Just past ICND1, now what?

Whiteout

Got an 890, nothing amazing but respectable. Anyhow just wondering how much more work would it take to pass ICND2? I know you can't give a definite answer, because everybody is different. But any kind of guesstimate would be appreciated!

Just wondering, because I have a ton of other stuff I am/going to be working on, but would really like to knock out CCNA while its all still fresh.

Cheers.

dave330i

It took me about the same amount of effort to pass ICND2. Maybe a little less.

ciscoman2012

I think it all depends on how much you know about the topics tested in ICND1 and your core foundations of networking.

I studied about 6 months off and on for the CCENT and passed with a 950ish. I studied for about 4-5 months for the ICND2 and passed with a 856.

Iristheangel

I would say that the ICND2 is a bit more difficult but I found it fun. It took me about a month to study for the ICND1 and two months for the ICND2. It's not to be underestimated

YuckTheFankees

I believe Iristheangel's time frame is pretty accurate. It took me about one month for the ICND1 and I'll probably pass the ICND2 around the 2 month mark.

MrXpert

It took me three months to pass the ICND1 and 3 months for the ICND2. I scored about 920 on the ICND1 and 870 on ICND2. ICND2 was much harder than the CCENT in my opinion.Mainly because it had more simulations involving me configuring something in the IOS. I recall doing about 4-5 of these simlets. These take time to read and absorb. But I did find I over studied quite a lot and did a fair amount of CCNP topics which to be honest wasn't a bad thing.

luberguilarte

It took me 3 moths to pass the icnd1 and still studing for icnd2 for about a month , it will take me another month to really mastered it , that's how I like to learn ,like when someone ask me a question I can aswer it with a nature confident , my suggestion for you is this , do not learn to forget, learn it like you know your name , that's how I do it.

elderkai

I passed the ICND2 about two weeks after the ICND1, but I knew most of the material for the ICND2 before I took the ICND1 just because I didn't separate the studies for each, really. I studied for the CCNA as a whole and when it came time for me wanting to test I studied solely on each test for a couple weeks. Be comfortable with verifying and configuring the WAN protocols, switch trunks, and NAT/ACLs as those are kind of really the major topics. Other than the main configuration topics, go over the blueprint and review while quizzing yourself after each section. You'll have it down cold in no time. ^.^

Also, try not to get nervous like I did. Manage your time, but don't freak out over it. My score was 888 and I feel it was lower than it could have been because I got unfocused and discouraged when I only had 45 minutes left at question 12. Took until around question 20 to get my head straightened out again without questioning every decision.

Whiteout

Well it sounds like ICND2 is a little more difficult then ICND1, but will take similar or less time to prepare for. I think I will try to pound out part two by the end of July, while I'm going strong in the Cisco world. Although I hear part two has a lot to do with WAN stuff (as elderkai also pointed out), yeah? Which I hardly know anything about, except that a T1 line is really slow. And I used to think it meant you were godly if you had one... ha ha. Well you probably we're if you we're playing CS back in the day or some other twitch shooter. NAT is also my enemy... inside, outside, local, global. Fun stuff.

The one thing I am really good out is subnetting, I wish every question involved it!

Thanks guys and gals!

gadav478

Whiteout wrote: »

Although I hear part two has a lot to do with WAN stuff (as elderkai also pointed out), yeah? Which I hardly know anything about, except that a T1 line is really slow. And I used to think it meant you were godly if you had one... ha ha.

I did too, you're not alone lol

NotHackingYou

Whiteout wrote: »

Well it sounds like ICND2 is a little more difficult then ICND1, but will take similar or less time to prepare for. I think I will try to pound out part two by the end of July, while I'm going strong in the Cisco world. Although I hear part two has a lot to do with WAN stuff (as elderkai also pointed out), yeah? Which I hardly know anything about, except that a T1 line is really slow. And I used to think it meant you were godly if you had one... ha ha. Well you probably we're if you we're playing CS back in the day or some other twitch shooter. NAT is also my enemy... inside, outside, local, global. Fun stuff.

The one thing I am really good out is subnetting, I wish every question involved it!

Thanks guys and gals!

You will find that most ICND2 study materials cover WAN topics in depth. This is definitely a topic you can plan to see a lot of on the exam.

elderkai

Yeah, I knew virtually nothing about WANs before the CCNA. It's one of my favorite things to learn about now, but I lack the real world experience with them which sometimes makes it difficult to think about how it works in a practical way. The CCNA material is pretty straightforward, though.

Also, the NAT terms are pretty simple. They just look complex. On top of that, afaik, they're not even used regularly(the terms). Still should know them for the exam, of course.

You have four terms: Inside Local, Inside Global, Outside Local, and Outside Global addresses. Think of Inside and Outside as...ownership? It defines who's address it is, exactly. If you see Inside, then you can count on that being on your side. Inside of your network. Outside should be clear by now, which is the network on the other side. Whatever network you're reaching out to.

The second part of each term, Local or Global, you can think of as a..modifier? It's the difference between using the private address that the local network would use/see and the address that the world(think globally) would see, being an address that you define via NAT.

Hopefully my explanation helped. It was one of the things I was fuzzy on at first, too. Hope I'm not repeating things you already knew, though.