CCNA in one month?

Started studying for ICND1 less than 2 weeks ago and going to take the exam next week. Will probably sit for the ICND2 by end of this month. I've been studying 10-12 hours/day. ICND1 doesn't seem too hard, but concerned about ICND2. Not sure if I'll get it done by the end of the month. Anyone else done both within a month with the new exams? And how much more difficult is ICND2 compared to ICND1?

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Iristheangel

Unless you have hands on work experience with Cisco technologie or jobless and full time studying, I'd say no. There's no point in rushing if you won't retain or learn anything.

pinkiaiii

without knowing info above as posted its basically impossible to know,and even with experience many fail on theoretical stuff-which is most boring to read and get into.hardware while its good to know but ccna tests only on packet tracer - so you need to know commands,but you wont get smth that cant work on Packet Tracer.Also what new exam ? so far think until this year ends it hasnt anything new from last couple years.So unless you got job lined up that you would need certificate,keep it slow do your ccent first and see how you get on.Since as said doing whole 10-12h and jumping chapter after chapter is kinda useless since what you cramp up,long term youll make mistakes with everything overlapping.

Since know couple people that seem to know every important detail-difference say between eigrp and ospf,yet ask question on nat pool config and they get it wrong,when needing hands on answer on the spot.

ITSpectre

That is like taking a mid term exam but only going to class for a month. Take your time, study the material... and actually LEARN it. Its better to be the tortoise then the hare.... because slow and steady wins the race

johnnyqt25

Iristheangel wrote: »

Unless you have hands on work experience with Cisco technologie or jobless and full time studying, I'd say no. There's no point in rushing if you won't retain or learn anything.

I think I'm retaining most of what I'm learning. I guess I'll find out when I sit for the exam.

Iristheangel

johnnyqt25 wrote: »

I think I'm retaining most of what I'm learning. I guess I'll find out when I sit for the exam.

I'm not talking about sitting an exam. I'm talking about real world. If you're studying this to advance your career and you're mostly doing desktop support and you speed through this test instead of taking your time to fully commit it to long term memory, it's very unlikely you'll retain that information unless you get a networking or NOC job right away - and even then, you might get a job where you won't use it every day because of just starting out in networking. If you're chasing after paper and nothing else, why not focus on one that will give you knowledge that you can use? If you're chasing after knowledge and to advance your career, do it right. I would highly question someone with a FT job, no network experience, and doing a CCNA in a month - I'd just assume the person cheated their way there because you're looking at 1600 pages of material split between 2 books, labbing, and possibly video supplemental material and if you cut down on sleep/personal life/etc, you're still looking at an average of 5-7 hours a day during weekdays to study and whatever you can do on weekends.

ITSpectre

The issue in front of you is this....

You think you can take a Exam and pass and study in a month. If you want to study and pass just to get the certification this is NOT the way to do it. you said you "think" you are retaining the info and you will see when you take the exam... Ok so lets say in a 99.999% chance you pass and get the cert... Now what will you do? You could not get the job with the CCNA because you would not know anything past book knowledge. A certification is more then just taking a test... it is about applying the knowledge in home labs and in the job you do on a DAILY basis... How many labs have you done? do you have a lab set up at home? can you subnet?
I mean you have to look at the CCNA as something serious... it is not just a test to pass and then you get the title CCNA.... If you are going to be like this my advice would be to either learn the material and take your time.... or find a new field. Because getting certs just because you can pass a test.... you really won't last long in IT.

johnnyqt25

Iristheangel wrote: »

I'm not talking about sitting an exam. I'm talking about real world. If you're studying this to advance your career and you're mostly doing desktop support and you speed through this test instead of taking your time to fully commit it to long term memory, it's very unlikely you'll retain that information unless you get a networking or NOC job right away - and even then, you might get a job where you won't use it every day because of just starting out in networking. If you're chasing after paper and nothing else, why not focus on one that will give you knowledge that you can use? If you're chasing after knowledge and to advance your career, do it right. I would highly question someone with a FT job, no network experience, and doing a CCNA in a month - I'd just assume the person cheated their way there because you're looking at 1600 pages of material split between 2 books, labbing, and possibly video supplemental material and if you cut down on sleep/personal life/etc, you're still looking at an average of 5-7 hours a day during weekdays to study and whatever you can do on weekends.

Desktop support experience is all I have and I hate it. This is why I'm doing the CCNA to get a NOC job and go on from there. I'm also not working at the moment and like learning new things.

Iristheangel

Also... it's nothing special to click "View Forum Posts" next to a user's name to find a posting history and see what kind of post history they have. From your started threads, I gather the following:
- Only a couple short weeks ago, you were worried the CCNA was too hard and overwhelming for you when you first started
- About 13 days ago, you posted yet again about how you were confused with Packet Tracer for the CCENT topics

Now all that struggling to retain it and learn it has magically gone away and you think you might be ready to both retain it and pass the test? While I do think that sometimes a hard concept or two could click in that period of time, I am doubtful you're at a point to both pass that test and apply that knowledge in a professional environment. Slow down. It's a marathon, not a race.

thatguy67

You will find few if any people who have done both exams in a month. I made a post similar to this a couple of years ago, and have seen several other threads with ambitious posters. In every case, myself included, they ended up either burning out and haven't signed in since, or the plan was prolonged over months.

What's it matter if you get it done this month?

joemysterio

I did both over the course of 6 months. I did OK. I know I'm slower when it comes to studying and it is hard for me to retain stuff without hands on. So guess what happened? I got a new job 2 weeks after passing my CCNA. 8 months later, I hopped into packet tracer and could not remember half the stuff I learned. Because life got in the way and I focused on the new job and another term at WGU I didn't give myself a chance to practice and I'm now a CCNA certified individual with barely CCENT knowledge! It's terrible.

It became really apparent when I began to study for Brocade. I really can't remember half the stuff I learned. So going through my Brocade study material, which is now out dated

, and watching my Udemy CCNA videos is starting to jog my memory.

Anyway, take your time and keep practicing or you WILL regret it.

Iristheangel

@Joe - Feel your pain. I think it took me about 3-4 months in WGU to get through my CCENT/CCNA. I still felt insecure after passing the exam so I went back and redid the sims and read Odom's book again. It really helped. Also... Network Warrior. GREAT book.

aftereffector

I'll give you advice by way of a personal anecdote. I took and passed the combined CCNA exam after about three weeks of studying when I was deployed and had nothing else to do but study for 12-14 hours a day. More than two years later, I'm back in the networking world and I am going back through my CCNA material realizing that I didn't retain much of what I learned at all. The very basics - subnetting, simple OSPF, network design, and so on - stayed with me, but I couldn't tell you much of anything about HSRP or how STP elects a root bridge. If I could go back and do it all over again, I would slow down, lab more, and - most importantly - CONTINUE TO LAB!!! - because no matter how well you know something at one time, you will not retain useful skills without continuous practice.

johnnyqt25

joemysterio wrote: »

I did both over the course of 6 months. I did OK. I know I'm slower when it comes to studying and it is hard for me to retain stuff without hands on. So guess what happened? I got a new job 2 weeks after passing my CCNA. 8 months later, I hopped into packet tracer and could not remember half the stuff I learned. Because life got in the way and I focused on the new job and another term at WGU I didn't give myself a chance to practice and I'm now a CCNA certified individual with barely CCENT knowledge! It's terrible.

It became really apparent when I began to study for Brocade. I really can't remember half the stuff I learned. So going through my Brocade study material, which is now out dated , and watching my Udemy CCNA videos is starting to jog my memory.

Anyway, take your time and keep practicing or you WILL regret it.

Awesome man. I'm also starting WGU and just trying to do everything as quickly as possible so I can get into networking. Desktop support is demoralizing.

OctalDump

One option, if you do want to go hard and fast but are worried about losing knowledge, is to just keep going onto CCNP etc. If you do one month hard and then don't touch it for a year, then yeah, you will forget most of it.

You'll know soon enough if you like networking, and if you do, then keeping studying shouldn't be a chore. Even if you toned down to 10 hours a week, you'd still be constantly improving and probably only forget stuff that hardly matters, like HDLC or the intricacies of Frame Relay