CCNA Study Group

Alhaji265

Update:

Purchased Chris Bryants "CCNA 200-120 On-The-Go Video Boot Camp" (watched and lab on VLANs)
Currently reviewing Ethernet VLANs in Odom ICND1 textbook
Did a password recovery on Catalyst Switch 2924

ghoul

I've been trying to study 1-2 hrs a day for ICND1, but it's been tough to find time with my job and a wild toddler but I'm determined. I started by going through most of the CBT videos, and I'm now reading through Odom's book. At this stage, I don't always know if I'm spending my time wisely. I'm feeling good about most of the topics but its a vast amount of stuff to cover and retain. I'm more than halfway done with the book, so I'm going to finish that and start to lab more and hope for the best.

My goal is to take ICND1 in early Feb and ICND2 in April.

Staunchy

The last week have been busy started at a new company but actually regretting leaving my old company, spoke to previous boss asking if I can get my job back so will be hearing tomorrow morning praying he says yes....

Anyway I finished Todd Lammle's book tonight, will start reading W. Odom book and do practice labs tomorrow. Time starting to become less 10 days till my exam.

--chris--

ghoul wrote: »

I've been trying to study 1-2 hrs a day for ICND1, but it's been tough to find time with my job and a wild toddler but I'm determined. I started by going through most of the CBT videos, and I'm now reading through Odom's book. At this stage, I don't always know if I'm spending my time wisely. I'm feeling good about most of the topics but its a vast amount of stuff to cover and retain. I'm more than halfway done with the book, so I'm going to finish that and start to lab more and hope for the best.

My goal is to take ICND1 in early Feb and ICND2 in April.

I know that feeling (wild 21 month old here). When you are able to read AND retain a subject with a wild child in the house I think its a real skill. Its hard to quantify it and even harder to bring it up in a professional manner during an interview...but knowing you can focus when everything around you is going crazy is a good thing.

Ill be joining you guys Finished the ITIL today, moving on towards the CCENT > CCNA.

Xyro

Magic Johnson wrote: »

755/1000 so a fail HOWEVER I'm not too disheartened.

Congrats on the attempt. At least you tried. Better luck next time!

Agent47

Congratulations mykeee excellent work! Knock that ICND2 out and you are good to go!

Technoracer thank you for the lab link! Another good way to get some "practical" practice!

Hi Goul! It’s definitely a commitment but very possible! Thank you for joining!

Staunchy, good luck, that’s a bummer that you don’t like your new work environment. I hope that you’ll be able to get your job back and possibly move on to bigger and better things in the future!

—Chris— Thank you for joining us, keep us up to date on your progress!

Magic Johnson - Don’t worry, you will get it on the next attempt. Anything worth having can take some time to get and at least you tried. Time to hit dem books again! Don’t let too much time pass in-between now and your next attempt!

As for me, I have been taking it slow in my study to regain and retain. I swear reading 30+ pages for me is like woah but I realized it helps to read first then vids. A little more focus in reading. In addition I’m also listening to the CBT A+ mp3’s just because I want to. After that the microsoft server 2012 install mp3s. I plan to wipe my desktop and use it to strictly practice on and manage virtual machines. Im up to chapter 5 in lammles book and plan to concentrate on the written labs on weekends by reading the exam summary first then lab.

Take Care everyone, glad you all are still here sharing your updates! Keep up the good work and pace yourself!

Technoracer

Agent47 wrote: »

Technoracer thank you for the lab link! Another good way to get some "practical" practice!

You're welcome. Some guy posted that lab link in the Cisco Networking Academy LinkedIn page, and I immediately thought about this study group.

shyguyIT

Starting my ICND2 studies today reading up on STP in Odom's book.

Magic Johnson

Sorry guys that was just the result I got on a Pearson practice exam, not the real test! Should have been clearer!

So after getting 75%, 93% and 81% on the Pearson ones, I decided to give Boson ones a try.

WOW. 70%. That...was...difficult! It had some stuff in there I'd never even heard of! AUI port?! The command for service level 7?

So according to that my weakest areas are device security, routing technologies and operation of IP data networks. Faaaaantastic. My test is in 5 days.

Jon_Cisco

I have not been going crazy. I'm spending this week on ACLs. I start Networking III in about a week so I will be on their schedule for a while. This term I plan to do all of the labs at home before attempting them in class. This should help reinforce what I'm learning and I can have any questions ready for the teacher each week.

shyguyIT

Going over chapter 2 STP Implementation tonight and going to do some labbing as well.

--chris--

Edit: Turns out the Wikipedia entry for these terms is really good. It fixed my issues.


Collision Domains and Broadcast Domains.

I know this is a fundamental, day 1 topic but I am struggling with how to identify them. I can define them, I understand the differences but I dont feel comfortable with the logic of them yet. Anyone have a link that really helped cement these terms?

Also, in this link:

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/thread/1734

The "best" answer refers to CD's as layer 1 and BD's as layer 2. I have not read why this is yet, can someone give me a preview?

Staunchy

4 More days till my ICND2 200-101 exam feeling pretty confident, currently reviewing some topics and also working through practice questions.

Magic Johnson

Staunchy wrote: »

4 More days till my ICND2 200-101 exam feeling pretty confident, currently reviewing some topics and also working through practice questions.

Nice one. Are you finding you're learning new stuff even now whilst you're reviewing? I find I'm cementing things I may have been unsure about previously. Just hope I get lucky in the exam and get asked about the stuff I'm really shored up on.

I've got 2 until my 100-101.

Staunchy

Magic Johnson wrote: »

Nice one. Are you finding you're learning new stuff even now whilst you're reviewing? I find I'm cementing things I may have been unsure about previously. Just hope I get lucky in the exam and get asked about the stuff I'm really shored up on.

I've got 2 until my 100-101.

I'm learning small things but mainly reinforcing what I have learned and also better understanding STP and frame relay. I struggled a bit with frame relay probably spend about 3 or 4 days just on 1 of the 2 chapters of frame relay.

Nice good luck dude by the post you have made it sounds you pretty much know the work, let us know how it goes.

Magic Johnson

Staunchy wrote: »

I'm learning small things but mainly reinforcing what I have learned and also better understanding STP and frame relay. I struggled a bit with frame relay probably spend about 3 or 4 days just on 1 of the 2 chapters of frame relay.

Nice good luck dude by the post you have made it sounds you pretty much know the work, let us know how it goes.

Its the detail which is the killer, eh? You can't have a 'general understanding' I mean you really need to know this stuff inside out, and then manage to apply your knowledge for whatever scenario you are presented with.

Frustratingly, I have spent the past 2 days studying and revising, off work, and have only managed to get 79% on the Boson exam, up from 70% first time round. Panic mode is firmly activated.

Though I have never heard of 'AUI port', I wasn't aware where ACLs were supposed to be applied in a college campus (access, dist, core) and a few others I really genuinely didn't know. There were other gotchas on the ODSF questions (like 'which is truest' I sincerely hate those). It says my weaknesses are IP Routing Technologies and Operation of IP Data Networks. I'm kind of hacked off because there were not really that many questions on the practical side, like NAT or ACLs which I have really thrashed out to the point of knowing how to configure a network from scratch from port security to NATing without using the '?'.



EDIT: Things I've come across that aren't covered in Odom's book: RARP, IPS Filtering, OSPF needing dead and hello timers to match, also the default values for these.

--chris--

Magic Johnson wrote: »

Its the detail which is the killer, eh? You can't have a 'general understanding' I mean you really need to know this stuff inside out, and then manage to apply your knowledge for whatever scenario you are presented with.

Frustratingly, I have spent the past 2 days studying and revising, off work, and have only managed to get 79% on the Boson exam, up from 70% first time round. Panic mode is firmly activated.

Though I have never heard of 'AUI port', I wasn't aware where ACLs were supposed to be applied in a college campus (access, dist, core) and a few others I really genuinely didn't know. There were other gotchas on the ODSF questions (like 'which is truest' I sincerely hate those). It says my weaknesses are IP Routing Technologies and Operation of IP Data Networks. I'm kind of hacked off because there were not really that many questions on the practical side, like NAT or ACLs which I have really thrashed out to the point of knowing how to configure a network from scratch from port security to NATing without using the '?'.



EDIT: Things I've come across that aren't covered in Odom's book: RARP, IPS Filtering, OSPF needing dead and hello timers to match, also the default values for these.

Can you push the exam back a week or two? I thought you could...?

What in particular about RARP is not covered in Odom's book? I just got to that part.

Magic Johnson

--chris-- wrote: »

Can you push the exam back a week or two? I thought you could...?

What in particular about RARP is not covered in Odom's book? I just got to that part.

Nah I'll be fine, apart from filling a couple of knowledge gaps, Boson has taught me something very important: how to read and digest an exam-like question. This was my big failing, I think. I managed to slow it down, read the question (carefully!) and I scored 88% last night, could have been even more had I concentrated harder. I think the time limit instantly makes you want to rush, its so counter-intuitive to slow it down and take your time, but that's the way to do it.

I went over Odom's book to see if I could find any reference to RARP, and nope, not in there! I did get the book literally the day it was released, have you maybe got a later version? What page is it on?

p.s exam in 4 hours, eek!

Staunchy

Magic Johnson wrote: »

Nah I'll be fine, apart from filling a couple of knowledge gaps, Boson has taught me something very important: how to read and digest an exam-like question. This was my big failing, I think. I managed to slow it down, read the question (carefully!) and I scored 88% last night, could have been even more had I concentrated harder. I think the time limit instantly makes you want to rush, its so counter-intuitive to slow it down and take your time, but that's the way to do it.

I went over Odom's book to see if I could find any reference to RARP, and nope, not in there! I did get the book literally the day it was released, have you maybe got a later version? What page is it on?

p.s exam in 4 hours, eek!

The boson exams are a lot harder so I'm sure you gonna end up scoring in the 900's. The limit is the biggest enemy.

Good luck

Magic Johnson

Got a pass! Not what I expected, I got 87% which is disappointing personally. I managed to get 100% on IP Services and operation of it data networks lol, at the expense of ip addressing. Will do a thread when I get home. Now for a relaxing drive home.

shyguyIT

Congrats Magic!

Staunchy

Congrats Magic well deserved

Agent47

Congrats Magic! Well done.

sixtyten

Congrats Magic!! Way to go

sixtyten

I finally got my act together and have started studying for the new ICND2. This week is STP by studying the Lammle book, Chris Bryant videos, and this weekend in detail via the Odom book.

Jon_Cisco

Magic Johnson wrote: »

Got a pass! Not what I expected, I got 87% which is disappointing personally. I managed to get 100% on IP Services and operation of it data networks lol, at the expense of ip addressing. Will do a thread when I get home. Now for a relaxing drive home.

Good Job!

zepol87

Congrats on the pass!!!

I have been studying for about 2 months now. CBT Nuggets and reading Odom's book. Also subscribed to howtonetwork.com for their videos. I am enjoying the difference in styles for those and CBT's, it keeps it fresh for me. Hoping to take the ICND1 at the end of Feb or early March. Good luck everyone

zepol87

zepol87 wrote: »

Congrats on the pass!!!

I have been studying for about 2 months now. CBT Nuggets and reading Odom's book. Also subscribed to ##########.com for their videos. I am enjoying the difference in styles for those and CBT's, it keeps it fresh for me. Hoping to take the ICND1 at the end of Feb or early March. Good luck everyone

Sorry for posting that website didnt know I couldnt.

Staunchy

1 Day left of prepping for my ICND2 exam, nerves are really starting to kick in....

Staunchy

In less than 24 hours I hope to add a new cert to my list and also change my avatar