CCNP SWITCH study materials

thehourman

Hey guys I am going to start my ROUTE next week and already have the FLG book ebook and Routing TCP/IP Vol. 1 2nd Edition.

I am making this thread for my Switch. I will be buying books while I still have an extra money and while Cisco still have some discounts on their books/ebooks.
What I have now are the FLG and OCG ebooks and got them very cheap, $10, at Cisco Press.
Do you guys have any recommendation books/ebooks for the Switch exam?


Thank you all in advance.

instant000

Don't forget the daily ebook deals.

cisco has the Switch ebook available until midnight.

Note: This is for the Ebook.

I actually prefer hardcopies, due to looking at screens all day, it is easier on my eyes to look at paper for studying, so even when I do purchase e-books, I end up printing them out.

$9.99 eBook Deal of the Day

thehourman

Oh yeah, I got that already, and the FLG. I am also looking at the 50% off ebook deals.
I think I am still need another book/ebook for the switch exam.

mzbagasra

What is FLG?

thehourman

mzbagasra wrote: »

What is FLG?

Foundation Learning Guide

Panzer919

I recommend getting the old BCMSN Lab Portfolio, its great for labs.

thehourman

I went to Amazon and look for Switch version. I might get the Route as well.
I wish there is an ebook verion of these two lab manual.

lrb

ALthough it doesn't cover all of the topics on SWITCH, the BCMSN Authorized Self Study Guide 4th Edition is an awesome read for this and weighs in at over 900 pages of switching goodness (although it does cover some CatOS stuff which you can ignore)

CodeBlox

So do these seem like solid reads for CCNP: SWITCH?

Amazon.com: CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Official Certification Guide (Exam Certification Guide) (978158720243: David Hucaby: Books
http://www.amazon.com/Implementing-Switched-Networks-Foundation-Learning/dp/1587058847

NetworkVeteran

CodeBlox wrote: »

So do these seem like solid reads for CCNP: SWITCH?

Amazon.com: CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Official Certification Guide (Exam Certification Guide) (978158720243: David Hucaby: Books
Amazon.com: Implementing Cisco IP Switched Networks (SWITCH) Foundation Learning Guide: Foundation learning for SWITCH 642-813 (Foundation Learning Guides) (9781587058844): Richard Froom, Balaji Sivasubramanian, Erum Frahim: Books

No, the Cisco Press OCG is not a solid read for the exam. If you read the reviews at the very link you pointed to, you would see the problem. The first three reviews state, "However this guide is not a good representation of what's on the test", "There are topics missing from the book" and "I found that much of what the exam focuses on is not included in the book"

The Cisco Press FLG reviews are also less than glowing. The first three reviews state: "Full of errors.", "I would be embarassed to put my name on this book", and "Not impressed."

I used another text, called SWITCHING SIMPLIFIED, which fully covers the exam topics with few errors.

Alternatively, you could buy the above book(s) knowing they're not comprehensive and/or contain many errors. You could augment the first by reading the author's website or the Cisco websites to learn the additional material the book doesn't cover. You could augment the second by downloading the errata and spending a couple hours striking through all the known and identified errors. I'd rather just buy a book that's solid, but to each their own. Many people have doubtlessly used the above books and passed their certification exams. There are multiple paths to success.

pogue

NV,

Are you referring to this?

Cisco CCNP SWITCH Simplified: Paul Browning, Farai Tafa: Amazon.com: Kindle Store

And if so...Seriously??? There is no hard cover book that adequately covers the SWITCH exam? I don't study well from ebooks.

Thanks,

Russ

NetworkVeteran

And if so...Seriously???

It's written by a CCIE, and yes, covers all the exam material with few errors. I selected it based on the Amazon reviews vouching for its quality. I can now also vouch for it as I used it as a single source to study for the CCNP Switch exam, did not encounter too many errors, and afterwards found the actual exam straightforward.

There is no hard cover book that adequately covers the SWITCH exam?

The OP did not state a strong preference for hardcover. Switching Simplified comes in both softcover and kindle editions. If you strongly prefer hardcover books, and would opt for that over comprehensiveness or accuracy, note the suggestions I made for working with the above two hardcover books. To quote myself, "Many people have doubtlessly used the above books and passed their certification exams. There are multiple paths to success."

PS - My preference for the CCNA is Lammle and for the CCNP Route is Cisco's FLG. I'm not a loyal customer.

pogue

Well, when I said "hardback", I simply meant a book that I can hold in my hands.. A paperback is fine, but the author currently has no copies in paperback on Amazon.. Bummer..

Russ

NetworkVeteran

pogue wrote: »

Well, when I said "hardback", I simply meant a book that I can hold in my hands.. A paperback is fine, but the author currently has no copies in paperback on Amazon.. Bummer..

Russ

The softcover can be ordered for $67 directly from the publisher's website--

http://www.************.net/products/item24.cfm

For about the same price one could buy--

a) $89: A $10 digital copy of the book plus a $79 Kindle to read it on.
b) $60: 2-months of access to the book, practice questions, study notes, support forums, and a CCNP-level IOU rack.

I went the first route. I love, love my Kindle! You save on every technical book you buy, and you can lug a huge technical library around with you at all times that's as easy on your eyes as printed paper and fits into your pocket. But I totally understand the allure of something you can hold in your hands, highlight, and write notes on.

bermovick

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

No, the Cisco Press OCG is not a solid read for the exam. If you read the reviews at the very link you pointed to, you would see the problem. The first three reviews state, "However this guide is not a good representation of what's on the test", "There are topics missing from the book" and "I found that much of what the exam focuses on is not included in the book"

The Cisco Press FLG reviews are also less than glowing. The first three reviews state: "Full of errors.", "I would be embarassed to put my name on this book", and "Not impressed."

I used another text, called SWITCHING SIMPLIFIED, which fully covers the exam topics with few errors.

Alternatively, you could buy the above book(s) knowing they're not comprehensive and/or contain many errors. You could augment the first by reading the author's website or the Cisco websites to learn the additional material the book doesn't cover. You could augment the second by downloading the errata and spending a couple hours striking through all the known and identified errors. I'd rather just buy a book that's solid, but to each their own. Many people have doubtlessly used the above books and passed their certification exams. There are multiple paths to success.

I passed the OCG quite well (score over 900) using only the OCG and CBTNuggets. Yeah, I was really worried going in because of those reviews, but I didn't think there were any more WTH? questions in that exam than in any others I've taken - the usual "I hope those are non-graded questions"-type thing.

CodeBlox

For some reason, I thought the Kindle costed a lot more than it does. I think I'm going to consider purchasing one in the months to come. Ultimately, nothing beats flipping pages with my fingers.

makhshev

anyone ever use ine.com videos? how are they?

crrimson

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

No, the Cisco Press OCG is not a solid read for the exam. If you read the reviews at the very link you pointed to, you would see the problem. The first three reviews state, "However this guide is not a good representation of what's on the test", "There are topics missing from the book" and "I found that much of what the exam focuses on is not included in the book"

The Cisco Press FLG reviews are also less than glowing. The first three reviews state: "Full of errors.", "I would be embarassed to put my name on this book", and "Not impressed."

I used another text, called SWITCHING SIMPLIFIED, which fully covers the exam topics with few errors.

Alternatively, you could buy the above book(s) knowing they're not comprehensive and/or contain many errors. You could augment the first by reading the author's website or the Cisco websites to learn the additional material the book doesn't cover. You could augment the second by downloading the errata and spending a couple hours striking through all the known and identified errors. I'd rather just buy a book that's solid, but to each their own. Many people have doubtlessly used the above books and passed their certification exams. There are multiple paths to success.

I've been using Cisco's CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Official Certification Guide (by David Hucaby) as my primary source of study. I have also used the Cisco CCNP Switch lab book. I've also used the Boson exam that came with the official book. It sounds like this is not enough? Since it was only $4.99 for that CCNP SWITCH Simplified book, I bought it, but I need to know:

Where do I focus?
I do not want to re-read an entire CCNP switch book to fill in a few cracks that are left out in the CCNP SWITCH official guide. I would rather focus on the chapters / sections that are missing from the official guide.

What is missing from the CCNP SWITCH official guide that I need to know for the test?

Really hoping for an answer on this one, because I felt like I was about to be ready to sit the exam, but this thread & the reviews on the book have derailed my confidence.

Thanks.

crrimson

I am going to reply to my own post here to help anyone else out that comes along. I took the CCNP SWITCH 642-913 today and passed!

My main source of study was the 642-813 Official Certification Guide by David Hucaby. I would agree that this book is very close to being enough to pass the test (as some of the things that were apparently missing (IP SLA, SNMP, syslog) had been added at some point).

Having said that, I definitely needed some extra study material to drive home some of the things Cisco would be looking for on the test.

I did buy the CCNP switch simplified book linked to above, and read parts of it, but realized that I really wasn't getting a lot out of it that I didn't already have from the OCG, and I just couldn't stand to read through a whole new textbook of material I just read from another source only to try and find what was missing from the OCG. For the price it was a good value though, if only for some extra labs to try at the back of the book.

I think one of the most useful materials I used was the Boson Exam Environment. I broke down and bought the Ex-Sim Max tests for CCNP switch, and they were really helpful in pointing out the areas where I was lacking.

I feel like for this test, nothing I found was all I needed, and you really have to study a lot of different material.
For labs I used 2x 2950's and 2x3550's. I wish I had 3750's for the private-vlan config, but it wasn't a big deal.

instant000

Thanks for posting your experience.