Passed the ONT!

I am very relieved to be able to say that I passed the ONT exam this morning! This was my first CCNP test - and it has truly made me appreciate the dedication that must go into completing the certification.

Notes for others... the majority of my studying was from the Network Academy ONT course (which I aced). I used the Cisco Press Official Exam book for review, and Dynamips for additional labs beyond the course labs. I've been working heavily with VoIP (but not much QoS) for around 6-8 months.

If I could change one thing about my preparation for this exam it would be this: I really neglected wireless management and security ("how much can really be on a QoS exam?" I wondered). Well, don't do that.

Next up will be the ISCW, planned for late May. I was considering pursuing the CCNA Voice, but the objectives don't match as well as I had hoped with ONT, and I would have to complete it before classes resume in mid-January. Instead, I'll just get a head start on the ISCW.

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Comments

networker050184

Congrats on the pass!

jamesp1983

congrats man!! I'm studying for this one now.

mikej412

Congratulations!

mikearama

Yeah, I'm into this one as well to finish my NP.

So bigtime congrats.

redwarrior

Woo-hoo! Another person, who, like me, has decided to buck tradition by going after their PNCC!

I think no matter what exam you choose as your first professional level exam, it is a bit of a shock how much more intense these exams are than the associate level exams. I guess that is why they are respected so well and why we want to earn them so much?

Good luck with your ISCW studies...I found them a nice transition from the ONT.

Met44

Thanks for the replies all

laidbackfreak

mikej412 wrote:

Congratulations!

mike you really love those icons dont ya....

congrats to the op well done fella

redwarrior

They're so festive!

mikej412

laidbackfreak wrote:

mike you really love those icons dont ya....

I didn't get my decorations up outside before the snow(s), so I'm compensating with festive holiday Emoticons

liven

what was you lab setup like?

Paul Boz

ONT was my favorite CCNP exam

I saved it for last, however. If you liked the ONT you should take the QoS exam.

Met44

what was you lab setup like?

I usually just used one or two routers on dynamips so that I could practice typing the commands, and using/looking through the content of the show commands. That was great practice, and it's nice to be able to start up dynamips to review command syntax or test something out.

The class allowed for the use of some physical hardware... typically three routers and two switches were used, but I think Cisco's labs overcomplicated the topology as much as it focused on the ONT content. I didn't find it necessary to use more than one switch and one or two routers when practicing at home. The Pagent IOS (traffic generator) was typically used on at least one router during class labs to simulate a production network's traffic.

Plazma

Congrats!