Just passed the ICND1!

ChickenNuggetz · February 2012

BOOYAH! Just passed (literally 20 minutes ago) with a score of 887. I was hoping to hit the 900's but hey, a pass is a pass

Because it gets asked fairly often on how/what I used to prepare, here's the breakdown:

- 127.5 hours studied total; approx. 20 hours labbed

- I used CCENT ICND1 Official Cert Guide (2nd edition) by Odom, CBT Nugget videos, Packet Tracer v. 5.3.3, subnettingquestions.com and of course you all here at TechExams.

Just to put things in perspective, I went from zero to CCENT in a little less than 2 months as I started studying at the end of December-early January.

Thanks again for all the help everyone has offered to me over the last few weeks; now onto the ICND2!!!!!

Roguetadhg · February 2012

Congratulations!

veritas_libertas · February 2012

Congratz!

Hippo08 · February 2012

Hey ChickenNuggetz,

Congrats on passing your ICND1! If you don't mind I would like to ask a couple more questions about how you prepared for your exam.

Real quick, when you say 20 hours labbed, what do you mean? I think I am a bit confused on exactly what a lab is for the CCENT and how to do them.

Also, did you use any exam preparation book/software to give you test questions to see if your knowledge was up to speed with the CCENT?

Again, congrats on the ICND1!! I wish you luck on your ICND2 and thank you in advance for your help and support.

EDIT1: When I say "test questions" I do NOT mean questions directly from the test. I mean just questions that help you prepare for the knowledge and test format.

ChickenNuggetz · February 2012

Hippo08 wrote: »

Hey ChickenNuggetz,

Congrats on passing your ICND1! If you don't mind I would like to ask a couple more questions about how you prepared for your exam.

Real quick, when you say 20 hours labbed, what do you mean? I think I am a bit confused on exactly what a lab is for the CCENT and how to do them.

Also, did you use any exam preparation book/software to give you test questions to see if your knowledge was up to speed with the CCENT?

Again, congrats on the ICND1!! I wish you luck on your ICND2 and thank you in advance for your help and support.

EDIT1: When I say "test questions" I do NOT mean questions directly from the test. I mean just questions that help you prepare for the knowledge and test format.

By "lab," I meant hands-on with Cisco IOS (or at least as close as I could get to the real thing). I spent about 20 hours total building, configuring and troubleshooting networks that I created in Packet Tracer. You could do the same thing with real equipment, although that'd probably be a little more expensive.

I used ICND1 Official Cert Guide (from CiscoPress) by Wendell Odom (the 2nd Edition, there's a 3rd edition that is out now). The book also came with a DVD full of extra goodies (like practice questions and scenarios) as well as a Boson Sim Practice Test. I will say that Boson's practice test was waaaaay harder than the real thing, and was indispensable to preparing for the real thing.

Hope that helps and good luck to you!

Hippo08 · February 2012

Thank you so much for the quick reply! I also have those books and I am almost done reading the ICND1 book by Odom. I will look up Cisco Packet Tracer, it seems invaluable in learning this material, especially the IOS command line. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me and good luck on your further studies!

Whiteout · February 2012

Congrats ChickenNugz! Thank you for the insight on how you studied! My next class at WGU is my Cisco class, so I will be doing the same thing pretty soon here. Congrats again!