My CCNP Journey

Danielh22185

Well I was able to bug my work enough and my boss agreed to pay for my tests if I show him a passing score! Since I feel pretty ready already and know the concepts well enough I am giving myself a week of hard core review. I have a short work week next week as well so I should have a good amount of time to review. Date is set for the 12th!

Wish me luck! Crossing my fingers for a pass on first attempt to make the most of my money.

Danielh22185

So far nothing much to report other than I have been feeling pretty sick the past few days and been doing a lot of resting and not much studying. I am still in review mode but I am still not feeling so hot and may need to be safe and move my exam back. Time is narrow and finances are even more narrow due to the approaching holidays. Even with work payinig for my exam IF I pass I still have to front the money for the attempt first. So I am a bit warry putting up cash at the moment. I'll have to ride this week out and see how I feel and try to prepare as much as possibe in the mean time.

On a side note before I was starting to feel crappy I started doing labs from the Switch Simplifed series and am liking it a lot! The great thing is that it tells you objectives to acheive before telling you how to do it so it makes you think on the topics. Also the topologies mirror what is in the Cisco SLM so doesn't make for a huge headache when getting the labs setup and you can hit the ground running with the labs much quicker.

linuxabuser

8 pages of this... and you make us wait a day after your test?!?!

How did it go?

Danielh22185

Well it’s been quite some time since I've made an update and I'm sure some of you may have thought I dropped off the face of the earth. So here is a recap:

I passed my route about year a go now and I had been hard into Switch studies toward the end of 2014 and felt pretty darn ready for the test come the beginning of the year. I needed to beat the deadline so I thought to myself I better give it a try. I sat for Switch V1.0 about a week before the cutoff date. Unfortunately I did not pass. So I took a bit of time off to spend with the family and ordered the new Switch V2.0 book. I also just recently attended and finished a Switch V2.0 Global Knowledge class just a couple weeks ago. What I wanted from the class was a re-hash of the topics and a springboard to rekindle my study efforts. Now I am back into it however maybe could have chosen a better time as I have a vacation coming up end of this month, but that doesn't mean I can't do some relaxing studying on the beach either!

So finances permitted I will set a goal to be ready to re-take SWITCH V2.0 after a month of returning from vacation (1st Week of June). So in the meantime I need to grind quite a bit before I take vacation (I know my wife won't enjoy me with my head buried in a book so study will have to be light while on vacation).

As of now I only have the first 4 chapters read in the Switch book and I am taking time to take extensive notes at the end of each chapter. So I am going to allow myself 2-3 days per chapter. I also have a unique schedule with 3-4 days off work per week so am going to have to do more on those days, possibly a chapter or two. I hope to accomplish 4 chapters per week.

Weekly Goals:
==========
* Complete reading chapter 5
* Have extensive notes taken on chapters 4 and 5
* Begin reading chapter 6

Soft Goals:
=========
* Continue following along in CBT nuggets and taking notes as well.


To allow myself to stay on track I am again going to re-introduce my weekly goals and check back the forums on a regular basis. I am going to get this dang CCNP this year!

OfWolfAndMan

Awesome you're keeping up on it man! You know you've got a full community here for support!

worldmac1

Studying while on vacay is a doable thing... I have picture proof!

Danielh22185

worldmac1 wrote: »

Studying while on vacay is a doable thing... I have picture proof!

^^^ HAHA! Love it!

siggnation

Daniel--

Great job on keepin' on! I'm following you on your tough journey. I'm reading as we speak for the CCNP Route beast.

Best.

Danielh22185

I Finished notes for chapter 4 and read chapter 5. Notes not completly done however. I was a bit busy yesterday where I was hoping to make some progress on my chapter 5 notes but basically was not home all day. This week is my extended week off of work (4 days), so I should be able to get a good amount done.

Goals for the week:
============
* Finish notes for chapter 5
* Read and take notes over chapter 6 / 7

Soft Goals:
=======
* More CBT content and note taking

jjs1234

What has changed since the new incarnation of the CCNP? What material (besides books) are good for this new version?

CBT has the older videos, can I use those and figure out what to learn from there?

siggnation

jjs1234 wrote: »

What has changed since the new incarnation of the CCNP? What material (besides books) are good for this new version?

CBT has the older videos, can I use those and figure out what to learn from there?

Looks like they added DMVPN, and I believe a bit more IPv6.

Danielh22185

Thread Reboot!

Lots of stuff in life have come up and caused me to dip out on some studies and keeping up with this thread but I never once completely put the book down entirely! I recently have told myself now is the time and I am seeing it to the end! So with that said I can report I am 80% through the OCG book with reading / notes taken. I have a few more chapters and then I will be in pure review mode. Also, I have another global knowlege class ready to take as we had some extra budget money at work to send me again, so I will be using that as a final review before the test. I plan on having the switch test scheduled within a week of completing the class again.

So right now nothing much to report other than I am back into the swing of things and the goals is to potentially have NP completed by the end of the year if not 1st quarter next year. I feel I might need some routing concepts reviewed before I try to give TSHOOT an attempt so I may have to hold off on the TSHOOT attempt until after the new year, which shouldn't have me too far removed from my current studies and give me some additonal review time.

So stay tuned I will am back and ready to see this to the final end!

worldmac1

Good luck my man! I know what you mean! #LifeHappens

bharvey92

Good luck and all the best for wrapping up the CCNP, I remember following your progress when I was doing my CCNP!

Danielh22185

bharvey92 wrote: »

Good luck and all the best for wrapping up the CCNP, I remember following your progress when I was doing my CCNP!

Thanks buddy! Also congrats on your NP! Now that I am officially to it all I see several people have accomplished their goals! I need to get with it and join the club!

Danielh22185

Well it's been a while since an update. Not much to report really other than I am just wrapping up the final review and officially going into hardcore mode (I am trying to shoot for 4 hrs a day / 5 days a week for the next 4 weeks). I have also officially scheduled the exam for February 20th (a day before my birthday, hopefully a nice b-day gift to myself).

My Study Tools used:
==============
* OCG book read and extensive notes taken (approximately 150 pages of notes I am currently consolidating / reviewing / making summaries of)

* Lab practice involves GNS3 / IOU and my real equipment (2x2590s, 2x3550s). The real equipment gets little use since I have setup GNS3 / IOU but gets toyed with from time-to-time when I want to verify if IOU can do something or not. Right now I don't feel I need to lab much anymore. I feel like the demand for labbing for the switch test is MUCH MUCH less required to building understanding of the topics like what is needed to ground yourself with Route.

* Practice tests via Boson and Nlogic (taking notes on areas as I go, looking for scenarios for potential "Cisco Gotchas"). I am passing on a regular basis so I am beginning to memorize these tests and their value is now diminishing.

* Video review CBT nuggests NP Switch videos, NP Switch hands-on videos, IE Switch Videos. I also have the old switch test videos from INE i'll give another look.

* Global Knowledge instructor provided training. This was a good review for me and got me thinking in some areas but was mostly valuable for review (and was free for me to attend while taking a week off work so why not right?). This also came with a voucher and some other prep materials so was very beneficial for me.

* I feel I know all topics quite well and am comfortable with everything. I just need to beat into my brain over the next month the little things like timers, default values. protocol behaviors, etc. (things Cisco likes to trick you on).


Where this puts me:
=============
I passed Route in March of 2014 but then studies fell apart after my wife and I had our first child. I was very slow to jump back on the study train but here I am now. So this leaves me with some concerns... I passed the old route exam, so there may stand to be some new content on the TSHOOT test I need to be prepared for. I am still on the fence about how I want to prepare for TSHOOT. I know it's a rehash on both the route / switch world so the test can't be overly complex on either end of the spectrum. I have some old route books I can refresh with but not sure if will be enough. I'm also not sure if even a TSHOOT book is worth the investment for my current situation. I also understand the topology is nearly a mirror copy of the previous public topology Cisco published for the old test (maybe why I can't find a new topology?). I also beleive I am able to maintain a relevant level of Route knowledge due to my day-to-day job roles as a level 2 NOC engineer for my company which is a VERY large global network.

I'll be looking around and reviewing other route stuff in the now as I prepare for switch so I don't have a lot of ground to make up for TSHOOT before the end of March.

bharvey92

Glad to see you've picked it back up again Daniel, I will be following this thread again!

Danielh22185

Well here I am just about a week away and I'm nervous as all get out. At this point I feel I know everything VERY well. Right now I am just in review mode trying to keep my mind sharp on as many topics as possible.

What I have been doing:
================
* Practice tests via Boson (passing every attempt, just about memorized the tests so there isn't much value left to be gained, but I feel this is still a good mind prep as the test format is very similar to Cisco)
* Reviewing my notes taken from OCG
* Finishing up Chris Bryant Videos / taking notes over them simply for review sake
* Doing sporadic reading on topics I feel I am semi weak on, basically seeking out the online Cisco content for additional review.


I just printed the exam blueprint so I have it on me at all times and have marked off areas I feel I am less strong with and looking for previous note references and online content to solidify my understandings. Right now I am at that point where I feel very comfortable with the content but just am not sure if it is enough. We all know that feeling with Cisco... So the next week is going to be hard core. Probably filled with 4-6hrs of study a day if I can manage it. Test date is Feb 20th. I will probably make one last post before I go into it.

... back to the grind...

Danielh22185

POST TEST UPDATE:
=============

Well I went and took Switch on this last Saturday, and I regret to inform I just missed it. To prevent any NDA violation I will say it was close, VERY CLOSE, and for that I am rather disappointed. I felt I understood the content VERY well. I believe I goofed a bit on a SIM (don't think I received full points on), which I'm sure is also weighted heavily enough that made the difference for me. Also there were few random questions too I know I got wrong that I don't remember reading / preparing for which Cisco exploited me on (I think we can all come to expect a few of these)

As soon as I exited the testing center I wrote down as much as I could remember on areas I felt less strong with so that I have good targeted agenda for extra review.

Overall the test experience I'd rate as pretty neutral. I feel some questions were poorly worded and I had to read them many times over to understand what was being asked (gotta love that time sink). I even caught a couple grammatical / spelling errors on a few. Aside from that, it was basically what you would typically expect from Cisco.

The thing I hate most about not passing is the strain it puts on my family. The monetary costs obviously is one strain but my biggest thing is that I basically locked myself away every night this past 2 weeks after getting home from work to do final prep. My wife supports me but she'd rather have her husband around more. I also feel it puts a hinder on her confidence in me when I do fail because of the continued strain she will have to endure while I try to continue preparing for my next attempt.

All that aside I feel pretty confident I will smash it on my next attempt which I plan to schedule here pretty soon. So far Cisco has managed to keep me from passing any of their tests on first attempt

bhuwanp

Hi,

Gone through your journey story, I am also on the same track to acquire CCNP Switch. I passed CCNP Route in June2014, since then no studies towards CCNP. The cert will expire by June 2017 so I am planning to complete at least Switch this year and Tshoot before expiration. I have the old Switch OCG but noted the topic changes. I my studying the old OCG, CBT nuggets videos and anything I can get from the internet related to the subject. Don't have any real equipment to practice and I have done enough on cisco commands and the cli, will try IOU if got time to do so. The only issue is that unable to get approval from employer to reimburse the cost, hope I will get it by this year as the approval happens every quarter and may I be lucky in any one of the remaining quarters this year. If that dosen't happens then I have to loose my pocket for it. I remember giving the Route exam back then for $200 and with 15% discount on it so that costs around $170 to me. But now the price raised to $250 for all exams.

Good luck.....

Danielh22185

bhuwanp wrote: »

Hi,

Gone through your journey story, I am also on the same track to acquire CCNP Switch. I passed CCNP Route in June2014, since then no studies towards CCNP. The cert will expire by June 2017 so I am planning to complete at least Switch this year and Tshoot before expiration. I have the old Switch OCG but noted the topic changes. I my studying the old OCG, CBT nuggets videos and anything I can get from the internet related to the subject. Don't have any real equipment to practice and I have done enough on cisco commands and the cli, will try IOU if got time to do so. The only issue is that unable to get approval from employer to reimburse the cost, hope I will get it by this year as the approval happens every quarter and may I be lucky in any one of the remaining quarters this year. If that dosen't happens then I have to loose my pocket for it. I remember giving the Route exam back then for $200 and with 15% discount on it so that costs around $170 to me. But now the price raised to $250 for all exams.

Good luck.....

Thanks man!

From what I have experienced in my new / old switch studies, the tests / content are nearly the same. I would say don't waste time reading another book if you have the old there isn't much to be gained at all with the new one. You can VERY easily supplement researching the additional items on the new test with online content / videos, etc. If you are looking for some cheap up-to-date material check out Chris Bryant's stuff on Udemy. I've ran through his videos once already with taking notes, and am doing it all again as final prep (my re-test date is Friday the 26th). To be honest I think he has the best video content out there for NP.

I would definitely get something to lab on. IOU is a free option but has some limitations. I also previously built a cheap physical lab consisting of 2x3550s and 2x2950s, which actually I don't use anymore now that I have IOU in GNS.

Also a recommendation for CBT videos: Don't just focus on the NP Switch videos. I also went over the R/S Troubleshooting mastery videos for switch topics, as well as the Hands on Lab videos, and IEv5 Switch videos too as further content to help absorb the material.

I totally feel ya on the cost of things too. I typically don't have much in my budget to spare either.

Good luck to ya!

Danielh22185

UGH! SWITCH has me frustrated... I have gotten two very close fails... The first attempt I knew I missed a few things on one of the SIMS which I corrected next go round (and I know I did because my scored improved in that category by 30%). However I have noticed some of the multiple choice questions are written VERY poorly. One of which I'd love to discuss here because it seriously drove me nuts, it didn't make a lick of sense. However I won't break the NDA ... (I just have a plan for it next go round). I did leave a comment on the test though specifically for this one.

But seriously on my 2nd attempt I thought I NAILED IT. I MEAN NAILED IT.... I ended the test with 37 minutes left over!! Even the test prompter made mention I was quick. I did some deep thinking on a few questions I know that I missed and honestly that is what prevented me from passing... just a few stinkin questions!!!

I did also try to reflect on where I might have missed a few more points which has me wondering... I wonder if I added additional non-required config to one of the SIMS and it counted off points. I image that is a stretch thought though. I assume the grading logic is pretty simple, either you have the required elements or you don't. I think if anything additional is there it shouldn't count against me. Anyway that is just me thinking aloud on that part so... that is all it's going to be...

Ugh... Cisco...

Re-take is next week. Time to own this test! (I am so done with NP right now... I just WANT to finally be officially done

Danielh22185

2 down 1 to go! I finally passed Switch with a great score this last Friday! I actually ended the test with 55 minutes left!!! (that's what happens when you take the test multiple times ) I initially fumbled with understanding a few items which cost me some valuable points in my last 2 attempts at the exam but finally passed and what a nice feeling of relief!!!

My prep materials for Switch:
===================
* OCG (read front to back, took extensive notes)
* CBT Nuggets (Official CCNP Switch videos, CCNP Troubleshooting Mastery Videos, CCIE L2 / Switching videos), paired with taking extensive notes
* Chris Bryant Videos (my favorite videos honestly), also took extensive notes over this content
* Boson Exam simulator (I actually thoroughly enjoyed this. I felt it helped me understand things a bit better as well especially since I hadn't sat for a Cisco exam in a while since my route studies a while back).
* LAB: Originally started with a couple 3550s and 2950s, ended up setting up GNS3 w/ IOU. Used a TON! Lots of lab hours.

Overall I feel the test was fair. I did however find some grammatical errors, and of course struggled in some areas trying to interpret what Cisco is trying to convey through their questions. Overall studying for the exam has vastly increased my knowledge of switching content which I am grateful for.

TSHOOT I am softly planning for the end of May. I will be busy in May though so it might look like near June. I want to brush up on my routing as I am rusty with the concepts.

joetest

Congrats mate! I just finished recently my CCNP too - it's an awesome feeling!

My suggestion: spend a few days reading your notes on route and go do the exam. You're gonna nail it.

One piece of advice for tshoot: Send some probes and follow them!

Danielh22185

joetest wrote: »

Congrats mate! I just finished recently my CCNP too - it's an awesome feeling!

My suggestion: spend a few days reading your notes on route and go do the exam. You're gonna nail it.

One piece of advice for tshoot: Send some probes and follow them!

Yep doing so now. All my study right now has yet to really slow down. I actually started reviewing Route stuff before I even took the switch exam. I am not going to lie I am rusty and don't feel terribly comfortable with it all yet. For review I have fired up the Bryant videos and have been doing the route tailored labs in the 101 labs book. After I finish those two items I am going to build out the TSHOOT topology in GNS3 and heavily familiarize myself.

For now I am treading lightly as I don't want to rush into a $250 exam and fail. I also have my daughter's 2nd B-day coming up in a couple weeks which my wife already has a list of things to get done prior to that; so that will distract me a bit from studies and obviously spending another $250 right now could be better used for that. I plan to sit for the test after all that to be distraction free.

joetest

If you do the 101 labs tshoot will be a breeze if you also know the diagram.

I did the same.

Danielh22185

joetest wrote: »

If you do the 101 labs tshoot will be a breeze if you also know the diagram.

I did the same.

Nice good to hear! Thanks for the pointer!

Danielh22185

TSHOOT Scheduled!

I just went through a week long training session provided by Global Knowledge and paid for by my work for troubleshooting IP Networks. Although it wasn't really anything tailored directly for the test it was a massive and great review for me.

For other preparations, I have also been doing the Boson Exam Simulators to work down a consistent plan of attack for troubleshooting the test. This I feel has specifically given me the opportunity to really plan out what types of checks I will do in a specific ordered format and how I will use such strategies on the test. Other than using Boson I have paired up some sporadic video watching from Chris Bryant / CBT Nuggets and doing some labbing in the 101 guide as review.

Overall I feel great, and very confident in myself to take on this test. Through Global Knowledge I also have my finances in order (vouchers) to give the exam a couple attempts, hopefully just one attempt needed.

I am very excited at this point to potentially bring this journey to a close. Once I get the pass I will post a write up that outlines my entire experience (the good and the bad).

Friday I will give my next update, hopefully my last for this thread

clarson

I planning on starting to study for my ccnp. And, I was interested in the learning more about the 101 labs book. online I could only find one that was authored in 2011, which seems like it is out of date for the current exam.

Can anyone help me out in regards to more current material?

Thanks

Iristheangel

*cough*

How's life treating you, Daniel?