanks.
Lastly, before the test I got a 2nd hand copy of Jeremy for the "just in case".


If you really are planning on doing the CCNA in 2 weeks, you better start labbing and learning the commands. You better know how to subnet quickly already.
Maybe you should rethink your timeframe, unless you've got the next two weeks with nothing else to do but cisco.