Honest Opinion on CCNP: Official Exam Cert Guides

Hey guys, I'm starting to hit up my CCNP journey! Looking forward to learning.

When studying for my CCNA (a year and a half ago) i REALLY hit the books up. Studied everything till i had it down pat and went in thinking i was going to fail. Ended up with a 940 and thinking that the test was easy (i know 1 question i missed b/c i was going to fast!!!). I think i will go with the same mentality for my CCNP studies, knowing everything inside and out.

I just picked up the CCNP Official Exam Cert Guide Library (all 4 books in a kit) and noticed that the books are a bit dinky feeling. I have the BCMSN Exam Self Study book and it is WAY thicker than my new BCMSN book. While reading over the self study book i noticed alot of the pages seemed to be filler (tons of review) and was a bit bored. DO you think that studying (and KNOWING) the Exam Cert guides will be enough? I don't want to spend time hitting these books up and realizing that they are not ALL the info.

I hope you understand all these questions, if not i can rephrase.

Thanks as always

John

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Comments

Netstudent

I don;t know from personal experience because I haven;t taken the tests yet, but I have read plenty of people who felt the cert guide was good for quick and dirty, but not enough to pass the exams.

especially multicast with BSCI and wireless on BCMSN. I don't even think the study guides can prepare you fully for those topics.....Thats why a lot of people hint at reading the cisco docs.

Paul Boz

I usually at least read it once to get an idea of what Cisco wants me to know for the test. You can flesh out whatever you want more knowledge on.

APA

I'm using the Self-Study guide and the Exam Cert Guides together.... I believe they do compliment each other very well

cisco_trooper

Don't be afraid to pick up Routing TCP/IP Volumes 1 and 2 for the BSCI. You'll want to be sure you've read the BSCI book first though as these two books are the real deal.

happy420golucky

jbkm wrote:

Hey guys, I'm starting to hit up my CCNP journey! Looking forward to learning.

When studying for my CCNA (a year and a half ago) i REALLY hit the books up. Studied everything till i had it down pat and went in thinking i was going to fail. Ended up with a 940 and thinking that the test was easy (i know 1 question i missed b/c i was going to fast!!!). I think i will go with the same mentality for my CCNP studies, knowing everything inside and out.

I just picked up the CCNP Official Exam Cert Guide Library (all 4 books in a kit) and noticed that the books are a bit dinky feeling. I have the BCMSN Exam Self Study book and it is WAY thicker than my new BCMSN book. While reading over the self study book i noticed alot of the pages seemed to be filler (tons of review) and was a bit bored. DO you think that studying (and KNOWING) the Exam Cert guides will be enough? I don't want to spend time hitting these books up and realizing that they are not ALL the info.

I hope you understand all these questions, if not i can rephrase.

Thanks as always

John

Well I would like to give you my opinion about at least one of the Cisco Press Exam Certification Guide's. I have just recently passed the BSCI exam (933 score), and will say that the "Exam Certification Guide 642-901" book plain out sucks. In my opinion, I would not use them as a source to pass the exam nor would I buy one again.. If I was only given this book and asked to pass the exam relying on this as my primary source of information then... I would in fact fail the exam. Now it can be a good secondary source if somebody gave it to you.
Now the "Cisco Press Self Study Guide 642-901"....... GET IT GET IT GET IT... Did I mention " Get it"?

Well you should. It explains the concepts needed to pass the exam very well with plenty of depth. Combine this book with the CBT nuggets for the BSCI exam and you are golden. Now its pretty obvious that I say this having taken one exam, but I know one thing though. I didn't buy the Exam Certification guides for the BCMSN, ONT, and ISCW. Hope this helps you out.

tmlerdal

I haven't gone through any of the books for the new tests, but for the old, the Exam Cert guides were ok, but only really were of any benefit of having gone through the self-study books first. I found that Amazon's reviews of the books were dead on, and I have to agree the exam cert guide for BSCI was terrible. I'd say it moved up to OK after having gone through the Self Study book.

Slowhand

From what I've read of them, they look excellent. I'd recommend complementing them with other study material, like CBT Nuggets and other things from Cisco Press, (like Routing TCP/IP Volume I & Volume II and Cisco LAN Switching, for example). As a set of core study guides for the exams, they look to be very good, and I plan on using them as my primary resources when my CCNP journey begins.

APA

DOn't mean to hi-jack the thread

but I was just curious as to what fellow CCNP'ers using to study for ISCW and ONT???

I've search the forums and found alot of pointers to pdf's etc......

I've got the two exam cert guides but wondering why Cisco didn't bring out Self-Study Guides like they did for some many other exams....

As stated above I'm using Self-Study Guide and Exam Cert Guide as my main study resources for BCMSN and BSCI...... I feel they do the trick especially with the knowledge I've gained from hands on stuff at work....

Ideas from guys sitting or that have sat ISCW\ONT would be of great help!!

Mr.Ping

A.P.A wrote:

DOn't mean to hi-jack the thread

but I was just curious as to what fellow CCNP'ers using to study for ISCW and ONT???

I've search the forums and found alot of pointers to pdf's etc......

I've got the two exam cert guides but wondering why Cisco didn't bring out Self-Study Guides like they did for some many other exams....

As stated above I'm using Self-Study Guide and Exam Cert Guide as my main study resources for BCMSN and BSCI...... I feel they do the trick especially with the knowledge I've gained from hands on stuff at work....

Ideas from guys sitting or that have sat ISCW\ONT would be of great help!!

This might be kinda late but I finished my CCNP a month ago and for ISCW and ONT I used the cisco networking academy material. I find them to be well aligned to the exam and fairly detailed. Pay attention to the examples!! Supplement them with CBT Nuggets and you are good to go.

kryolla

for ONT ans ISCW I am using Student Guide and Exam Cert guide.

APA

Can you buy this student guide from Cisco Press??? I can't seem to find it

jamesp1983

A.P.A wrote:

Can you buy this student guide from Cisco Press??? I can't seem to find it

did you check amazon?