Do i need to revisit CCNA material prior.....?

T.Abbasi

hello all,

first happy new year to everyone...

and now on to the topic at hand. i became a CCNA in Dec of 2011, and since then was able to get a networking job, and have been working as a network admin, not doing routing/switching on a daily basis, but working with low end cisco equipment, mainly 2611xm routers, 3560 switches, and 1131/1042 access points, doing basic configurations and deploying stub networks for our branch offices around the world.

that said, my plan is to start my studies within a week or two towards the CCNP. Do you think that I need to review the stuff i learned during my CCNA studies prior to initiating my CCNP studies? mind you that i'm not doing any specific hardcore routing or switching at work.

i've access to all the equipment i need for labbing, etc. but i just want to get assurance from you folks if you think it will help me revisiting ccna material, or save time and dive right into the ccnp?

last question, during my ccna exam, i found that i was weak in the routing area. do i go the route > switch > tshoot way or switch > route > tshoot?

thanks for reading, and any advice and support is greatly appreciated.

regards.

shodown

it doesn't matter that you gear was low end. It matters what you do with it. A person configuring BGP, OSPF stub areas and policy based routing on a 2611xm is more impressive than a person shutting and opening ports on a Nexus 7K.

With that aid, its good to glance over the CCNA material on things you haven't seen in a while. The routing exam is a beast and I was working as a WAN engineer and still failed it. The switch and TSHOOT were pretty easy.

GOZCU

Depends on the CCNP material you have. Most of the books cover the topic almost from the scratch. CCNP Route Simplified by Paul is written in an easy way which will let you to remember the CCNA level knowledge very fast, If you have some problems specifically about some topics, you may refresh your knowledge from Router Alley - Guides.

As a result, i believe, you don't need to buy a CCNA book and read it completely before you go to CCNP.

T.Abbasi

Thanks, shodown and gozcu.

As far as the material goes, I've the following:

• Cisco OCG for all three tests
• Paul Browning's Simplified, switch/route/tshoot + 101 ccnp labs
• Kevin Wallace's Video Mentor on Route and Tshoot
• David Hucaby's Video Mentor on LAN Switching
• Lab equipment at home and work
• Plan on purchasing Chris Bryant's ccnp kit

I believe I've more than enough study material to get this going.

I'm thinking I just watch the icnd1, and icnd2 cbtnuggets as a refresher, and then jump into ccnp starting with Switch.

@shodown, originullnetworks, cool site. and yes i can only imagine Route exam being a monster of a test...

@gozcu, thanks for sharing that link. very helpful indeed.

regards.

ciscoman2012

T.Abbasi wrote: »

Thanks, shodown and gozcu.

As far as the material goes, I've the following:

• Cisco OCG for all three tests
• Paul Browning's Simplified, switch/route/tshoot + 101 ccnp labs
• Kevin Wallace's Video Mentor on Route and Tshoot
• David Hucaby's Video Mentor on LAN Switching
• Lab equipment at home and work
• Plan on purchasing Chris Bryant's ccnp kit

I believe I've more than enough study material to get this going.

I'm thinking I just watch the icnd1, and icnd2 cbtnuggets as a refresher, and then jump into ccnp starting with Switch.

@shodown, originullnetworks, cool site. and yes i can only imagine Route exam being a monster of a test...

@gozcu, thanks for sharing that link. very helpful indeed.

regards.

I think with those resources you've mentioned above you'll have more than enough material to pass the CCNP. Now you'll just need time to digest it all.

FWIW, I've purchased Chris Bryant's SWITCH training material and its great. Very detailed information that is easy to learn. Like I said earlier though the hardest part is keeping all the facts straight and understanding how it all works together. I'll be purchasing his ROUTE and TSHOOT materials also after I knock out this exam.

7of9

I think you should be go to go without having to go back and review CCNA material. Most of the CCNP material starts where the CCNA material does, but just goes a heck of a lot more in depth from there.

Good luck!

f0rgiv3n

I did my CCNA in 2007 and didn't have a lot of router experience from then till I started my CCNP studies. I was stronger (am still) in switches&firewalls than with routing protocols, etc... prior to doing my CCNP last year. I went with Route first because I knew it would be the hardest.

I say do the test you are most afraid of first . My reasoning behind that is because you would most likely be able to finish all of them. If you go for the easiest tests first you will be left with the last one (the hardest) and could potentially push it out and eventually might have to redo both the others. Also, while your motivation is still rockin' it's best to take the hardest material.

I also recommend Chris Bryant's videos because he goes over the foundational material again.

7of9

That is great advice from f0rgiv3n. I started my CCNP during the 4 exam cycle and saved the test I thought would be the toughest until the last. Well...life and procrastination took over and here I am, having to redo the other exams due to expiration.

Don't be a me.

Somnipotent

Revisiting of CCNA could be helpful but is not necessary. As long as you have retained a good chunk of what you learned from the CCNA, the CCNP will only build upon those. If you forgot a few things, the CCNP will reintroduce and reenforce those topics at great depth. What was helpful for me were the CCNP lab books.

For the ROUTE, 99% of the labs could be completed within GNS3 and I drilled them until creating route-maps and configuring BGP was second nature.

For SWITCH, I made use of hardware (2x 2950s and 2x3550s), which now should be found relatively cheap by comparison to when I bought mine. Again, you can complete about 90% of the labs (save for the PVLAN aspect) using the switches alone.

For TSHOOT, go to the CLN website, check out the topology and take the preassessment. Do the labs and I highly recommend taking the TSHOOT within a month of passing your last exam because nothing new is presented in such a way that does not really cover what was discussed in ROUTE and SWITCH. You will need to know your show commands and that's basically about it.

As far as order goes, I found some people go SWITCH > ROUTE > TSHOOT based on the OSI model. I did the ROUTE > SWITCH > TSHOOT since I deal more with routing than switching at work. Hope this helps!