is it possible to get my ccent in 2 months?.......must read thread

Hello everyone im new to this forum and wanted some advice from you lot.

Do you think its possible to get a cisco ccent in 2 months.

I've just finished university. Done my degree in computer networks.

I know the basics of networking so i know a few concepts and stuff like that. But as you know in uni they dont really teach you anything!!!

Can anyone suggest any good books that i can read and get all the info from that 1 book. Dont really wana be reading 3 or 4 books if you know wat i mean, and also any good studying tecniques such as.........

. How many topics to cover per day
. Which topics are harder then others
. How you found revising for it

thanks guys

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Comments

krjay

Yes it is possible if you know the basics.

CCENT/CCNA ICND1 640-822 Official Cert Guide (3rd Edition): Wendell Odom: 9781587204258: Amazon.com: Books

Odom's CCENT is by far the best book on the subject in my opinion.

I found the topics on WAN to be the most difficult to grasp. I think these were the most difficult because I don't work with these technologies on a daily basis and couldn't lab the material as easily as other subjects.

nathanlvw

Thanks krjay
how do u recommend i study
for example i got that book because its the official cisco press books so assumed it would be 1 of the best to study from.
Its got 17 chapters in it, do u think its possible to study 1 chapter a day or maybe 1 chapter every 2 days.
As in off from uni now im able to study for 6 hours a day atleast as i have free time.
How did u study for it

f0rgiv3n

Yes, I'd say it's absolutely possible! You got this, just stay focused, do labs and watch videos of people doing labs. I recommend buying some video training so you can hear people talking about it, not just read.

Chris Bryant, CBT Nuggets, Train Signal are a few that pop off the top of my head.

armandsss

I think the real question here is - how much time can you spend for studying learning material every day. I personally passed CCENT in 4 weeks, studying for around 4 hours per day (I am having a job which allows me to spend a lot of time for learning). So it's definitely possible to pass CCENT in 2 month.
My advise would be: Odom book + CBT Nuggets videos + Cisco Learning network forum for CCENT. There are also Review questions in Cisco site, so You can use them to measure your skills.

bbarrick

nathanlvw wrote: »

Thanks krjay
how do u recommend i study
for example i got that book because its the official cisco press books so assumed it would be 1 of the best to study from.
Its got 17 chapters in it, do u think its possible to study 1 chapter a day or maybe 1 chapter every 2 days.
As in off from uni now im able to study for 6 hours a day atleast as i have free time.
How did u study for it

If that book is anything like the 100-101 book I'm reading for the new CCENT test(you can take the old, easier one up till Sept. 30), then it is broken down into 3 parts. I suggest you get it and read the introduction and such in the beginning and it will give you an idea how he wrote it. Part I is an intro into networking, you can take the tests at the beginning of each chapter and if you do well just skim over the Chapter. He also has information flagged as "Key Topics" that you need to pay attention to. The book comes with a CD that has testing software, you can break them down and tell the software to only pull questions from certain Chapters.

Read it, study it and in 2 months do a self evaluation of your confidence based on how well you know the material and score on the practice tests and then you will truly know if you can do it in 2 months.

nathanlvw

thanks for the feedback everyone
because im currently finished at uni i now have atleast 5 hours a day free to study
i want to devote myself to the ccent and see what happens
im going to go through the cbt nuggets and the cisco press book by odom
do u think its gd to read each chapter say 1 day at a time and also watch the same chapter in cbt nuggets as im reading that chapter,
that way i get a great understanding of it....plus labs as welll???

bbarrick

nathanlvw wrote: »

thanks for the feedback everyone
because im currently finished at uni i now have atleast 5 hours a day free to study
i want to devote myself to the ccent and see what happens
im going to go through the cbt nuggets and the cisco press book by odom
do u think its gd to read each chapter say 1 day at a time and also watch the same chapter in cbt nuggets as im reading that chapter,
that way i get a great understanding of it....plus labs as welll???

In the 100-101 book, his chapters are only about 20 pages. You should be able to slowly read through that in an hour then go back and retake the chapter test, go over the key topic material and watch a video with some time to spare. I've read Part I, which is the first 5 chapters in 100-101 twice now. I want to sit down when I take that test not with a mentality of "if" I'm going to pass it, but how close can I get to a perfect score. I plan on taking it by August. I'm coming from very little experience in networking, although I've been playing around on computers for the better part of 15 years or so, I know most of the lingo...just need to get to know the intricate details of it all.

krjay

I'm currently studying for the ICND2 and I'm using the same method I did for the CCENT. I'm following the order of the chapters in Odom's book. My study method is as follows:

1. Watch CBT Nugget that relates to chapter 1
2. Read Odom chapter 1 taking extensive notes in OneNote
3. If I don't feel completely comfortable with what I've learned I watch Trainsignal videos and glance through my notes.

I actually didn't do any of the end of chapter quizzes until I made it through the entire book and was a week out from the exam. I found the quizzes to be way too easy if I did them right after studying the chapter, so I used them as a refresher.

nathanlvw

thanks every1
one more thing
wats everyones thoughts on subnetting
its something dat 1 day i get an the next i dont
can any1 recommend any good books/ways/videos on how to subnet

DoubleNNs

Subnetting is best learned by practicing. If you understand the binary math and can do subnetting 1 day, but have difficulty another day, it's just that you haven't cememeted the process into your head enough.

Besides, after you do it enough there are patterns to the math that you'll recognize and be able to arrive at the answers w/o doing the actual math. i.e. You know that 100 divided by 2 is 50 by heart - you don't have to break out a pen and paper and do the long division because you've already ingrained the overlying pattern into your head. Many subnetting problems become similar after enough practice.

Subnetting Practice Questions
subnettingquestions.com - Free Subnetting Questions and Answers Randomly Generated Online

Practice w/ the above sites.

edit: it's easy to spend a 15-30 mins a day practicing subnetting while still studying for the rest of the test. Try to do it enough times that you can arrive at the answers very, very quickly. I'm still studying for the CCENT myself (almost there) but not only have I hear that there's a lot of subnetting questions on the exam (that if you can't do them fast will just eat up your time), the questions should become easy enough to be "gimme" questions on the exam. You'll want to focus more of your mental processes on the sims the day of the exam, and sigh in relief when you see subnetting problems. You don't want to struggle thru those as well.

nathanlvw

thanks DoubleNNs
appreciate dat alot
of the ccent and ccna exam (ICND1 & ICND2) how much of the exam do u think concentrates on subnetting
alotta ppl say 2 me if u can do subnetting then das a big stress off ur hands wen it comes to the exams