What books for CCNP? reading bad stuff about the official guides

Just got my CCNA and looking to jump into the CCNP. I am looking to do SWITCH first but i am reading that the official certification books from Cisco are not that great. Mainly they are lacking a lot of material on the test? Does anyone know a good site that gives a run down on what is not covered or recommend a better book? I don't see much int he way of study guides for the CCNP?

Find more posts tagged with

SAVE $250 on Your CISCO Boot Camp — Use Code "EXAM26"

Exclusively for TechExams members for Infosec Boot Camps starting before April 30, 2026

View CISCO Boot Camps

Comments

bermovick

I used the official cert guide (and cbt nuggets) for Switch, and I found that sufficient. I DID however do route first, so some of the 'missing' material had already been covered in Route.

Pretty much every study guide for Switch had bad reviews, from what I saw.

mark076h

So what exactly is the missing material? is there a list anywhere?

SharkDiver

I thought the ROUTE OCG was great for the exam, and the TSHOOT was perfect.
The SWITCH OCG was lacking. However, I have seen on here that there is a chapter available at the publisher's site that covers all of the missing material.

spiderjericho

You could always get the Cisco Press FLG, which cover the material but tend to expound a bit more on topics and align to the network academy course.

Panzer919

ROUTE and SWITCH FLG are the best. Yes they have more information than what is needed but it is well worth it.

mark076h

The reviews of the SWITCH FLG on Amazon are not very good?

MickQ

I used the Switch OCG, Route FLG, and TSHOOT FLG.
The Switch OCG (first ed.) was missing SLA. It was on the examinable topics on the cisco site, but was included as an appendix online with the errata.

I found the Route FLG pretty good. about 8 or so errata (from memory).

Used the books, lab manuals and labwork to pass.

mark076h

Thanks for the info. I just got my OCG SWITCH book in the mail and surprised how small it is. I figure I will read the OCG and the FLG. This is the site that has the missing material supposedly - CCNP SWITCH « Ponder the Network (and other things)

It looks like a few small subjects are missing.

MickQ

As myself and others have said on other threads, don't be fooled by how relatively thin the Switch book is. It's still a slog.

MrXpert

I'm working on Route as a first up but have no intention of using any official study guides. Wendell Odom had an epic fail in the last so many revisions (ICND2) that I can't take him seriously or anything by Ciscopress for that matter. It's just I don't think it's very fair that someone should buy an expensive latest edition book which has several prior editions and revisons behind it and then spend most of their time going through and correcting errors.