CCNA passed!

Well I finally got there. I passed the CCNA 640-801 today. It seems everyone always wants to know how people prepared so here is my 2 cents. First a quick thank you to everyone else who has shared their experiences, as it was a great help to me.

I started studying about 8 weeks ago. I purchased Wendell Odom's 2 book set and read both front to back (probably a couple of times by time it was done). I also purchased 2- 2610, 1- 1720, and 1-2924. I would have liked a couple more switches but I had already spent a small chunk of change.

Now for a bit about my background. I am the enterprise architect for a local government. So I deal with networking A LOT. There were two big challenges for me. The first is that we are a Procurve shop. Secondly we have private fiber out the wazoo(yes I am a bit spolied!) so it has been a while since doing anything with p2p connections, with exception of our voice pri's.

So that is my two cents. Now it is time to take a short break for a month or so and start moving on. I am thinking CCDA and MCSE, I am just not sure which will be first yet.

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Comments

sprkymrk

Congrats!

Come to the dark side jncarter! Bill Gates wants you to experience the power of the MCSE!

Manglian

Congratulations man, well done. What else did you use for simulations ?

mikearama

Nicely done, sir.

jncarter

The Odom books came with a great practice exam. It had router sims, drag and drop, the whole bit. If you miss something it tells you where to ref. in the books and gives explanations as to why the correct answer is correct.

Pash

sprkymrk wrote:

Congrats!

Come to the dark side jncarter! Bill Gates wants you to experience the power of the MCSE!

Truer words were never spoken, MS is an absolute must in IT, know it in and you will never be without a well paid job in IT.

Ohh and gratz, the CCNA is super challenge in itself! Now go get blind drunk

mikej412

Congratulations!

You might as well sneak in an MS exam.... the new edition of the Teare book for the new version of the CCDA DESGN exam won't be out until October 17th.

ITdude

Ah yes, the irresistible lure of Microsoft MCSE!

Congrats.

networker050184

Congratz! I hate Microsoft (I hate computers in genaral), but unfortunatley it is nessecary to have some knowledge on Microsoft. I never touch servers or clients, but the sys admins always blame everything on the network so it is nice to have some idea what you are talking about to prove its not!

r_durant

Congrats dude!!

manonthemoon

Good job. I know you must feel good now.

jncarter

I can definately breath a big sigh of relief now. mikej412, thanks for the heads up. It sounds like I have a plan now. My shop has drank the MS Koolaid, so the MCSE will definately come in handy. I think the CCNA/MCSE would be a pretty good combo, so many people seem to want those seperately or in combination.