CCNA hardness vs CIW and MCP

I have passed 3 CIW exams without raising a sweat. I have also passed 3 MCP's, again i didn't study much, just got myself tonnes of practice questions and did them over and over till i had picked up enough knowledge to sit the exam.

The CCNA seems a tad harder, 85% means that i won't necessarily walk it. My book is thick and i have been told to study everything from protocols to IOS commands. Considering my memory is terrible i fear this greatly.

So how long do you think i need to study for this thing. I know it varies from person to person but how long did you put it in before you sat the exam?

As far as topics and exam questions go are there any specific areas i should focus on once i have gone through the book once?

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EdTheLad

Perad wrote:

As far as topics and exam questions go are there any specific areas i should focus on once i have gone through the book once?

Probably better to focus on the other 2 or 3 books you will need for ccna.But my advise is dont bother studying the ccna, continue on the microsoft track you have started and you can join the list of other paper cert collectors out there

Perad

I was on the MCP track but i went off to do a placement as a computer technician and found it really tedious, to many irritating clients and not enough problems. Any hard problems meant ghosting a new hard drive... again very boring stuff.

I then figured i would get into web design, got a job, then my company sent me down the CIW track. For some reason they wanted me to do the CCNA as part of this track. If they are paying i might as well sit it.

Could i quickly ask. Why do people keep talking about the 2-3 books needed to pass the exam.

The tutor at my course said the book i have and trancender would see me through it. This is what i was given

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Certified-Network-Associate-640-801-Certification/dp/0072229349/sr=8-2/qid=1167759312/ref=sr_1_2/026-6887447-2327666?ie=UTF8&s=books

bighornsheep

Perad wrote:

Could i quickly ask. Why do people keep talking about the 2-3 books needed to pass the exam.

Not everybody needs 2-3 books for every single certification exam out there.
Go through the book and see how much of the CCNA objectives you know, chances are that you will need a second book to know all the objectives...some books are better than others in certain areas, that's just partly a business tactic, but mostly a fact of life...no one can know everything...you're going to have to get more than one source to know the requrements.

when you say, 2-3 MCP's...what do you mean by that? which exams have you written?
My experience is that CCNA has a much steeper learning curve than Microsoft. I think it's because the concept of IOS, a textbased interface is much more foreign to most than a Windows GUI. I "started" CCNA studies many months ago...but I realized it's not going to be easy to learn the materials if I dont at least have a foundation first...so I decided to finish MCSA, and now I'm back to studying for CCNA...

if you say that you have a bad memory...and I'm going to assume you dont have much hands on experience with cisco...CCNA will NOT be easy...check out this thread for more information:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7268

the book you have is average....sybex is better....

good luck~

Perad

Thanks BigHorn

I plan to get through my book and work hard on my simulator, then i will do a few transcenders and see where my weaknesses lie. If i need another book to solve these weaknesses then i will go out an get one.

- I don't believe i said 2-3 MCP's.

I think these will be my last 2 questions.

Firstly, I am looking for a protocol list. While this doesn't need to be complete i would really like to find one that lists what common protocols do what. So the titles would perhaps be Routing Protocols, LAN protocols etc. Each page in my book seems to contain some sort of protocol and it would nice to quickly refer to a list to see what type of protocol this is. (Yes i am no where near ready for this exam.)

I'm not sure if i can ask this after reading the rules. But regarding IOS and the exam. Do the questions say.

- You have been assigned to do this task on a 1900 switch. Which command? (i.e. They ask for switch specific commands)

Or are questions more related to universal commands and setting up protocols?

I ask because my book covers commands for several switches/routers, i was initially planning on learning one set of commands well enough to use without my book. But if i need to learn switch specific commands then i will have to change my revision schedule.

bighornsheep

Perad wrote:

- I don't believe i said 2-3 MCP's.

Perad wrote:

I have also passed 3 MCP's, again i didn't study much, just got myself tonnes of practice questions and did them over and over till i had picked up enough knowledge to sit the exam.

I'm just wondering where you are sort of in terms of what you know.....and which MS exams have you done? There's alot from CCNA that you may have picked up from MS exams like IP Addressing, and Routing Protocols.

Perad wrote:

Firstly, I am looking for a protocol list. While this doesn't need to be complete i would really like to find one that lists what common protocols do what. So the titles would perhaps be Routing Protocols, LAN protocols etc. Each page in my book seems to contain some sort of protocol and it would nice to quickly refer to a list to see what type of protocol this is. (Yes i am no where near ready for this exam.)

This link might help a little:
http://www.techexams.net/ccna.shtml

Perad wrote:

I'm not sure if i can ask this after reading the rules. But regarding IOS and the exam. Do the questions say.

- You have been assigned to do this task on a 1900 switch. Which command? (i.e. They ask for switch specific commands)

Or are questions more related to universal commands and setting up protocols?

I ask because my book covers commands for several switches/routers, i was initially planning on learning one set of commands well enough to use without my book. But if i need to learn switch specific commands then i will have to change my revision schedule.

I havent taken the CCNA exam yet, so I dont know, but even if I have written it, I cant tell you, nor can anyone else following the NDA. From my practice exams, I'm guessing it's going to be a little bit more challenging than simply identifying a command....we're not studying for 70-xxx anymore...lol....

and btw...1900 switch isnt used on CCNA anymore...

Perad

Ah i get you now, thanks for the catch on the 1900 router, it is in my RouterSim visualizer. I will start using the 2950 from now on.

I covered a lot of routing stuff in my one of my MCP's, everything from subnetting to the OSI model and TCP/IP. I'm pretty sure this was all in the 2000 Server MCP i took.

Because of this previous experience I very much enjoyed the first 2 1/2 days of my 5 day CCNA course as they served mainly as a refresher as opposed to coving something new.

Also in my CIW foundation i covered subnets again.

Currently i understand things like RIP and ARP, i can also set up a router/switch to function. (This is with my notes at the moment.)

What is killing me at the moment is the IEEE standards, frame relay and advanced router configuration. Also the hideous number of abbreviated protocols and subprotocols is really doing my head in.

bighornsheep

Again about the books, see if you can pick up another source, I have the older version of your book, and it just isnt "good enough"....

Perad wrote:

What is killing me at the moment is the IEEE standards, frame relay and advanced router configuration. Also the hideous number of abbreviated protocols and subprotocols is really doing my head in.

you better get use to it...seems like cisco has a short hand for everything.....

in any case, hope to see you around more, and sharing more of your study story...

good luck~

Paul Boz

Do you understand the concepts of a certification? They are supposed to represent your knowledge and proficiency with the technology that you're certified in. What good is a cert to you if you know absolutely nothing about the material? I don't understand how people can honestly waste the sheer amounts of time that they do "studying" to get a cert, only to get it and have no real clue what they studied. Certifications aren't baseball cards, you don't collect them for the sake of having them.

I suggest that you sit down with a good book (I like the CCNA book by Todd Lammle, published by Sybex, 5th edition) and read it cover to cover, and make sure that you understand the concepts. Don't waste your time trying to skirt by with minimal knowledge of the course material, you'll just wind up wasting your time and money. I'm seriously not trying to sound like a jerk, I just don't want to see you waste a few hundred bucks trying to get a cert that isn't that hard if you just study and remember what it's on