After a very trying morning that included spilled coffee and car trouble, I finally got to the testing center 5 minutes before my scheduled time. This was the second time for me to take the CCNA (First was back in '03 which I passed and let expire.)
I was not expecting to pass this exam after I got into it. I really let the time get away from me in the first half and really had to boogie to make it to the second half of the exam. Luckily, I felt I had done well on most of my sims so that allowed me to speed through the other types of questions more quickly. When I saw the pass and the fact that I got a 923, I was blown away. This exam is soo dependent on time management. If you get bogged down in a question, it has the potential to sink you.
Prep sources included Todd Lammle's CCNA book, Global Knowledge CCNA Boot Camp, Kaplan CCNA Practice Questions (came with the boot camp), Production and Lab Cisco Gear and GNS3
I've been working as a Network Engineer for a telco for the last year so I've had to really learn some hard lessons about the fundamentals of network theory that definitely helped on the test. The biggest obstacle I faced was the fact that I had no cisco access layer switches around to play with. Most of the stuff I work on is carrier grade and combines routing and switching (7600 series routers) so sometimes the commands and the practical application is a little different from say a Catalyst 2950. All in all though I'm glad to have recertified on the CCNA so I can move towards the CCNP and possibly work on the companion security tracks.
Whew
