Scheduling next month and wary

I got an email notice yesterday officially notifying me that my CCNA is set to expire. I was originally trying to get through Switch, but had a very recent job change (networking to security administration) and have spent the last month training up on security related things. So I figure I'd switch gears and renew my NA with the Security designation. A lot of my friends say that it's much easier than NA but I'm always wary when folks say "easy." I do have the Press book as well as Chris Bryants' PDF book and have started perusing the CCO site on test info. but I wanted to get the opinion of those who have passed. Prior to this past month I was working in a LAN shop mostly STIG'ing switches as well as daily maintenance but nothing wildly security related. The last month has been learning about security scanning and such. I was planning on giving myself until the end of next month (7 weeks give or take) to take the exam, which would give me another month or so to guage how I do (if I don't pass that is) and still have 5-6 weeks to review and retake the test. Crazy? No? Should I bother with CBT Nuggets/Train Signal or are the two references enough? Sorry for the blast; the email has sent me into a frenzy. I don't want to have to reaccomplish the CCNA again.

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Excellent1

Well, I haven't passed it yet, so I can't comment from that perspective, but I can say that I'm using almost the same resources (OCG + Bryant), and I plan on taking it on Saturday. I feel prepared, so I'll let you know whether that was a false sense of security. What I can say, though, is that as I read through the objectives and take the practice exams, I'm not finding anything that jumps out as not covered in the material. I personally wouldn't spend the money on the CBT's, but only you can gauge what resources work best for you.

I would keep an eye on the 9.99 deals of the day from cisco press, though, as I've purchased both the ocg and the Catherine Paquet IINS book for 10 bucks each (along with all of the CCNP books). The savings add up, and it's nice having the electronic version for portable devices when you can't bring whatever cisco tome you're currently reading.

Anyway, good luck.

CheesyBread

I found wealth in Jeremy's nuggets, as always. I failed this test monday, and I didn't think it was "easy" at all. I'm retaking 2/3 I think.

spicy ahi

Excellent1 wrote: »

Well, I haven't passed it yet, so I can't comment from that perspective, but I can say that I'm using almost the same resources (OCG + Bryant), and I plan on taking it on Saturday. I feel prepared, so I'll let you know whether that was a false sense of security. What I can say, though, is that as I read through the objectives and take the practice exams, I'm not finding anything that jumps out as not covered in the material. I personally wouldn't spend the money on the CBT's, but only you can gauge what resources work best for you.

I would keep an eye on the 9.99 deals of the day from cisco press, though, as I've purchased both the ocg and the Catherine Paquet IINS book for 10 bucks each (along with all of the CCNP books). The savings add up, and it's nice having the electronic version for portable devices when you can't bring whatever cisco tome you're currently reading.

Anyway, good luck.

Thanks Excellent1. I do have the cert guide on my iPad via the $9.99 deals. I haven't seen the Paquet book yet but will snatch it up if I see it. I work for the DoD as well so maybe I can find it on Books24x7. Someone also turned me to vte.cert.org and they provide free IA related training to anyone that has to meet the 8570 requirement. I'm watching those at work in conjunction with Bryant/Press. I'm going to schedule my test for the second week of Februray come hell or high water. Thanks for the encouragement!

CheesyBread wrote: »

I found wealth in Jeremy's nuggets, as always. I failed this test monday, and I didn't think it was "easy" at all. I'm retaking 2/3 I think.

Sorry to hear that CheesyBread. Were you close at least? Or did you feel lost the entire exam? My fear is that the material I have does not cover all the testable material and with my luck I'll get a bunch of questions on subjects that were not coverd/under covered.

drumrolfe

spicy ahi wrote: »

......... I do have the Press book as well as Chris Bryants' PDF book and have started perusing the CCO site on test info. but I wanted to get the opinion of those who have passed.

The CCNA Security was easier for me than the regular CCNA. I used Jeremy's nuggets and the Sybex CCNA exam study guide. I did a lot of note taking and CLI configuration and a some SDM configuration. Know the material and you will do great!

CheesyBread

I ended up with a 777. If you follow the outline on the Cisco website, and lab enough with SDM you will do fine.

spicy ahi

drumrolfe wrote: »

The CCNA Security was easier for me than the regular CCNA. I used Jeremy's nuggets and the Sybex CCNA exam study guide. I did a lot of note taking and CLI configuration and a some SDM configuration. Know the material and you will do great!

Thanks drumrolfe. Now, did you think you could have gotten by with just the book and equipment (I forgot to mention I have a 1750 so I can play around with SDM) or was acquiring the CBT Nugget worthwhile? The issue I'm having is that I have a pot of money to play with and I'm debating between spending it on the Nugget and have only enough left to pass or save the money and bypass the nugget just in case I have to pay for a retest.

drumrolfe

With all the labbing I did, its possible I could have passed without the nuggets. Who can know for sure?

I did enjoy Jeremy's (he's a great teacher) explanation on some of the topics and it helped me look at some things from a different POV. Though I think using any additional sources of study will help broaden your understanding of the material.

spicy ahi

Thanks for the advice gents. I decided to go with option 1. I'm going to stick with the resources I have on hand and have set a test date of 9 Feb with the rest of my allotted funds set aside in case I don't make it the first time around. I'm also going to be bringing lunch from home and saving my usual $10 a day for lunch just in case I need to spread the money for Ciora's CBT Nuggets after the ninth. Hopefully I'll pass on the 9th and lose weight at the same time!

CheesyBread

lay off those tuna rolls >_>

Excellent1

My test is in 2 days, so I'll let you know how it goes. One thing I will point out that you may have already noticed, and that's that the official book by Watkins/Wallace AND the material from Bryant have outdated SDM information. For example, the firewall wizard is not current to the exam. If you notice from the illustrations, the basic firewall wizard creates the old CBAC firewalls, but the latest version of SDM creates ZBF for the basic firewall wizard. Also, the IPS configuration is not current. The IPS uses the old signatures for SDM that are no longer applicable.

Don't get me wrong, these aren't huge major changes, but if you weren't expecting them I could see them throwing your confidence mid-exam. Just pointing it out in case you might have missed it.

The Paquet book has current content for both of these items, along with some other minor updates. Might be worth checking out if you get the opportunity.

spicy ahi

CheesyBread wrote: »

lay off those tuna rolls >_>

At $2 a plate, I'll probably have to (at least until I pass the test

) But I will NEVER give them up forever!

Excellent1 wrote: »

My test is in 2 days, so I'll let you know how it goes. One thing I will point out that you may have already noticed, and that's that the official book by Watkins/Wallace AND the material from Bryant have outdated SDM information. For example, the firewall wizard is not current to the exam. If you notice from the illustrations, the basic firewall wizard creates the old CBAC firewalls, but the latest version of SDM creates ZBF for the basic firewall wizard. Also, the IPS configuration is not current. The IPS uses the old signatures for SDM that are no longer applicable.

Don't get me wrong, these aren't huge major changes, but if you weren't expecting them I could see them throwing your confidence mid-exam. Just pointing it out in case you might have missed it.

The Paquet book has current content for both of these items, along with some other minor updates. Might be worth checking out if you get the opportunity.

Thanks for the reminder. I did notice some of the differences when I was comparing the two references to the SDM guide/handbook that you can download along with SDM as well as the CCNA Security lab book (forgot to mention a coworkers friend gave it to me when they found out I was studying for this) so I do have to mentally shift gears when I start trying to emulate the examples on my 1750. Hopefully following along with the lab book will mitigate some of the confusion. Said friend also mentioned that the OCG was terrible and he advised that I should go out and buy the Paquet book as it helped him out much more. I guess since I've decided to bypass the CBT Nuggets I can spend a little for the book rather than waiting for it to pop up on deal of the day. Knowing my luck though, it'll show up the day after I buy the book.

drumrolfe

Good luck!

debaron54

You all keep saying Jeremys nuggets but CCNA Sec cbt nuggets are Keith Barker or am I missing something??

volfkhat

debaron54 wrote: »

You all keep saying Jeremys nuggets but CCNA Sec cbt nuggets are Keith Barker or am I missing something??

Maybe you're MISSING that this thread is from FOUR year ago.