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I just passed the CCNA exam with a 933! My Journey included.
techexamschris
Member Posts: 6 ■□□□□□□□□□
in CCNA & CCENT
I relied upon this forum on Techexams.com for motivation and advice, as other people’s experiences helped me to navigate the multitudes of options to attain this goal. Hopefully sharing my experience will have that same value for others.
My story: I am in an engineering department of a broadcast station for the last 30 years. My job has been to repair all of the electronic equipment that puts a show on the air. Little by little the job went from component level troubleshooting to swapping out modules, hardware to software, tape machines to file based play out. With all the changes, upper management offered us an award fee if we passed the A+, and/or the Network+ exam. I tackled and passed the A+, and then finished reading all the material for the Network+. I found out about the Cisco CCNA exam through a co-worker so decided to tackle that instead. I enrolled in Southern California Institute of Technology, which had the 4 Cisco Academy classes rolled into 3 accelerated classes. Each class was 6 weeks, 5 hours an evening, 5 days a week, and quite a few units of college credit. Loved it! My instructors were amazing and very Cisco/Networking knowledgeable. I had daily hands-on labs using the real equipment -- very helpful. Packet tracer is great, but the working on the real equipment is so much better. After hours of homework each night, I started to really understand what I was learning. The school used all of the Cisco Academy books. I also purchased the Lammle and Odom books along with the CCNA Portable Command Guide, and the 31 Days to the CCNA Exam. I took the Network+ exam during Christmas vacation, in-between classes and passed. Originally I was going to take the CCENT exam, right after the Network+, but I just didn’t have the time to study for that exam and do school classes too. For those who are interested in the differences between the two tests, I found the Network+ was a good overview of all networking, but the CCENT information was more in-depth, adding more information on “how” networking works. Finished my classes and took a few months break (I was tired!). I started studying for the CCNA exam using the free INE videos, and many other videos on You Tube. Dan’s Courses (on You Tube), subnetting using the magic number made me understand how to subnet. After I learned how to subnet, then I was able to understand all the other books I read methods… I worked hard at getting faster and faster using subnettingquestions.com. Finally I could subnet in my head. I took about two months of studying, using the 31 days till CCNA exam book and using the exams in the back of the books I had. My hardest subjects were Nat and IPV6. I searched every internet question and write ups for IPV6 till I felt I could pass the exam. Scheduled the exam for a month ahead, and then changed the test 4 times to an earlier test date. I was ready; I had studied so much I think I was losing information instead of getting smarter!
The testing facility had the erasable large plastic sheets and a felt pen. I asked for more and used 5 of them. The facility had roller ball type mice which were extremely hard to drag and drop… A facility where there are dividers between the computers would be helpful because all outside noise from the other test takers was hard to listen to when test taking. You may want to check out you facility before you schedule the test. There is a tutorial before the exam. It is the same one on the Cisco website. I recommend going through the tutorial, it calms your nerves. I had 11 minutes left on the exam.
My next project might be the new Cisco Data Center exam, or I am thinking about getting certified in Wireshark.
Good luck to you all.
My story: I am in an engineering department of a broadcast station for the last 30 years. My job has been to repair all of the electronic equipment that puts a show on the air. Little by little the job went from component level troubleshooting to swapping out modules, hardware to software, tape machines to file based play out. With all the changes, upper management offered us an award fee if we passed the A+, and/or the Network+ exam. I tackled and passed the A+, and then finished reading all the material for the Network+. I found out about the Cisco CCNA exam through a co-worker so decided to tackle that instead. I enrolled in Southern California Institute of Technology, which had the 4 Cisco Academy classes rolled into 3 accelerated classes. Each class was 6 weeks, 5 hours an evening, 5 days a week, and quite a few units of college credit. Loved it! My instructors were amazing and very Cisco/Networking knowledgeable. I had daily hands-on labs using the real equipment -- very helpful. Packet tracer is great, but the working on the real equipment is so much better. After hours of homework each night, I started to really understand what I was learning. The school used all of the Cisco Academy books. I also purchased the Lammle and Odom books along with the CCNA Portable Command Guide, and the 31 Days to the CCNA Exam. I took the Network+ exam during Christmas vacation, in-between classes and passed. Originally I was going to take the CCENT exam, right after the Network+, but I just didn’t have the time to study for that exam and do school classes too. For those who are interested in the differences between the two tests, I found the Network+ was a good overview of all networking, but the CCENT information was more in-depth, adding more information on “how” networking works. Finished my classes and took a few months break (I was tired!). I started studying for the CCNA exam using the free INE videos, and many other videos on You Tube. Dan’s Courses (on You Tube), subnetting using the magic number made me understand how to subnet. After I learned how to subnet, then I was able to understand all the other books I read methods… I worked hard at getting faster and faster using subnettingquestions.com. Finally I could subnet in my head. I took about two months of studying, using the 31 days till CCNA exam book and using the exams in the back of the books I had. My hardest subjects were Nat and IPV6. I searched every internet question and write ups for IPV6 till I felt I could pass the exam. Scheduled the exam for a month ahead, and then changed the test 4 times to an earlier test date. I was ready; I had studied so much I think I was losing information instead of getting smarter!
The testing facility had the erasable large plastic sheets and a felt pen. I asked for more and used 5 of them. The facility had roller ball type mice which were extremely hard to drag and drop… A facility where there are dividers between the computers would be helpful because all outside noise from the other test takers was hard to listen to when test taking. You may want to check out you facility before you schedule the test. There is a tutorial before the exam. It is the same one on the Cisco website. I recommend going through the tutorial, it calms your nerves. I had 11 minutes left on the exam.
My next project might be the new Cisco Data Center exam, or I am thinking about getting certified in Wireshark.
Good luck to you all.
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OptionsSounds Good
Member Posts: 403
good job!
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