What is the hardest topic to study for CCNA?

Here's a poll mainly to see on which topics we should focus in our practice exams and TechNotes. The options correspond pretty much with the exam objectives.

Johan

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Comments

Shockwave29361

Access lists beat me up the first time I took the test. I just can't remember where to put standard lists and extended lists plus putting them on in-bound ports or out-bound confused me. I studied that more than anything and destroyed those questions on my second try but WAN got me from behind. Third-time's a charm I suppose.

SubnettingGoddess

I see I am in good company - I chose WAN technologies too. The easiest parts for me are subnetting and the OSI model. Basic router/switch config is not too bad either.

jojopramos

This is strange but the hardest topic for me is ACL because only of figuring the direction. inbound or outbound. I am always confuse with this.

Ryuksapple84

Hawaiian wrote: »

Hardest part for me has been understanding subnetting and supernetting

Subnetting I got down, what I really did not like was supernetting and route summary.

But to be honest, I really don't think any of the topics were hard on the CCNA. What is hard about the exam is the amount of information you have to know to pass the exam. I am glad that they made 2 exams out of it because it is a lot of information to retain.

My two cents on the topic.

Cingular

I voted WAN protocols. I agree that as a whole the topics covered by the CCNA aren't extremely difficult to learn however, WAN technology I found was the most intricate.

With all the different encapsulation types, dlci mapping, verification commands and then chap authentication to put the icing on the cake...yeah give me a leased line any day!

higherho

I voted ACL's. For some reason when it comes to NAT and ACL's I always mess something up (like my souce list commands ,etc). WAN protocols clicked with me quickly.

Ryuksapple84

Yeah, I would have to agree with the ACLs and extened AcLs... but the direction never confused me. I just thought that the Syntax was always a pain to remember. That is all.

guley

i think subnetting is difficult...i still face problem in subnetting

darkshade9

I'm mostly done with my CCNA Certification for Dummies book, which has been a good read

, but VSLM subnets have me slightly confused (I'll re-read that chapter again), regular class C subnets I have down to a science, still working on getting class B and A down the same.

I think my biggest obstacle is going to be actually memorizing iOS commands since I don't have a lab (yet)

ommar

Please need CISCO CCNA outline

Hypntick

I haven't studied for the CCNA in any depth, picked up the Odom books and some gear a little while back for when I do decide to go whole hog. Looking through the books casually I can say without a doubt subnetting will be the hardest for me by far. Especially considering on the test you need to be able to do it in your head. That is one of the reasons that I don't know if I could even pass the test given an infinite amount of time, any type of math or formula like that just will not stick. I've seen tables and little shortcuts you can try and not a single one of them makes the slightest sense to me. That's one of the things that I saw in IPv6 that I loved, no more subnetting.

alan2308

Hypntick wrote: »

That is one of the reasons that I don't know if I could even pass the test given an infinite amount of time, any type of math or formula like that just will not stick.

I thought the same thing when I was first introduced to subnetting in a class I took a while back.

It's kind of like any other math topic. It takes a lot of practice and then all of a sudden you just get it.

greenerek

definitely WAN Protocols...I red 4 times this material before exam and still I Think this is my weakest area...

thedrama

Wow, we are in front. WAN topic will seem blurred somehow if you do not catch a job including it.

thedrama

darkshade9 wrote: »

I'm mostly done with my CCNA Certification for Dummies book, which has been a good read , but VSLM subnets have me slightly confused (I'll re-read that chapter again), regular class C subnets I have down to a science, still working on getting class B and A down the same.

I think my biggest obstacle is going to be actually memorizing iOS commands since I don't have a lab (yet)

VLSM is not considered that hard man. For example, if you see even one of the subnets which slashed(/) differently than others in the internetwork, that means VLSM. Such as /27 /24 /24 or think /30 /24 /30 (for serial WAN links)

But

/24 /24 /24 or /16 /16 /16 is not VLSM! (even though it appears that they are different than default, they point all same
therefore , they do not represent VLSM.

higherho

When does Cisco start asking you questions on VLAN filter and VACLS? Is it CCNP level?

shanparames

I have seen many persons who are doing networking in CCNA without clear understanding in OSI.For me it is tough because I want to understand the layers interaction thoroughly.This is the basic building blocks for any networking either it is CCNA , CCNP, CCIE etc

Thanks

S.Swaminathan

switchrat

Well it would be much better if you could take in your SMART phone with APPs.......geezzzz

MrXpert

A lot of people seem to keep mentioning subnetting a lot as being a touch subject for cisco.

I learnt how to do CIDR and subnetting from network +. Do the cisco ccent/ccna do subnetting differently to the rest of the world?
i'm eager to learn what is different about subnetting from what was learnt in network+ compared to ccent/ccna

superbabe_uk

Sartan wrote: »

There are so many conventions and alternate wordings for the same thing in CCNA...
successor route.. feasible successor route.. hop count hop distance administrative distance cost delay bandwidth speed link speed areas blah ARG!!
my advice, don't do eigrp right after you study ospf. my mind is exploding!

I would certainly agree! In my course at college we learned about EIGRP straight after OSPF and I got things totally mixed up. Then when I revised about them at home I made sure to leave a gap between studying about the two protocols. It certainly helped to make some sense of them !!

floyd84s

the WAN technologies are the most difficult:)

IEWANNABE

guley wrote: »

i think subnetting is difficult...i still face problem in subnetting

Same here..though getting better with practice. I'm sure that as we go along, we'll come across subjects that will make subnetting look easy by comparison.

IEWANNABE

superbabe_uk wrote: »

I would certainly agree! In my course at college we learned about EIGRP straight after OSPF and I got things totally mixed up. Then when I revised about them at home I made sure to leave a gap between studying about the two protocols. It certainly helped to make some sense of them !!

That's a great idea! Many of those protocols sound so much alike, that it's easy to get them mixed. I'll be sure to remember that.

kremit

Drakonblayde wrote: »

Subnetting I don't have a big problem with until it gets into route summarization and some aspects of VLSM still have my head reeling. Other than that, just remember proper syntax on an ACL can be a bear and a half if you're not used to implementing them. Fortunetly, WAN technologies don't bug me that much, not after 3 years of having to support them for an ISP.

My thoughts exactly. ACLs were a bear in class when they introduced them and required them on the final.

alexdagr8est

Im Doing Self Study, and Im finding it difficult.. most likely because Im stuffed after work - service desk technician role.
Working full time and studying an unrelated topic, along with being under-staffed
I do not recommend..
Im slowly getting there with subnetting, the memorising. I just want this whole cert done with in the next 2 months or so.

thedude666

Subnetting!

It's not really hard. It is just that you can go wrong easily and to do it fast you need quite some practice.

Roguetadhg

Ryuksapple84 wrote: »

Yeah, I would have to agree with the ACLs and extened AcLs... but the direction never confused me. I just thought that the Syntax was always a pain to remember. That is all.

My thought exactly.

I just used a small sentence, that's silly, to try to remember the general syntax:
[As Doctor Evil]: "ACCESS-LIST number 101, I want you to DENY austin TCP to get ANY-where from 127.0.0.1! Make sure his shirt is EQ to size 80.

...Looking at the sentence I have to say, it's not a small sentence.

NetworkPete

I did WAN work for 11 years...sadly switching is my weakpoint. I keep forgetting stuff about STP and rstp and pvstp
argh!
It is easily for me the hardest part. The main issue I am having is the scope of all the material.

Roguetadhg

NetworkPete, Are you going composite CCNA?

NetworkPete

I wanted to, yes.
R&S CCNA