CCNP ROUTE Passed!

mitch179

What a relief!

Started studying at the start of July took the test today, I must admit it was hard, finished with about 10 minutes to spare, I got caught up on the first lab about 3 questions in and had a complete mind block and got stuck for about 25 mins so if that didn't happen I think I would have had a bit more time to spare.

One of my labs didn't work properly after I had to use a 'no' to take out a command I had put in correctly, once I fixed the config it still didn't work as intended, I ran up a lab at home the same and it works... I think I would have lost some points there I also left a note in the exam about it, not sure if that helps though.

Overall I think that's one of the hardest exams I've studied for and really had me on my toes. I thought the topics in the blue print are spot on and if you know the material well you'll pass for sure.

Next stop is switch, sounds like it'll be just as intense!

EDIT:

Materials I used:

ROUTE FLG - read it cover to cover
GNS3Vault labs
ROUTE Lab manual - went through this twice
CCNP ROUTE Simplified - Really good book, read parts I felt I was weak on.
How to master CCNP ROUTE by Rene Molenar - read cover to cover and followed the related labs
Chris Bryant CCNP ROUTE videos - These videos are good
Boson practice exams - Not bad, questions could be harder, the best part is it mimics the real test environment fairly well.
labs labs labs labs labs labs - I did so many god damn labs

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats on the pass

Ismaeljrp

WOW!! where did you find the time to cover all those materials in just 2 months ?

Congratulations!!

Master Of Puppets

Congrats!

mitch179

Ismaeljrp wrote: »

WOW!! where did you find the time to cover all those materials in just 2 months ?

Congratulations!!

thanks everyone

It wasn't too hard to cover the material, I did about 2 hours each week night + read in my lunch break at work or did a lab and probably did about 6 to 12 hours + on the weekends. Also if there was some slow periods at work I'd do a bit of reading or labbing.

I also do a 9 day fortnight so I have a long weekend every second week that I could study. Having said that though I did start reading the FLG a couple of months prior to really knuckling down. I didn't read every single page of the ROUTE simplified only particular parts and topics, same goes with the Chris Bryant vids. It's also the kind of study regime that works for me, I couldn't study over 6 months, I wouldn't retain the information as well, but that's just me.

I kept a pretty good study / life balance too. Still took a day off study most weekends to go dirt bike riding

To anyone that is looking to take this exam, I found it extremely hard to gauge whether or not I was ready so I basically just had to bite the bullet, I did feel confident but at the same time there is SO much content that I felt overwhelmed many times, particularly last night :O . So if you are in doubt about taking it but you've studied hard just go give it a crack IMO. It was difficult but not impossible by any means.

FloOz

Congrats!!!!

Danielh22185

Congrats on the pass. I am using a lot of the same materials. Hopefully I have the same luck

SharkDiver

Congratulations!!!
Good Luck on SWITCH.

Ismaeljrp

mitch179 wrote: »

thanks everyone

It wasn't too hard to cover the material, I did about 2 hours each week night + read in my lunch break at work or did a lab and probably did about 6 to 12 hours + on the weekends. Also if there was some slow periods at work I'd do a bit of reading or labbing.

I also do a 9 day fortnight so I have a long weekend every second week that I could study. Having said that though I did start reading the FLG a couple of months prior to really knuckling down. I didn't read every single page of the ROUTE simplified only particular parts and topics, same goes with the Chris Bryant vids. It's also the kind of study regime that works for me, I couldn't study over 6 months, I wouldn't retain the information as well, but that's just me.

I kept a pretty good study / life balance too. Still took a day off study most weekends to go dirt bike riding

To anyone that is looking to take this exam, I found it extremely hard to gauge whether or not I was ready so I basically just had to bite the bullet, I did feel confident but at the same time there is SO much content that I felt overwhelmed many times, particularly last night :O . So if you are in doubt about taking it but you've studied hard just go give it a crack IMO. It was difficult but not impossible by any means.

Ok, I get it now thanx. I can relate to not wanting to extend the test preparation period too long, because to me, if it's extended too long I have to go back and forth reviewing the things I I covered in the early phases of preparation. It happened to me with the CCENT, took too long, had to review everything. With ICND 2, I just took 2 months, and it would've been only 6 weeks but I couldn't afford the exam at the time. I'm going hardcore into CCNA Security before commencing CCNP Route, so thanks for sharing your experience. And congrats again.

f0rgiv3n

Nice job, congrats!

realdreams

I didn't like CCNP ROUTE Simplified
This book just copies Cisco documentation in large blocks. I don't know how they get away with it. It mentioned a lot of topics beyond CCNP, but just mention by taking what Cisco said on the website out of context
If the author thinks the packet format is important, why not go further than mentioning the header names?
A lot of vague references and errors, some outdated stuff (can't blame the author because CCNP exam is quite outdated itself...)
This book tried to separate theories and practice. I had to jump back and forth while reading the book.

Basically it serves as a reference for exam topics, but if you really want to understand the stuff, better read on cisco website (KB, whitepaper, implementation case, discussion on support forum), network blogs with comments (without comments you never know how wrong they are....) such as INE, ipexpert and maybe RFCs.