Is it normal to be stressed?

I've been studying for 3 months and plan to take my ICDN1 test at the end of July. Ever since that I made an honest and serious commitment to pass the CCNA, I can't stop thinking about the passing the test.
I'm not too stressed right now but I'm constantly pushing my self to stay disciplined and aggressive with my studying. I think to the point that that's all I think about.

It's kinda taking over my life (in a good way I think). Has anyone gone through this?

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ITVince

Um all of us? After I passed my MCTS I have a nervous breakdown from studying 4 months straight. On my drive home from work I had to pull over on the highway and call emergency medical services (911) because I thought I was having a heart attack which just turned out to be a bad panic attack. My body was just crashing after I put myself through such a rigerous study schedule. Looking back now, there was no reason to push myself so hard. If your work doesn't mandate that you have this cert, or a job you want doesnt require it, and its just for your personal benefit for the future..take your time and enjoy the ride...you'll end up learning more studying at your own pace rather then cramming hard for a few months. Just my two cents. Everyone stresses its normal in this field. Its how you cope with it and deal with it thats the tricky part, dont let it get the best of you.

instant000

SurferdudeHB wrote: »

I've been studying for 3 months and plan to take my ICDN1 test at the end of July. Ever since that I made an honest and serious commitment to pass the CCNA, I can't stop thinking about the passing the test.
I'm not too stressed right now but I'm constantly pushing my self to stay disciplined and aggressive with my studying. I think to the point that that's all I think about.

It's kinda taking over my life (in a good way I think). Has anyone gone through this?

Don't stress over it too much.

I'm studying for it, too. Take your time and learn the material. No point to passing the test and turning right around and not knowing it a few days later because you forgot everything.

My first point in my thread was maybe 5/25, and I said that I'd be ready for the test in two weeks. Let's just say that I'm not going to be taking the exam tomorrow

. I mean, sure, if I wasn't going to work every day, and/or did not have other things going on in my life, then, yeah, it would probably not be that big a deal.

lon21

SurferdudeHB wrote: »

I've been studying for 3 months and plan to take my ICDN1 test at the end of July. Ever since that I made an honest and serious commitment to pass the CCNA, I can't stop thinking about the passing the test.
I'm not too stressed right now but I'm constantly pushing my self to stay disciplined and aggressive with my studying. I think to the point that that's all I think about.

It's kinda taking over my life (in a good way I think). Has anyone gone through this?

Mate, I'm kinda in the same boat.

I don't have a Job so my job is waking up in the morning and studying for my CCNA. I treat the studying as my Job... Its all I think about, I'm even dreaming about private ip address lol.

I've found that working on a single topic of a chapter for too long can be a put off and its all your doing all day and there no light, BUT I've found that if you put your mind to it and work at it... there is a light in the end. I know sometimes I put things off thinking that it will become easier, but never does.Thats me

Once you tackle the issue its always better "You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind".

What I do is try to take some evening off and maybe 1-2 days during the week to purely chill and forget about CCNA. This will keep you refreshed and also focus. Also it does good for the brain. Your new neurons get to sleep lol.

Keep at it, Gd luck!

Netwurk

Studying/preparing doesn't stress me, I only get stressed when I'm actually sitting the exam. I was really stressed for my last one as it was expiring the next day and I knew it was do or die.

Good luck with your studies

mikej412

SurferdudeHB wrote: »

It's kinda taking over my life (in a good way I think).

You may have the Cisco Networking gene -- or you may just be a Ciscoholic.

I think I've mentioned in the past that Cisco isn't just a bunch of certifications -- it is (and can be) a way of life.

Lord Nikon

ITVince wrote: »

Um all of us? After I passed my MCTS I have a nervous breakdown from studying 4 months straight. On my drive home from work I had to pull over on the highway and call emergency medical services (911) because I thought I was having a heart attack which just turned out to be a bad panic attack. My body was just crashing after I put myself through such a rigerous study schedule. Looking back now, there was no reason to push myself so hard. If your work doesn't mandate that you have this cert, or a job you want doesnt require it, and its just for your personal benefit for the future..take your time and enjoy the ride...you'll end up learning more studying at your own pace rather then cramming hard for a few months. Just my two cents. Everyone stresses its normal in this field. Its how you cope with it and deal with it thats the tricky part, dont let it get the best of you.

I have to really agree here with ITVince. I failed my first attempted at the 70-680 mostly due to pushing myself so hard, worrying day and night. I was eat, sleep and drinking the damn books. I was even dreaming I was doing my Labs at one point. I put so much pressure on myself to pass the damn test that I failed. I did everything right, I read, I did the labs, I watched the videos.

After I failed, I took a look at myself and decided to give it another week, but not push myself so hard. Just brush up on things that I was weak with.

Day of the test came, I was a tad nervous, but I said to myself, "If I dont pass, I will just try something else at a slower pace."

I passed.

Now I am working on the next certification, but I am doing it S L O W L Y and enjoying the information I am learning.

Netwurk

mikej412 wrote: »

you may just be a Ciscoholic

I'll drink to that

I've often wondered if I'd give up my Cisco mancave if I ever won the lottery and didn't need to do IT for a living.

Then I started thinking about the additional equipment I could afford. And thoughts like... would my butler also bring me ethernet cables when I asked him to bring me a beer?

Ciscoholic?

Guilty as charged

onesaint

Although I have flash cards on my Iphone, constant updates from Cisco learning network and dailies from here (not to mention Cisco Net Acad, and Odom / vids to watch), I still find myself well and happily immersed and not breaking yet. I think the reward of knowing what Im talking about, along with the cert, drive me. I do however keep a steady pace and try not to overload myself (work, certs, family, who needs sleep?!).

I think Im a binge ADD type though. Ill binge on this until cert time comes up in 6 months, then its on to Sans, then ISC2, then over to WGU. If Im not busy and learning I get bored and feel stagnate. It sets a good example for my kids and allows me to show off my binary skills. =^D I figured out the other day, Ive been in school for the better part of 10 years post highschool. Why arent I a 3xCCIE with my PhD in Cryptography yet?? No idea. lol.

Spoonroom

I'm writing this coming monday and I'm stressed as well. Not because of not knowing the work, but because I'm worried that I'll run out of time. Everyone always says you have to work very fast to be able to finish it...

SurferdudeHB

onesaint wrote: »

Although I have flash cards on my Iphone,

I'm hooked.. How do I get flash cards for the Iphone?

onesaint

SurferdudeHB wrote: »

I'm hooked.. How do I get flash cards for the Iphone?

Either pick these up ($5.00)- about 360 total, split evenly for ICNDI&II
Cisco CCNA 640-802 Cert Flash Cards, App (iPhone)

Or pick up Iflash and Iflash touch ($15.00 I think) and make your own.
Loopware - iFlash Touch

I might add, the Cisco Press ones are a bit funky at times. Ive found an error in their subnetting and the topo images are so/so. Still for 5$ I can study whenever / where ever. Which is nice. Iflash might be a better long term investment, plus you can make more specific questions and utilize it beyond the CCNA.

Good luck!

SurferdudeHB

onesaint wrote: »

Either pick these up ($5.00)- about 360 total, split evenly for ICNDI&II
Cisco CCNA 640-802 Cert Flash Cards, App (iPhone)

Or pick up Iflash and Iflash touch ($15.00 I think) and make your own.
Loopware - iFlash Touch

I might add, the Cisco Press ones are a bit funky at times. Ive found an error in their subnetting and the topo images are so/so. Still for 5$ I can study whenever / where ever. Which is nice. Iflash might be a better long term investment, plus you can make more specific questions and utilize it beyond the CCNA.

Good luck!

thank you mate! and thx everyone for the replies. I will chill a bit but keep my focus in line

j-man

ITVince wrote: »

Um all of us? After I passed my MCTS I have a nervous breakdown from studying 4 months straight. On my drive home from work I had to pull over on the highway and call emergency medical services (911) because I thought I was having a heart attack which just turned out to be a bad panic attack. My body was just crashing after I put myself through such a rigerous study schedule. Looking back now, there was no reason to push myself so hard. If your work doesn't mandate that you have this cert, or a job you want doesnt require it, and its just for your personal benefit for the future..take your time and enjoy the ride...you'll end up learning more studying at your own pace rather then cramming hard for a few months. Just my two cents. Everyone stresses its normal in this field. Its how you cope with it and deal with it thats the tricky part, dont let it get the best of you.

I puked after getting home after taking the hardware portion of A+ many moons ago. I did much better during the numerous NT 4 MCP exams but those were the last certs I sat. I can tell you that I'm getting really tweaked gearing up for the ICND1 and ICND2. I should take a bucket to ICND1 just in case.

Howling Monkey

Going to work and being shot at is a bad day, losing a buddy is a bad day.

I know these are over the top examples, but keep things in perspective.

Its only a test my friend.

MrRyte

You have a right to be a little stressed since failing the exam means $125/$250 out of the window. Just keep in mind that neither you nor your loved are being threatened and the fate of the free world is not in your hands (or whatever doomsday scenario that your mind can conjure).

And when you finally start doing network/systems admin and constantly worrying about the network every moment of the day THEN you'll understand the meaning of stress.....

AD227529

Yes, it is normal. I felt the same way when I was studying for both the ICND1 and the ICND2 exam. It's just an indication of how badly you want to be a CCNA. I finally reached a point in studying for both exams where I felt like additional studying was not really helping me learn anything I didn't already know. That's when I finally decided to just go take the exams and be done with it. I knew that even if I failed it wouldn't be by much, and at least I got to see the actual exam and not a sim.

It will all be worth it when you pass the CCNA. Believe me, there is no other feeling in the world like passing the exam. You will be on cloud 9 when you step out of that exam room. Just don't spend more than 10 minutes on a sim and you should be fine. Practice your subnetting too. Best of luck to you.

j-man

Howling Monkey
Everyone handles different stresses differently. OP is talking about an exam. I stress myself out over exams. While I've never failed a Cert based test, I get myself so wound up and I can't figure out why.

The "it's just a test" is a crap statement to make because that test might mean a promotion or higher quality of life for the test taker while it might mean only something else to frame on your wall.

Yes. You did use extreme cases and that's fine but let me tell you that I've been there, done that and I'm solely responsible for a network and I'd rather take those stresses over taking an exam for the first time going in blind.

I'm to the point where I want to sit it, pass or fail, just so I have some sort of idea what I'm up against.

Sorry for the "rantishness" of this post but everybody is different and it all means something different to everyone.

I'm not having a go at you BTW. It's all cool mate.

MrRyte

In any case; you can't let the stress overwhelm you. If it does; you'll end up failing cause you'll doubting/second-guessing yourself during the exam. Read the questions; understand EXACTLY what's being asked and just do your best.

And even if you fail; you'll have a breakdown for what you need to improve on for the next attempt. GO FOR IT!!!

TesseracT

Hey, always remember it's just an exam... You can sit it as many times as you want until you get that pass. It's always worked for me as a stress reliever