CCENT/CCNA Strategy Questions

matai

I passed the Network+ last fall and now I'm under the gun to pass the CCENT/CCNA/CCNA Security by the end of April. I had some life events occur which compressed my timeline. I'm currently halfway through the CCENT CBT Nuggets videos, I've done a few of the Cisco Labs and I've started reading Wendell Odom's book. I'm hoping to take the exam Feb 21st or sooner. My questions are:

1. If I'm solid on the CCENT material I listed above, is the CCNA as much or more material?

2. How much more material is the CCNA Security?

I'm basically trying to figure out my plan of attack to complete all three by the end of April.

Thanks

Jon_Cisco

Ambitious goals! I could not absorb that much information in such a tight timeline. My only suggestion is daily labs might help you retain the data.

Good Luck

dpsmooth15

Glad that you already set a date. Just look at the exam objectives on the Cisco site for the three certifications and that will tell you everything you need to know about what is on them. Just know Wendell Odom's book is not 25 pages, and you have to devote some serious time. I would suggest working on subnetting, I have faith in you

weakness33

Its Feb 28th now. Did you take the exam as you scheduled? If so, how did you do?

matai

Just got back to work from the testing center. I took ICND1 2/14 and ICND2 today passing both. I found that the Network+ was helpful for ICND1. My basic plan was this:

- Two chapters a day
- Two CBT Nuggets a day
- Two labs a day

I keep a spreadsheet of my progress and always tried to do more than that. If I did more, I did not count it for the next day. For ICND1 I also did tons of subnetting questions until I really got it down and it became fun then boring. For ICND2 I had to go back and spend some extra time on frame-relay. I find that setting goals and trying to beat them really helps me. I know that was a very aggressive schedule but am glad I did it that way. I'm hoping to keep up the momentum and take the CCNA Security two weeks from today. Also, I used to spend time on practice tests all throughout my studying and I stopped that. Now I'm not even looking at practice tests until I've finished the book, videos and labs.