Trying to understand the scope of this exam

Hi fellow exam takers,

Just wanted to share some opinion on CCNA Security as someone that has been studying for it for about a month or more now.

Basically I feel like this exam is a lot more dense than what it appears from the exam outline. In fact, the exam outline makes it look like the topics are pretty straightforward but each topic has a ton of info on it. When you check out the CBT nuggets series on 640-554 even that at first seems like a short series (only 17 or so vids) but each one is almost an hour long give or take.

Basically because the exam objectives are sort of broad, I am noticing that sources will sometimes cover different material. For example, I currently use Bryant Advantage CCNA Security, Official Cert Guide by K. Barker and the CBT nuggets series by Barker as well. One example I can think of is NTP- it is not something explicit in the objectives but it is still covered, and the different sources cover it to different degrees (I am not sure if stratum 16 for unsynchronized clock shows up in the Barker sources whereas I know it does in the Bryant series).

Also, the SDM is not something that is listed in the objectives but is covered by both authors.

So essentially I am partly venting how I feel about this test and trying to wrap my head around the scope of the exam as a whole. Am I OK in sticking with these 3 sources + practice or is there something additional I should look for?

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RouteMyPacket

Where do you find SDM in relation to the security exam? It's completely wrong if so and outdated.

CCP is used and if I remember has a chapter in the OCG (Official Certification Guide) all about browsing around in CCP. NTP might not have it's own chapter parse but it is critical simply do to how critical it is to have accurate logs etc.

You will learn how to configure NTP, ACL's via CCP

If there is anything you should be annoyed about, it is the fact that Cisco even have CCP on their exam, same for old SDM. You will never run across it in the real world.

Your sources are fine for study, OCG, CBT Nuggets and GNS3 are good

Vask3n

Hey, I should have been more specific, I meant I came across ASDM in a non-cbt video. In any case, I have a good handle on doing ACLs via CCP and CLI and I think CCP is fairly easy to browse. I guess I will just stick to my sources and go for it when I feel ready.

RouteMyPacket wrote: »

Where do you find SDM in relation to the security exam? It's completely wrong if so and outdated.

CCP is used and if I remember has a chapter in the OCG (Official Certification Guide) all about browsing around in CCP. NTP might not have it's own chapter parse but it is critical simply do to how critical it is to have accurate logs etc.

You will learn how to configure NTP, ACL's via CCP

If there is anything you should be annoyed about, it is the fact that Cisco even have CCP on their exam, same for old SDM. You will never run across it in the real world.

Your sources are fine for study, OCG, CBT Nuggets and GNS3 are good

RouteMyPacket

Scratch GNS3 for ASA, my ASA lab is shot and I am ticked about that too.

Quickybilly

I began reading this forum today and I must say that it's helping a lot. For example, I began preparing the cert with that same materials and it's really good to know that I'm on the right way