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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NetworkPete

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 !!

I worked for a fairly large company, with thousand of clients with WAN connections. We ran OSPF at the Core, and EIGRP at the access level. our ISP took over the access stuff and ran BGP. Get used to looking at multiple protocols. While the CCNA may not hit it, you may see it in the real world applications.

Deemeetri

I have no voted for anything because I am about to start studying this and after reading this whole thread I think I crapped myself lol I feel this is gonna be like quiting smoking I'm gonna be aggrivated and hitting a lot of walls

Coolhandluke

After studying CCNA/CCNP i would have to say that WAN technologies are the most difficult due to the lack of practice in the real world. Frame relay is all well and good but MPLS is the new god as far as WAN technology is concerned.

t_patrick

for me it was subnetting

zrockstar

I am really glad the WAN and ACL are the top topics on the poll by a long shot...this means I am not alone!

oli356

Frame Relay has really got me confused right now! Need to figure out how to setup the frame relay switch for my 3 lab setup...

elderkai

The most difficult part for me to just mentally grasp as far as what situation and in what manner will I know to apply this was ACLs. I don't know why, but they just took a large toll on me.

Diggs

Would have to say ACL's have been for me

veritas_libertas

Routing decisions and switching decisions. These can get complicated quickly. I've also found Frame Relay to be intimidating because it's covered so lightly within the CCNA level books.

silverbullet

The feedback I get mostly is from people who
have ran out of time answering subnetting questions.
You'll need to get these calculated in your head rather
than on paper. No more than 4 minutes per subnetting
question and you'll have enough time.

DevilWAH

silverbullet wrote: »

The feedback I get mostly is from people who
have ran out of time answering subnetting questions.
You'll need to get these calculated in your head rather
than on paper. No more than 4 minutes per subnetting
question and you'll have enough time.

I still use pen and paper for sub netting

My suggestion though if you find it hard to so sub-netting in your head. Learn how to construct a "****" sheet and scribble it down at the start of the exam. Not just a sheet you have remembered of by heart, but learn how to build on up from scratch each time. 5 miniutes spent at the start will save heaps of time later on when you mind is full of other questions and you just want a sub net..

StussyNz

Would have to say Access Lists, took me a while to get my head around the formating of ACLS $:\$

Musixa

Hi guys, I just finished my CCNA and I'm really excited applying it to my future first job. Well, I saw many people here having problems about subnetting. When I was reviewing, I find subnetting not that hard. My teacher in college thought us a subnetting table to answer subnetting questions easily.

For me, WAN technologies really gave me a hard time understanding it. The concept of Frame Relay really confused me. XD PPP authentication confused me to, mixing up CHAP and PAP.

aideed

Hi,
I am doing my first semister of ccna course. My hardest thing is how to understand subnetting. Is anybody help me easy way or any reference books that can help me.
Thank you
Ahmed

MAC_Addy

aideed wrote: »

Hi,
I am doing my first semister of ccna course. My hardest thing is how to understand subnetting. Is anybody help me easy way or any reference books that can help me.
Thank you
Ahmed

Of course we can help; http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/38772-subnetting-made-easy.html

goldenlight

aideed wrote: »

Hi,
I am doing my first semister of ccna course. My hardest thing is how to understand subnetting. Is anybody help me easy way or any reference books that can help me.
Thank you
Ahmed

Little late to the answer.. Search for the "MAGIC NUMBER TRICK" on youtube. It will blow your mind.

Akshay Ghadi

ACL is little bit difficult than other topics

haktek

For me the most difficult to understand was Spanning-Tree-Protocol. So i voted Switching/Bridging. The most boring is definitely WAN Technologies.

rivanfrank

WAN!

NAT, Frame Relay, ISDN. Pain in the ass! But if you have high knowledge and confident about WAN technologies it easy to get hired.

bh92

Studying for the CCNA currently and WAN technologies (Frame-Relay) mainly is tough!

theodoxa

For me (Easiest to Hardest):

1. Basic Router Management and Configuration
2. Networking Basics (LAN Technologies, OSI Model, Routed Protocols)
3. WAN Protocols (HDLC)
4. Standard ACLs
5. Routing Protocols (RIPv2)
6. Extended ACLs
7. Switching (ARP)
8. Switching (VLANs & VLAN Trunking)
9. Switching (Spanning Tree)
10. Routing Protocols (OSPF)
11. Switching (Inter-VLAN Routing)

I haven't reached the EIGRP and Frame Relay sections yet. I came from a networking background and studied Cisco (CCNA) about 12 years ago. I haven't done anything Cisco [except install preconfigured switches and routers] since...though I have had to subnet. Some of the stuff like the OSI Model, Subnetting, and LAN Technologies were simply a review of what I already knew. The rest I had either become rusty on (ACLs, VLANs, RIPv2), but relearned quickly or had completely forgotten (Spanning Tree, VLAN Trunking, Inter-VLAN Routing, OSPF, EIGRP, Frame Relay) and had to completely relearn.

ch1vas

For me by far the hardest topic is IPv6, I literally hate it.

daras

ch1vas wrote: »

For me by far the hardest topic is IPv6, I literally hate it.

Me too its the worse topic in my whole networking life ....

hawandaei

I think with some extra work on the hard topics like WAN technologies, they will become easy and we can afford them, so begin to study more and more ..............

mwernher

WAN technologies are soooo confusing..

AWetzel1025

I took my CCNA test last friday and failed. Not to worry I have already rescheduled another attempt later this month. Its funny that WAN protocols are the hardest by majority I actually got a 100% in that category. For me it was hands on router configuration, ACLs, and NAT. Im definitely gonna push the studying though I want this CCNA so bad.

mworwell

Its a toss up between WAN technologies and Spanning Tree. Both topics took me a while to grasp.

Munster

Well the chapters from 6 to 9 are pretty hard in Lammels book. You should study them well. The rest is easy. And a little bit practice off course. To bring everything to exam is the hardest thing I think.

Magic Johnson

The hardest topic for me in CCENT is probably ACLs, getting the behaviour correct for what you want and also predicting the behaviour of how an already implemented ACL will perform in conjunction with other things such as NAT.

Funnily enough subnetting is the easiset, it doesn't change, there are no gotchas. What you see is always what you get.

maharaliel

With the new version of CCNA I think the routing parts may be difficult for it includes some parts that we brought from CCNP route.