How difficult is CCNA?

CraigMeyer

Hi everyone

This is my 1st post in this forum so please excuse me if i post in the wrong section.

I'm a MCITP EA and are studying towards MCITP Exchange 2010. Of late, i have a interest to feel what its like to do Cisco and i believe you have to start at the CCNA. I have almost no experience with routing and switching except what i needed to know to become MCITP qualified. I strictly work on servers, AD, etc

How difficult would it be for me to get familiar with Cisco and how long would it take for me to prepare to pass the CCNA exam ( i believe there is more then one)?

Which CCNA would be the best one to start off with?

Thanks in advance for your time and input

andy4tech

It depends on you as a person,some people found it easy ,some found it difficult but i don't believe is as difficult as some people portrays it to be,if you can lay your hands on a lot of materials the better it will be.Also there are different routes you can go for i.e the single route 640-802(CCNA) or the two routes(ICND1-CCENT) and ICND2.Check the cisco website you will see more informations in there.

CraigMeyer

Thanks for your response

...and i assume the 1 exam is more difficult then the 2 separate ones or is it not. Just more work to know?

hyperrawr9000

The 2 seperate ones tend to end up being harder, the first one is pretty easy but the second one makes up for it by being so short on time. However unlike the microsoft tests, these ones dont have questions that feel like they have been run through a translator a few times.

xenodamus

If you have enough sense to make it through the EA, you'll do fine.

I would go with the 2 exam route (ICND1+ICND2=CCNA). When you do it that way, you have less material to focus on for each exam. You also have the benefit of attaining the CCENT certification after passing the first exam. If you choose to stop there you'll still have a basic understanding of networking/Cisco IOS and a cert to go with it.

QHalo

Two exam is a good route if you have 0 - very little CLI experience on IOS. That's what I did and what I recommend.

CaySpekko

I think there is much more of a time crunch with the Cisco exams vs Microsoft ones. The exams are really detailed and pretty specific to Cisco technology. Going through it felt like a lot of memorizing. This, of course, isn't a huge drawback since Cisco is still the leading provider of networking equipment in the world, so it still good to know.

Best thing to do is to just start learning it, and if it's something you enjoy doing, then get certified. I like this blog, it's a great place to start: Cisco Is Easy

skwira001

I think the key to passing this exam is being familiar with the show commands. You have to be able to locate commands quickly. That's something you really don't practice enough in class and with study guides. They hammer you with questions of show commands on Cisco certification exams and on chapter assessment in the Cisco Networking Academy courses.

CraigMeyer wrote: »

Hi everyone

This is my 1st post in this forum so please excuse me if i post in the wrong section.

I'm a MCITP EA and are studying towards MCITP Exchange 2010. Of late, i have a interest to feel what its like to do Cisco and i believe you have to start at the CCNA. I have almost no experience with routing and switching except what i needed to know to become MCITP qualified. I strictly work on servers, AD, etc

How difficult would it be for me to get familiar with Cisco and how long would it take for me to prepare to pass the CCNA exam ( i believe there is more then one)?

Which CCNA would be the best one to start off with?

Thanks in advance for your time and input

andy4tech

CraigMeyer,
It depends on you as a person,i cannot tell to go for either the one route or two routes way but as for me if i were to go for the test again,i will go the one route.As someone said in the thread going for the two routes will give you ccent certificate was another thing someone can look into if you deceided to go for the two routes.Best of luck in your journey to the cisco world of networking.

tanix

CraigMeyer wrote: »

Hi everyone

This is my 1st post in this forum so please excuse me if i post in the wrong section.

I'm a MCITP EA and are studying towards MCITP Exchange 2010. Of late, i have a interest to feel what its like to do Cisco and i believe you have to start at the CCNA. I have almost no experience with routing and switching except what i needed to know to become MCITP qualified. I strictly work on servers, AD, etc

How difficult would it be for me to get familiar with Cisco and how long would it take for me to prepare to pass the CCNA exam ( i believe there is more then one)?

Which CCNA would be the best one to start off with?

Thanks in advance for your time and input

I was working on the MCSE and switched to the CCNA after I finished my MCSA. The content is pretty straight forward, though often very technical compared to the MS content. I am not sure how the newer content was for MS, but the old was not very good at explaining networking concepts past their specific vendor explanations and often left me confused with certain aspects while I was studying for the MCSE.

Most will be pretty easy as you will pickup where you left off in a lot of the MS networking concept stuff. The IOS might be a bit of a hassle for you if you are not used to command line (though If you do a lot of scripting with your MS stuff, you will find the IOS to be a breath of fresh air in terms of logical command structure).

Past that, you could study for the single test, I did this myself, but keep in mind it covers a lot of topics and may be a bit much for some people to grasp all of the content in a one setting test (you may see some posts from time to time on the forum of people having issues with trying to remember everything).

Depending on your strength in subnetting and basic network function and structure, you may be fine as the first test ICND1 I believe is really just a networking fundamentals test with the ICND2 being more of a focus on the protocols and configurations specifically.

Overall, I wouldn't say it was that difficult of a test if you study hard and practice the content. If you have access at work to the devices you need, then that is great, but if not, you can pretty much get everything you need using a combination of GNS3 and Cisco Packet Tracer.

CraigMeyer

CaySpekko wrote: »

I think there is much more of a time crunch with the Cisco exams vs Microsoft ones. The exams are really detailed and pretty specific to Cisco technology. Going through it felt like a lot of memorizing. This, of course, isn't a huge drawback since Cisco is still the leading provider of networking equipment in the world, so it still good to know.

Best thing to do is to just start learning it, and if it's something you enjoy doing, then get certified. I like this blog, it's a great place to start: Cisco Is Easy

Think that is some good advice - thanks and thanks for the blog

CraigMeyer

thank you for the responses. Think it comes down to starting with the content, see how you find it and then decide, based on if you can cope, do 1 exam or 2 seperate ones