I earned my MCTS certification a month ago, and as I returned home from the testing center, I decided to start working on Cisco's track and I'm glad I did because I actually had FUN learning the material needed for the CCENT exam. I just took the exam this afternoon and passed with a
937 
. Learning from my experience with the Windows 7 exam, I used multiple resources:
1. CCENT for Dummies. Say what you will about the book series, but this one was a good read in terms of laying down foundational topics.
2. Todd Lammle's CCNA book; I heard that this book could be used for the CCENT by only studying certain chapters, so I did.
3. CBT Nuggets; I have to hand it to Jeremy Cioara, you don't get bored watching him teach.
4. Chris Bryant's ICND1 course; I used this as my final review and I'm glad I did because he covered a few topics in detail that my other sources only glanced over.
5. LABS; for that entire month, I spent a good 3-4 hours a day doing labs. Read a chapter in a book? Did it in a lab. Watched a video? Labbed as they did it on screen. As much as I like Packet Tracer, there's no substitute for working with the real gear.
As far as what's next? CCNA
; I perused over those chapters in Lammle's book and I have to say, it looks challenging.........but oh so enticing at the same time.
