My Review of SWITCH Exam Study Material - Mar 24, 2014

Hello Everyone,

I was able to put up enough points to pass the SWITCH exam last Friday and chomping at the bit to begin working on ROUTE!

I ran a search on the forum to determine preferred study materials for ROUTE. As I sit here culling through the results, it dawned on me that I should contribute to the forum and share what I used to pass SWITCH.

Background: I do not currently work in the networking industry, in fact, I'm pretty far from it. I am working on a career change and hoping to leverage these certifications to land an interview.

It took somewhere around 8-10 weeks for me to study and pass SWITCH. I study a few hours each evening and the better part of the day on weekends.

Materials I used:
- Cisco Press OCG
- Switch Simplified
- Cisco Press FLG
- Cisco SWITCH Lab Manual
- CBT Nuggets
- INE CCNP videos

Hardware in my lab:
- 2x 3750 Switches
- 3x 2950 Switches
- 3x 1841 Routers

Study:
If I had to cull the study materials, I would use the OCG and Switch Simplified book. Both of these are great books but the simplified book is probably the better of the two as far as material coverage. Come review time, I leveraged both texts. I really liked the labs and end of chapter summaries in the simplified book, but I also found the OCG the better book for strictly command reference and syntax review. I also preferred the OCG for the security material of the exam.

I would recommend skipping the FLG all together, just look at the reviews on Amazon for the myriad of reasons (all true). I don't think it added any value for the exam over and above what the OCG and simplified book provided.

For the videos, I watched all of the CBT Nuggets, and about 70% of the INE videos. Both are good, it just worked out that I watched CBT first, and didn't end up watching all of the INE videos. No clear winner here.

Labbing:
I used the labs in the back of the Switch Simplified book as well as the SWITCH Lab Manual. Both valuable resources and I ran through each a couple of times. The first pass was just gaining confidence in being able to configure the devices, future passes were focusing on "What is this exercise trying to teach me?". If I had to choose just one, I'd go with the Switch Simplified Book but not by a significant margin.

Hardware:
My hardware is overkill! Most of the labs in the lab manual use 2x3560 and 2x2960. Since I do not have 2960's and the 2950's cannot create SVI's, I used a router in lieu of an SVI. Pretty much 4 switches is where you want to be to follow the lab manual.

I hope this helps someone getting started with the SWITCH exam.

Good Luck!

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Comments

Minary

Nice review. Well done on the pass.

Was the Switch simplified book different/better to the Route simplified book ?

I was getting on well with it until the OSPF section which I got bogged down in. I then I never picked it back up when I found "how to master CCNP". I feel that some details is missing but it is 1st class explanations.

late_collision

Minary wrote: »

Nice review. Well done on the pass.

Thanks!

Minary wrote: »

Was the Switch simplified book different/better to the Route simplified book ?

I Couldn't tell ya. I have the OCG at home and I will begin reading chapter 1 tonight. Based on what I have read, the FLG seems to be the preferred book. I think I will order the FLG today and wait on the ROUTE Simplified book. I'm not entirely sure I am ready to give up the labs in the back of the simplified book, I felt they were really beneficial in the SWITCH book.

Thanks for the feedback on ROUTE simplified and Rene's book as well. They are both on my mind but my budget says I can't have them all.

Danielh22185

late_collision wrote: »

Thanks!

I Couldn't tell ya. I have the OCG at home and I will begin reading chapter 1 tonight. Based on what I have read, the FLG seems to be the preferred book. I think I will order the FLG today and wait on the ROUTE Simplified book. I'm not entirely sure I am ready to give up the labs in the back of the simplified book, I felt they were really beneficial in the SWITCH book.

Thanks for the feedback on ROUTE simplified and Rene's book as well. They are both on my mind but my budget says I can't have them all.

Congrats on the pass! Thanks for the info on switch, that is what I am currently focusing on.

For route, I wouldn't even focus on OCG. FLG and the simplified books are the ones to get for Route. It won't hurt to read OCG but I thought i'd just offer my advice so your time isn't wasted.

late_collision

Much appreciated!

My FLG is on a brown truck somewhere and should be here just in time for the weekend.

Good luck on your SWITCH studies

thenappyone

I will second the simplified books. I felt the OCG were hard to read and stay focused. I also used the Bryant Advantage books, I thought he did a good job of explaining things and the books are cheap. Around $10 on Amazon.