My ROUTE progress

MrBrian

In late July, I boldly(stupidly) said I would try to knock out CCNP ROUTE in a month. That would put me at testing about now, late August. Yea... about that.. lol. I declared this right after completing my CCNA July 15th, so I guess I was thinking I could take on the world. And to be honest though, I knew that this goal was partially impossible (for me, maybe not for others), because of the depth of knowledge the NP level exams require, but I wanted to throw that challenge out there for me to push for, knowing that I would inevitably reach a new "knowledge plateau" at a minimum.

Well I'm here to say that there is no way I'll be testing by the end of the month lol. At the same time, it's a total mission accomplishment for me. I've come so far during this month. I've been going at it hard and I'm just now covering the topics of BGP and IPv6 which are the latter part of the course if you're going in order. Plus, these new topics present tons of additional required knowledge, especially for those unfamiliar(me). The thing is that with EIGRP, OSPF, redistribution, summarization, route maps, and ospf over nbma for example, there's SOO much being covered. And I'm seeing more and more that these are the basics and foundation for everything, and that I seriously need to know this stuff cold if I want to be a decent network engineer in the future. As a result, I definitely will need much more time, and I'm fine with that.

It is kind of a good feeling though knowing that I put in so much time, yet still have much more time to go, because I see how difficult it is to obtain. Part of me says, well if I WAS ready to test just after a month of hardcore studying, would I feel legit about it? I guess that's the encouraging thing, knowing that it's gonna feel darn good to pass this test. For me, I'm learning routing protocols and all that, but I'm also learning a lot about perseverance. Sure, I like the material and find certain parts pretty impressive, and that's what keeps me excited to see how it works and figure it out. However, for me, it's also about coming to terms with the feeling of daily frustration when studying hardcore lol.. or maybe not even frustration per se, but just the feeling of having those daily brain cramps. The feeling of getting back in the saddle and getting thrown around like a bull daily. I guess the payoff hits when you finally go ooohhhh and things become clearer.

Anyways, I'm thinking at least another month for me, but probably more. For all the others out there currently going for CCNP ROUTE like me, let's keep attacking this thing! It's a battle, us against the protocols, and we must defeat them!! SPARTA!! lol

Kelkin

Keep pushing forward! I just finished the switch exam and took the weekend off.. going to start studying for Route Monday

nel

mate, everyone needs to eat there own words from time to time

Love the determination though, keep it up. Theres no shame in taking longer than someone else to study/sit/pass and exam. do it in your own time.

Good luck, keep us posted with your progress. its nice to see how other people cope with the route as i am also studying for it.

SteveO86

The CCNP Track is going to be a bit more demanding the CCNA, so if it takes you longer then don't worry about. everyone goes at their own pace, plus life itself isn't always easy to work with.

Go at your pace tackle each objective one at a time and then move forward. No one will judge you on the amount of you spend learning the material, but people will judge you if you get CCNP and don't know how to actually do it.

Yea seem to have the motivation to see this though so keep at it and you'll do fine!

mattau

I hear ya. Sometimes I question why i am even putting myself through this, i dont even have a job related to cisco at all. It's a real struggle but something inside keeps pushing on. I take my hat off to those who pass the route exam. It's a real beast that's for sure!