CCNA Security Progress Thread

Decided to make a progress thread while working towards the CCNA Security. I've done a few of these for my other certs and they seem to help with keeping me focused! If this against the rules of this particular subforum, just let me know.

I officially started studying on the 21st. I'm reading through the official guide book (I'm taking the 210-260) and have been writing notes throughout. My initial impression on the book wasn't great, but it's not the worst thing I've ever read, so there's that lol...

As of right now, the majority of the material has just been a rehash of Security+ topics, so I'd say if you already have that, this should be a logical next step. By the end of this upcoming week, I want to be done with the book and move onto labbing and note review. My overall goal is test probably around.... late November or early December.

Anyways, if anyone wants to comment their experiences here as well or offer words of wisdom, I'm all ears!

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Comments

greeneon

noahp34 appreciate the response! My next question can be answered by anyone who has taken the exam already? Approximately, how much study time will one needed before taking the exam? I apologize if this question has been asked somewhere else in this forum. I just can seem to find it.

waldensghost

Congrats on the pass, noahp34. I have access to the resources for CCNA S through WGU as well. I have a licensed version of Packet Tracer and VIRL (even though it's about to expire) and I got super frustrated with the OCG pretty quickly. Do you think studying the Nuggets videos and labbing a bit paired with Boson is a good way to go? I don't have the funds for the official Cisco course so I'm working with what I have. The Nuggets videos were great resources for the CCNA R/S.

ITBot

Yeah I think you can pass. But make sure you understand all the Boson questions and why the answers are right or wrong, try not to memorize them. That combined with CBT should be good enough. I'm not sure Packet Tracer will help you too much. The sims on Boson are fairly decent though.

aderon

Scheduled to take this tomorrow at 1PM EST. I'm feeling pretty confident. Spending most of today going through all the Boson practice exams one more time and then reviewing flash cards and playing around with ASDM.

I will let you all know how it goes!

NetworkNewb

Good luck aderon! What all resources have you been using to study?

Just about to start watching the CBT Nugget videos. Found out my new job I just got that they pay for everyone to use that site.

ITBot

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

aderon

I read the OCG (Unfortunately lol), wrote notes, created flash cards, watched about half the CBT Nuggets, had ASDM setup so I could mess around with it, and have been going through the Boson practice exams (super helpful stuff imo).

The CBTNuggets are pretty good, but as always, you have to supplement them with additional material. I highly recommend the Boson practice exams. The explanations for each question are very useful and pretty thorough.

Also, I love your yearly goals lmao. Awesome.

aderon

Man that was brutal! lol. I failed with an 810/860 which by my guess is about 2-3 questions short. Breakdown as follows:

Security Concepts - 88%
Secure Access - 70%
VPN - 75%
Secure Routing & Switching - 77%
Cisco Firewall Technologies - 46%
IPS - 83%
Content and Endpoint Security - 88%

The only strange part about the breakdown is probably the firewall technologies. I felt, going into the exam, that firewalls was my strongest area (go figure lol). Somewhat surprised that my Secure routing & switching was as high as it was. I felt that this was my weakest area going in.

A few things regarding the test:

1) ASDM slayed me. Was getting asked a lot of questions about topics I didn't realize I needed to know.
2) Some answers are very strangely worded. You'll see the question and it will be super basic and your immediate thought is "O awesome, this one is basically a freebie". Then you look at the possible answers and you're sitting there scratching your head because they're all very strangely worded.
3) There is absolutely no possible way you can read just the OCG and pass. I'd bet money on that. I don't think you'd even come remotely close.
4) I'm somewhat worried about a retake. I'm not really sure what else I'm supposed to study. I'm going to just try to work on a few of the questions that I wasn't sure on and hope that I get an easier question selection next time around. I felt like I knew all the topics, and I still feel that way (ASDM being the one exception).
5) A few questions came out of left field. Literally no idea, just had to guess. (Topics that I hadn't seen in the OCG, the CBTNuggets, or the Boson's)

So, I've got all the way until February 1st to do a retake, so we'll see how that goes.

JoJoCal19

Sorry to hear aderon! I've definitely read some of the same thoughts on CLN regarding this exam. It's a shame, as I'd like to pursue this. I just don't know why MS and Cisco feel the need to make the verbiage in the exams difficult in order to make the exams difficult.

ITBot

I bet when you retake it, 95% of the questions will be the same. At least that was my experience with previous CCNA test. And I 100% agree about the OCG. You'll kill it next time!

Brawndo

aderon, I'm in the same boat as you. I failed with a 750 last week and thought I had a good grasp on the topics. ADSM hosed me as well, give me the CLI any day. I have until 1/28 to re-certify so I don't have much choice but to go over the areas I didn't do as well in and hope for the best at this point. I've been using the OCG and CBT nuggets and found a few questions I don't recall seeing at all in the OCG or CBT.

bharvey92

aderon wrote: »

Man that was brutal! lol. I failed with an 810/860 which by my guess is about 2-3 questions short. Breakdown as follows:

Security Concepts - 88%
Secure Access - 70%
VPN - 75%
Secure Routing & Switching - 77%
Cisco Firewall Technologies - 46%
IPS - 83%
Content and Endpoint Security - 88%

The only strange part about the breakdown is probably the firewall technologies. I felt, going into the exam, that firewalls was my strongest area (go figure lol). Somewhat surprised that my Secure routing & switching was as high as it was. I felt that this was my weakest area going in.

A few things regarding the test:

1) ASDM slayed me. Was getting asked a lot of questions about topics I didn't realize I needed to know.
2) Some answers are very strangely worded. You'll see the question and it will be super basic and your immediate thought is "O awesome, this one is basically a freebie". Then you look at the possible answers and you're sitting there scratching your head because they're all very strangely worded.
3) There is absolutely no possible way you can read just the OCG and pass. I'd bet money on that. I don't think you'd even come remotely close.
4) I'm somewhat worried about a retake. I'm not really sure what else I'm supposed to study. I'm going to just try to work on a few of the questions that I wasn't sure on and hope that I get an easier question selection next time around. I felt like I knew all the topics, and I still feel that way (ASDM being the one exception).
5) A few questions came out of left field. Literally no idea, just had to guess. (Topics that I hadn't seen in the OCG, the CBTNuggets, or the Boson's)

So, I've got all the way until February 1st to do a retake, so we'll see how that goes.

Sorry to hear about the fail. Heard the Chris Bryant Udemy series is pretty good - might be worth looking at that?

NetworkNewb

noahp34 wrote: »

I bet when you retake it, 95% of the questions will be the same. At least that was my experience with previous CCNA test. And I 100% agree about the OCG. You'll kill it next time!

Yea, this is true unfortunately. That is why are so many people able to **** for some of the Cisco tests... Pretty stupid they don't have a larger array of questions.

aderon

Alright, round two goin down either tomorrow or the day after (Still waiting on WGU's site to stop bugging out so I can put in my voucher request lol). I found some great ASDM resources which have helped and I feel about as strong on everything else as I was before (with slightly more "refined" understanding of certain things). Same as before, I'll be back here to report on the exam whether I pass or fail. Here's to hoping it's a pass!

Two two ASDM resources I really like:
http://juantron.wix.com/my-networking-online#!ssl-vpn-anyconnect/c24fs
http://juantron.wix.com/my-networking-online#!clientless-ssl-vpn-using-asdm-part-i/c1fvl

PCTechLinc

Best of luck to you! I am currently studying MCSA Server 2012 for the 70-417 exam, but I have to renew my CCNA R&S by 9/21/16. What are the learning resources that WGU is giving you for exam preparation? I have the OCG and CBTNuggets by Keith Barker, but I don't have a lab guide. I will wait patiently for your results on here, and I definitely hope you skate right through it!

aderon

Thanks and good luck on your cert. WGU provides the OCG, the CBTNuggets, and the Boson practice exams. The bosons are the most useful of the three. The OCG is pretty poor. The Boson practice exams have some simulations that have an ASDM GUI, but you'll want to setup ASDM yourself to lab with as the sims are pretty limited and don't cover everything you need to know.

fuz1on

Great job so far and you'll get it next time! I'm working on CCNA-Sec too so hope we can both pass soon!

aderon

Well... I failed again with an even worse score. The report is in my car, but I believe it was a 770. To be honest, I'm feeling extremely defeated and powerless. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do at this point because I don't feel like I'm going to be able to pass this with even a third attempt. I don't feel like there's any more preparation I can do to answer some of these questions. It's a pretty depressing feeling when you know the answer to a question but also know that you're going to get it wrong. Sorry to vent, I just feel really down about this whole thing and my confidence has taken a pretty big hit. I've spent almost every waking moment studying for this for the last 4 weeks and I'm making backwards progress...

I spoke with my WGU mentor and he's a suggested a few things. One thing he mentioned is that I should probably just take a break from this for the moment and finish up my last 3 classses (The two classes on the paper and then the python class). At least that way I'll have some forward progress.

The other thing is that if I were to switch my major to just Information Technology (With no security focus) it will substitute the CCNA Sec class for a javascript class which is supposedly easier. This would be a pretty big blow to my future plans. I want to make a career in security (not in network security specifically, but one of the other specializations) and the "security" emphasis was pretty important to me and what I'm trying to accomplish. Plus it feels like a copout to change paths once it becomes hard. But, honestly I'm at a loss for what else I can do.

NetworkNewb

Sorry to hear that, that sucks. I want to smack the back of the mentor's head for thinking you should take a break from something when you almost passed an exam twice though!

There are plenty of people on here who have had to take an exam more than twice to pass. It happens to the best of us. I'm not able to tell you what you should study, but I definitely don't think you should give up or even take a break with all the work you have put in!

koz24

aderon wrote: »

5) A few questions came out of left field. Literally no idea, just had to guess. (Topics that I hadn't seen in the OCG, the CBTNuggets, or the Boson's)

So, I've got all the way until February 1st to do a retake, so we'll see how that goes.

Have you used the blueprint to study? If you are getting killed on topics you've never seen before it's time to hit the blueprint.

fuz1on

Sorry to hear/read! Like others have said, your right at the cusp of passing with those two previous scores. I think the third time will be the charm and you'll get it next time. Just remember, you were at the doorstep and - next time - you'll have the right lock combo to get in. That's what I told myself after my .0001 fail and 1 point fail on ICND1.

volfkhat

It's a new test....
So there's Not a Lot of good material out there yet. (Quite a few people said the official cisco material sucks)

If you want to make a "Career" in Security... then go ahead and do it.
You don't need a special 'security' Degree to control that.

You just a need a degree.

You can always come back for the cert AFTER you graduate....

ITBot

I'd hit the other classes and then come back to it. That way you won't have those other ones hanging over your head and you can come back at it fresh. If you get desperate like me and you have the cash or work will reimburse you, the Cisco course really helped me out:
https://learningnetworkstore.cisco.com/ccna-security/implementing-cisco-network-iins-v3-0-elt-iins-v3-0-019451

Super pricey but lots of good labs and practice.

NetworkNewb

noahp34 wrote: »

If you get desperate like me and you have the cash or work will reimburse you, the Cisco course really helped me out:
https://learningnetworkstore.cisco.com/ccna-security/implementing-cisco-network-iins-v3-0-elt-iins-v3-0-019451

Super pricey but lots of good labs and practice.

$350 to make sure you understand the topics even more and don't have to pay another $250 to retake again (and again). Worth it imo. Understand it could be alot for someone starting out though... Then again it isn't a gaurentee pass. I'll be purchasing this once I finish the CBT Nugget videos though.

I'm going off noahp's word that it is good, haven't heard anyone else who has bought it. So I'll be going after him if it isn't!

koz24

The other option(if you can get your company to pay for it) is to take the Cisco course through a partner like Global Knowledge. They have their own course and lab manuals not found anywhere else.

IINS Implementing Cisco IOS Network Security 3.0 at Global Knowledge

aderon

noahp34 wrote: »

I'd hit the other classes and then come back to it. That way you won't have those other ones hanging over your head and you can come back at it fresh. If you get desperate like me and you have the cash or work will reimburse you, the Cisco course really helped me out:
https://learningnetworkstore.cisco.com/ccna-security/implementing-cisco-network-iins-v3-0-elt-iins-v3-0-019451

Super pricey but lots of good labs and practice.

Yeah, if I attempt again, then I think I'm going to purchase this. I asked the course mentor if WGU could get access, but he only basically said maybe, that it would depend on what price cisco is willing to sell it to them for.

ITBot

Download the demo and try it out. It's got 26 labs. That combined with CBT and Boson really helped me out. If you lived nearby, I'd tell you to come by and try it out. I'm starting to sound like a company shill, ha!

@Aderon just curious, did you have problems with the big sim not working? I still see people complaining about it on the Cisco forums and I couldn't get it to work even though I was able to recreate it later and get it running at home after the test.

@NetworkNewb I actually found a couple folks on the Cisco forums talking about it but I could never find a real solid review for it. Anyway, if you have problems with the exam and see that noahp34 stopped logging in but a noahq34 pops up on the forum, it's definitely a different person.

Archon

aderon wrote: »

Two two ASDM resources I really like:
http://juantron.wix.com/my-networking-online#!ssl-vpn-anyconnect/c24fs
http://juantron.wix.com/my-networking-online#!clientless-ssl-vpn-using-asdm-part-i/c1fvl

These look pretty good.

noahp34 wrote: »

I'd hit the other classes and then come back to it. That way you won't have those other ones hanging over your head and you can come back at it fresh. If you get desperate like me and you have the cash or work will reimburse you, the Cisco course really helped me out:
https://learningnetworkstore.cisco.com/ccna-security/implementing-cisco-network-iins-v3-0-elt-iins-v3-0-019451

Super pricey but lots of good labs and practice.

Do you get discount if your company is a Cisco Partner? It was US $350 until i logged and now it's US $297.50.

Gallager00

nice find aderon

sidninja

when you mention cisco training course, can you clarify what you mean? as in a bootcamp?