Official CCNP accountability thread

Thought I'd throw my name in the hat and start an official accountability thread for my CCNP. I'm starting SWITCH first, then ROUTE and T-SHOOT.

I've got Chris Bryant's Udemy course and the OCGs. I have GNS3, but I'm still trying to figure out how to lab the SWITCH exam without real equipment. I sort of have some switches I can use at work, but I'd prefer a virtual option at home.

No hard timeline yet, but ideally no more than 6 months to pass SWITCH. Here goes nothin'!

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Comments

albinorhino187

Annnd we have a pass. I was getting too stressed out waiting two more weeks, and they had an opening pop up tonight so I took it. Glad to have one down. On to ROUTE!

Welly_59

Woohoo good effort mate!
Route is a beast

albinorhino187

Gonna stick to the same study formula for ROUTE as I did for SWITCH, so first up are Chris Bryant's videos on Udemy. Route is 129 videos split into 12 sections with a duration of about 17h 42m. Here we go!

Phiers

Congrats on the pass. I took it on on the 4th and passed as well. I've been spinning up the Route INE videos since then. Maybe I was just burnt out on switch topics, but studying for route seems easier so far. I think it may just be the mystery of new topics since I work primarily with multilayer switching and not very much in the wan.

huntert

congrats

cablage

Awesome- congrats!

albinorhino187

Things kick off with EIGRP. 12 videos into the series, covered some general routing basics and now EIGRP fundamentals. Digging into more advanced EIGRP topics now on packet types, timers, and distance.

Routing is the area where I'm lacking the most experience. I've been in IT a little over 6 years now, and I've probably spent under 30 minutes on a production router. That will change quickly with my current job, so this course is very much needed.

albinorhino187

Wow, one month in and I'm slacking big time. I've watched 36 of Bryant's ROUTE videos so far. That basically just covered routing review, EIGRP, and 2 videos remaining on OSPF basics like neighbor relationships After these next 2, it's on to more advanced OSPF, path preference, and general OSPF operations. The advanced topics get into more details on LSAs, area types, and redistribution.

My study progress has taken a big hit. I've had almost 0 time to study at home lately with the wife's busy schedule forcing me to pick up more slack with the kids. And I have more going on at work, so my only real opportunity is during lunch. Hoping to rekindle the motivation in the next day or so, and I have some time off around the holidays when the kids are in daycare where I'm hoping to make up for lost time.

negru_tudor

albinorhino187 wrote: »

Wow, one month in and I'm slacking big time. I've watched 36 of Bryant's ROUTE videos so far. That basically just covered routing review, EIGRP, and 2 videos remaining on OSPF basics like neighbor relationships After these next 2, it's on to more advanced OSPF, path preference, and general OSPF operations. The advanced topics get into more details on LSAs, area types, and redistribution.

My study progress has taken a big hit. I've had almost 0 time to study at home lately with the wife's busy schedule forcing me to pick up more slack with the kids. And I have more going on at work, so my only real opportunity is during lunch. Hoping to rekindle the motivation in the next day or so, and I have some time off around the holidays when the kids are in daycare where I'm hoping to make up for lost time.

I resonate with this lol. Struggling to stay on top of things as much as I can but this last year's been one hell of a ride so far (and it doesn't seem to be slowing down either). I'm also married but no kids yet; on the other hand I have a very difficult customer and a team i'm trying to do right by and that's been sucking most of my energy and study time.

I'm also doing OSPF right now albeit maybe a little bit more behind you by 1 chapter or so.

I guess any sort of progress is welcome regardless of whether we'd expect a lot more at the end of the day.

Good luck!

Lion66six

Great thread so far. Really enjoying hearing your story so far, its getting me motivated to smash in the switching exam. Only started 6 weeks back studying, udemy course, flashcards via anki and on the job learning is my current study method. Keep up the momentum!

joshuamurphy75

Congrats on the pass

albinorhino187

Wow it's been a depressingly long time since I've updated. It's been a long few months. Lots of life getting in the way of studying. I just finished Chris Bryant's ROUTE videos. Going to start dabbling in the GNS3vault labs and also start the CBT Nuggets ROUTE series. I'll be watching more intently and just touching up on gaps in my notes, whereas with Bryant's i was pausing every 5 seconds to lab along or write notes since everything was new.Once i'm done with the nuggets, I'll move on to a book, and by then I hope i'll be ready to test. No hard date yet, but I'd like to be done with ROUTE by April.

negru_tudor

albinorhino187 wrote: »

Wow it's been a depressingly long time since I've updated. It's been a long few months. Lots of life getting in the way of studying. I just finished Chris Bryant's ROUTE videos. Going to start dabbling in the GNS3vault labs and also start the CBT Nuggets ROUTE series. I'll be watching more intently and just touching up on gaps in my notes, whereas with Bryant's i was pausing every 5 seconds to lab along or write notes since everything was new.Once i'm done with the nuggets, I'll move on to a book, and by then I hope i'll be ready to test. No hard date yet, but I'd like to be done with ROUTE by April.

Good luck! Look into Boson Exsim 2-3 weeks before sitting the exam if you have the budget. I found some vouchers online as well for a 10% or 15% off (can't recall exactly) when I did my purchase a while ago.

albinorhino187

We tried to slip in the full CCNP kit with ex-sim and lab-sim into our budget. He sent it off for approval, so fingers are crossed.

negru_tudor

albinorhino187 wrote: »

We tried to slip in the full CCNP kit with ex-sim and lab-sim into our budget. He sent it off for approval, so fingers are crossed.

Great stuff. It's good value for the money.

Learn Redistribution (and all the tricks that come with it during ROUTE) like the back of your hand for ROUTE. Initially when starting ROUTE you'd think BGP is big but the blueprint is kinda accurate on how much it weights for the exam even though real-world, it's all over the place.

Oh, and get comfy with IPv6 - there's a great deal of it on the exam.

albinorhino187

Thanks for the tips. I'll definitely keep that in mind.I'm about half way through the CBT nuggets for ROUTE. Chris Bryant is great, but I forgot how much I enjoy Jeremy Cioara's style.

negru_tudor

albinorhino187 wrote: »

Thanks for the tips. I'll definitely keep that in mind.I'm about half way through the CBT nuggets for ROUTE. Chris Bryant is great, but I forgot how much I enjoy Jeremy Cioara's style.

Yes, Jeremy is very engaging but the amount /depth of info in the current CBT ROUTE series is so-so. Take a look at their old BGP series 642-661 and you'll spot the difference. By the way, I very much recommend that video series (642-661) for your ROUTE studies + this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MWqCyInQ94). Throw Chris Bryant in the mix and you'll know a lot more BGP than you need for passing ROUTE.

The later vid also touches on MPLS and *why* a service provider would deploy MPLS in their core vs. doing full-mesh BGP. Kinda adds a little bit of a background to MPLS and what it helps with.

albinorhino187

3 videos left in the CBT course. They're all on BGP, I wanted to save those for last since we also use BGP a ton at work. After this, I'll move on to a book. I also started going through INE's CCNP Route workbook, and I'll begin doing the gns3vault labs as well.

eugene_86

I have been trying to prepare for CCNP route since 2015, started by reading CCNP Routing and Switching ROUTE 300-101 Official Cert Guide by Kevin Wallace, finished it and then realized how much material was missing for the exam. So I started reading Implementing Cisco IP Routing (300-101) by Diane Teare, Bob Vachon and Rick Graziani and now I am realizing how much errata this book has, its discouraging and extremely difficult to study for CCNP because I am not in the field (I am IT Support trying to break into the networking field). I see a lot of people are mentioning Chris Bryant videos so I will give those a try. Hopefully some day I will be given an opportunity at a jr. network administration position, studying for Cisco certs will be easier, until then its blood sweat, labbing and self studying at home.

negru_tudor

albinorhino187 wrote: »

3 videos left in the CBT course. They're all on BGP, I wanted to save those for last since we also use BGP a ton at work. After this, I'll move on to a book. I also started going through INE's CCNP Route workbook, and I'll begin doing the gns3vault labs as well.

So you still working away at this?

albinorhino187

Yeah, good ol' life been a little crazy the last few weeks. Just moved, getting settled. My last week was all moving, no studying. I finished the CBT videos and the INE workbook on OSPF, EIGRP, and redistribution. I also started reading How to Master CCNP Route. I'm about 60% through that book, and I'm about to start the BGP chapter. I'll swing back to the BGP INE workbook after I read it.

albinorhino187

Still going! It feels like this test is taking forever. Lots of life stuff interrupted me along the way. I've watched 2 video series, read a book, labbed a bunch, but it was all so spread out that I feel like I've forgotten a lot along the way. I'm going back over my labs, re-reading notes, and hopefully in the next month I'll just pull the trigger and either pass or gauge where I am to study more.

willieb

Hi Guys and Gals,

I passed ROUTE at Cisco Live in Orlando after studying for 60 days. I know that's aggressive but the test was free (so-to-speak) so I went for it.

Now I think I may be able to keep the same aggression with SWITCH and TSHOOT. This will give me CCNP R&S in 6 months.

Thursday I am planning to start studying hard for SWITCH and will take the exam within 2-3 months. Same for TSHOOT.

After that I'm headed straight for CCIE R&S.

Edit:

I forgot to mention what resources I will be using.

CBT Nuggets
Udemy - Chris Bryant's CCNP All-in-one Boot Camp
Global Knowledge CCNP e-Camp with Boson exams
Official Cert Guide

albinorhino187

Boson has 25% off this month so I decided to buy ROUTE and T-SHOOT. I've been going through the route exams this week. I'm trying to take it slow on the solution descriptions. It's definitely highlighted some weak areas and a few specific items to study (DMVPN, DHCP options, others). I plan to go through them a few more times, and get to where I'm more comfortable with all the lab scenarios.

After that, then it's probably time to just sit down for an exam and either pass or get a $300 lesson. Hopefully I'll be done with this thing before August.

thedudeabides

Aiming for CCNP Route by end of year. I'm currently unemployed, so all I can really do is study until I find a job. Won't be able to afford the exam until then.

albinorhino187

Time to do this thing. I started a lot longer ago than I would've liked to just be taking my first ROUTE attempt, but life has a way of doing what it wants. I watched CBT nuggets, Bryant's Udemy course, read how to master ROUTE, did gns3vault labs, INE workbook, and took advantage of the 25% off Boson tests. I've been doing the tests for the last week and reading up on areas I'm coming up short.

I'll be contacting my test center Monday to try and schedule something for this month. Pearson's site doesn't show they have availability, but they're usually able to squeeze me in on a night or weekend. I figure it'll either be a pass or a $300 study lesson. Either way, I'm at the point that I just need to sit for it and see where I stand.

clarson

with all that studying and your head hasn't exploded, I predict a pass, when all the information falls out on to the exam.

Let us know.

not alot of test center's being open in the summer. I'm fortunate in that there are several close to me. most only have one or two days a week. but I do have one that is only 10 miles away that is open for exams 4 days a week. I hope they still do when I'm ready.

albinorhino187

Passed! So happy to get this one done on the first try. I wrote down about 20 questions that I felt iffy about, so I didn't have the best feeling about my score. But I knew I nailed the simulations and drag-and-drops, so I was hoping that would carry me. It's been almost 9 months since I passed SWITCH, and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Aiming to finish THOOT before September.

Chris.Mackenzie01

Congrats! I'm looking at the SWITCH exam in a few weeks time but need to run through the practice exams first to get my headspace in gear.

negru_tudor

Congratulations! ROUTE is the tougher cookie of the bunch. I'd say go watch Chris Bryan's CCNP all in one course on Udemy and use Boson for TSHOOT practice. That's about all you need to get past TSHOOT once you've bagged ROUTE and SWITCH. Preparations ought to take you no longer than 3 weeks I think.

Good luck!