Hello All! New member

Hello All,

New member here looking to get CCNA certified before the end of this summer.

Just graduated college in March, and started studying in April. I've opted for the ICND1 & ICND2 option and I've scheduled my ICND1 test for June 27th. I'm pretty excited!

Methods of studying:

- Reading CCENT/CCNA ICND1 640-822 Official Cert Guide, 3rd Edition
- Watching Youtube vidoes; danscourses, CCIEonTraining, and anything networking
- Watching CBT Nugget videos
- Labbing up in Packet Tracer (downloaded labs from ****, Ranet, FreeCCNAlab, Jschreiner, PacketTracerNetwork, etc...)
- Reading Cisco Troubleshooting & Design Guides daily
- Working on at least one subnetting problem every day

Any advice is welcome and greatly appreciated.

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

Dakinggamer87

Welcome to the forums!!

You have a solid amount of study resources/materials and a solid plan to obtain your CCNA. Stay focused and motivated keep it up.

t5yll4

Thank you & will do.

Dakinggamer87

Aside from the Cisco CCNA path what other certs do you plan on pursuing?

t5yll4

2013:
CompTIA Net+ (most likely right after the CCNA [ICND2] which i will hit up in August.)
Juniper JNCIA (up in the air..mainly because I've had no exposure to Juniper stuff as of yet, but I"m considering it)
CCDA (by End of Year)

I did VoIP for a year and enjoyed it so the CCNA Voice is also fair game, just don't know if i can realistically fit it in this year.

I'm also interested in the Security side of things, mainly because of the industry I'm going into. But i won't start the security stuff until 2014. I'm trying to not overload myself.

Dakinggamer87

My plan is to finish my CCNA for this year but going forward certification wise I'm not sure what I will pursue next. I'm thinking about expanding my current skills and knowledge in server virtualization/linux where I have a great area of interest. I have also been brushing up my SAN knowledge base reading some books in between my Cisco studies.

Definitely keep a steady pace but don't overload yourself otherwise you will get burnt out quickly. I usually take a few weeks off between certs to recharge and energize by gaming to relax.

t5yll4

Yea, the server virtu/nix side of things is also interesting. I"m a nix guy myself (openSuse) and won't mind some nix certs under the belt. Alot of cloud stuff going on these days so I'm looking to check that out too. A buddy of mine is always talking to me about OpenStack.

As far as a steady pace, you're absolutely right...yea i try to fit gaming in between studying & work & family just so my brain doesn't explode..Looking to reward myself w/ The Last of Us ONLY after I get the CCNA, so i guess that's another reason to make sure I pass..lol

shezy77

Welcome to the forum... your first step to any certification starts here

t5yll4

Thanks! I've found this site to be very helpful.

Dakinggamer87

I know when I pass my CCNA it's game time!!

Souljacker

Dakinggamer87 wrote: »

Definitely keep a steady pace but don't overload yourself otherwise you will get burnt out quickly. I usually take a few weeks off between certs to recharge and energize by gaming to relax.

+1 to this comment! My WoW guild thinks I quit because I have been busy studying so hard. It's definitely a good idea to take a break in between certs though you don't want too much time to elapse between ICND1 and 2.

Another suggestion for a more structured approach is Paul Browning's CCNA in 60 days book. It's like 10 bucks on kindle and while the actual information in it is worth about that 10 bucks, the great thing is the lesson structure maps well to the Odom book and Farai has interesting tips throughout the text. I did each lesson and the exercises and read the corresponding chapters in the Odom book which goes into greater detail. It's been fun.

t5yll4

Dakinggamer87 wrote: »

I know when I pass my CCNA it's game time!!

AMEN to that brother!

t5yll4

Souljacker wrote: »

+1 to this comment! My WoW guild thinks I quit because I have been busy studying so hard. It's definitely a good idea to take a break in between certs though you don't want too much time to elapse between ICND1 and 2.

Another suggestion for a more structured approach is Paul Browning's CCNA in 60 days book. It's like 10 bucks on kindle and while the actual information in it is worth about that 10 bucks, the great thing is the lesson structure maps well to the Odom book and Farai has interesting tips throughout the text. I did each lesson and the exercises and read the corresponding chapters in the Odom book which goes into greater detail. It's been fun.

Definitely not gonna allow a huge gap between 1 & 2, as a matter of fact, I've moved on to icnd2 material already even though i'm only taking the icnd1 in 2 weeks. Looking to beat that September cut-off.

I'll take a look at the Paul B book, although I feel I have a plethora of good material. All I'm looking for these days are labs to do as I feel I have a good grasp on theory.