CCNP Certification Advice

bharvey92

Hi all,

I became a CCNA last year and have been putting off beginning my CCNP route path until the new year!

However, now it is the new year I have bought the CCNP route book and will be starting my quest.

Does anyone have any tips on becoming certified and and particular resources to use?

Thanks

Heracles004

Route
I would say start with the CBT nugget videos -Jeremy does a good job of discussing most of the topics. The INE videos are great but spend more time looking at command line with an if and when approach(great for people with alittle better understanding). In my opinion the Nuggets are more helpful for exam purposes. I used both the OCG and the FLG in preparation for my exam. Difference is that the FLG has many more examples (at times too many for my taste) but covered some topics better. If you want just one I would say go with the OCG overall though, It is pretty well rounded.

Switch
I used INE all the way for this. I was more comfortable with switching so I went right into the INE videos with no regrets, great series and covered all that I needed to know. The OCG was also the better choice for this one by a large margin. The FLG had bad reviews on Amazon so I didn't bother. My associate said he read it and found numerous errors.

TShoot
After you are comfortable with switching and routing give yourself a refresher before taking this exam. The only real way to study for this is to troubleshoot and work on your system of approach. There is a few good and short youtube videos by Kevin Wallace where he walks you through his bullseye approach. (This was very helpful in my exam) He explains being able to abort tickets and compare to others when you think you have found the problem. Also try to familiarize yourself with the topology before going in. Cisco makes the topology public and offers a tutorial. I did not read any additional books before taking this exam. ( I actually found it fun)

I hope this is helpful. Hit me up if you need anything more.

bharvey92

Hi Heracles004,

Thanks very much for responding to my post . I have all 3 CCNP courses of CBT videos, I do enjoy Jeremy's courses. From your experience do you find these useful for your studies?

Can I ask what books (if any) did you use for your studies?

Heracles004

I used CBT Nuggets for the route exam and found it to be very helpful. I didn't have much experience with BGP and Jeremy did a good job of explaining. I didn't watch tshoot at all and I used the INE videos for switch. I read the OCG for both route and switch. I did read the ARCH book and watched the CCDP videos from INE before route and tshoot. Actually very helpful in my opinion.

DANMOH009

I have just been using the CBT videos, but i might get the INE videos too - Might be worth getting a different perspective.

FloOz

THE CBT nugget videos are good if you want a quick introduction to the topics but honestly I found that they did not cover a lot of material. If you're looking for a good video series I would go with The Bryant Advantage. It's cheaper then all the big training vendors and covers more in-depth then they do.