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Passed ICND1. Taking ICND2 this Friday

nkillgorenkillgore Member Posts: 67 ■■□□□□□□□□
in CCNA & CCENT
Passed last friday with a 937. Used The Cisco Press Book, the Transcender practice exams, and Boson NetSim. I really like the labs that come with NetSim. Also, we just completed a LAN upgrade at work where we replaced older 3com switches with a catalyst 4507 and about 15 3750s in preparation for VoIP.

I thought it was a really easy test. I studied for 4 days, 2-3 hours a day. I could already subnet before I started, so that probably helped. I know it took a while for that to sink in when I learned it. Subnetting is very important to know and be able to do quickly. The Transcender exams were a lot more difficult than the real thing.

Anyway, I'm taking the ICND2 this Friday. I'll share my experience with that when I'm finished. I'll probably dive right in to either CCNA Voice or CCNP when I'm done with this, though I may wait until after we implement the IP phones before I take any voice exams.

UPDATE:

Passed ICND2 with a 902. I found it to be much more difficult than the ICND1. I think because I don't have much real world experience with routers, and the exam was largely focused routers and routing protocols. I would not recommend going from almost zero knowledge to taking the exam in only a week. I spent about 8 hours a day studying, and still didn't feel like I had a firm grasp on everything come exam day.

I studied using the Cisco Press books, Transcender exams (not crazy about them), Boson Netsim, and Boson exams.

I've already started studying for CCNP SWITCH, which so far, doesn't seem too bad. I'll definitely give myself at least 2 weeks to give the concepts a little more time to sink in. icon_wink.gif
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    Greenmet29Greenmet29 Member Posts: 240
    Congrats! Sounds like you had some really good real life experience before taking the test, the best way to study imho.
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    cmitchell_00cmitchell_00 Member Posts: 251 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Congrats on the pass. I wish you the best on the second half.
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    nkillgorenkillgore Member Posts: 67 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Greenmet29 wrote: »
    Congrats! Sounds like you had some really good real life experience before taking the test, the best way to study imho.

    yep. It's hard to beat hands-on time with real equipment. For some reason, it just helps all of the concepts sink in. :D

    On that note, where I work, we don't really touch the routers (they are configured by a WAN team in another city), so it's a little harder for me to wrap my head around the routing concepts. And the ICND2 seems to be mostly routing and WAN stuff. hopefully it sinks in soon.
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    SharkDiverSharkDiver Member Posts: 844
    Congratulations on the ICND1.

    Good Luck with the ICND2. Two weeks isn't alot of time. You could have just taken the composite.
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    nkillgorenkillgore Member Posts: 67 ■■□□□□□□□□
    SharkDiver wrote: »
    Congratulations on the ICND1.

    Good Luck with the ICND2. Two weeks isn't alot of time. You could have just taken the composite.

    But I get 4 hours off work every time I take an exam. :D

    Although, my boss did seem a little suspicious about this one.
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    nkillgorenkillgore Member Posts: 67 ■■□□□□□□□□
    passed icnd2 icon_cheers.gif
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    JeanMJeanM Member Posts: 1,117
    nkillgore wrote: »
    yep. It's hard to beat hands-on time with real equipment. For some reason, it just helps all of the concepts sink in. :D

    On that note, where I work, we don't really touch the routers (they are configured by a WAN team in another city), so it's a little harder for me to wrap my head around the routing concepts. And the ICND2 seems to be mostly routing and WAN stuff. hopefully it sinks in soon.

    Congrats! I totally agree, real hands-on labbing really helps "sink" the theory in :) good job!
    2015 goals - ccna voice / vmware vcp.
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    ciscoman2012ciscoman2012 Member Posts: 313
    I'll be the first to say, I'm very jealous.

    Wish I could pass ICND2 in one week!

    Granted you do have good bit of hands on experience it seems..but still DAMN.

    Congrats man! Go kill the CCNP next!
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    nkillgorenkillgore Member Posts: 67 ■■□□□□□□□□
    ciscoman2012 wrote: »
    I'll be the first to say, I'm very jealous.

    Wish I could pass ICND2 in one week!

    Granted you do have good bit of hands on experience it seems..but still DAMN.

    Congrats man! Go kill the CCNP next!


    thanks.

    It was a pretty miserable week, and it took the whole weekend to recover. I spent three days reading the cisco press book and spent the next three days doing labs, taking practice exams, and re-reading sections of the book that I did poorly on in the practice exams.
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    ASUSTeKASUSTeK Member Posts: 148
    Wow! Congrats to you on that, hope i do as well as u did on ICND2. Keep up the good work and good luck on CCNP.
    The Begining Of Wisdom Is "I Don't Know".
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    ChickenNuggetzChickenNuggetz Member Posts: 284
    Wow holy smokes CCENT and CCNA in a few weeks time, nicely done! Congrats and good luck with the SWITCH exam!
    :study: Currently Reading: Red Hat Certified Systems Administrator and Engineer by Ashgar Ghori

    Certifications: CCENT; CCNA: R&S; Security+

    Next up: RHCSA
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