Time for me to dive in!!!

Still finishing my studies for my CCNA: Voice. I scheduled the exam for Jan 27th. Find out the gender of my soon to be child Jan 29th. ANDDDD I will officially start my CCNP studies January 31st on my 18 hour flight to Thailand. Just ordered both sets of the FLG and OCG for all three exams. I will be starting with ROUTE because I feel that this is my stronger point, and because I don't want to fail my first exam. This is why I am choosing ROUTE to start with. Any suggestions on a single well rounded lab book for each exam? Nervous as all can be. I am setting my goal to become CCNP R&S in August (will more than likely take longer, but I like to start out setting the bar high). I don't think I've made a really really serious commitment to studying like this. We shall see how it goes. Thanks for every ones support. Wish me luck!

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Man has it been a while. I am now promotable! I go to WLC from 10 MAY to 10 JUNE. All this Army stuff is really messing up my studies, but once it's out of my way I won't have to worry about it for another year or so. Haven't even touched my book since the last post. Haven't touched my lab setup either. It seems like all things are just coming to a complete stop for me until I get all my stuff for promotion done. Hopefully I will have a better update in the upcoming week or so.

@ande0255 - I personally prefer the FLG over the Simplified book. The Simplified book is really good in terms of information, but there are alot of errors in the books which makes things a little confusing at times. They will reference a picture and put the wrong router/switch.... ie. they will mean to reference R2, but it says R4. Just small things, but they are errors that can really confuse you at times. I felt the FLG was straight and to the point with very few errors like that (6th edition). The simplified book does go into much greater detail, and into many other topics that aren't covered in the FLG, but as far as just to study for the exam I would say to go with the FLG. If you plan on going further than the professional level then it wouldn't hurt to read them both. I believe that the specific books for the IE exam would be more relevant in that case though.

NO progress.... I feel like the life is slowly being drained from me at work and at home. I go to Korea sometime soon, so I am aiming to take the ROUTE exam when I get back.

70% done with the ROUTE Simplified book. I got volunteered for the Cyber Security Critical Task Course. Actually excited for a military class for once. Hopefully I will be able to get to atleast 90% completion of the book by the end of the week, and finish up the book over the weekend. I have the 101 Labs on my kindle that I will be going through afterwards

mistabrumley89 wrote: »

70% done with the ROUTE Simplified book. I got volunteered for the Cyber Security Critical Task Course. Actually excited for a military class for once. Hopefully I will be able to get to atleast 90% completion of the book by the end of the week, and finish up the book over the weekend. I have the 101 Labs on my kindle that I will be going through afterwards

Keep it up!

mistabrumley89 wrote: »

Man has it been a while. I am now promotable! I go to WLC from 10 MAY to 10 JUNE.

Is WLC the new name for PLDC?
Warrior Leader Course versus Primary Leadership Development Course?
Basically, the training course for E-5?

All this Army stuff is really messing up my studies,

Army life is not my style,
Got me looking like Gomer Pyle ...

but once it's out of my way

So you better get out of my way now ...

Ahh, the memories. Much sweeter in the rear view mirror.

If you plan on going further than the professional level then it wouldn't hurt to read them both. I believe that the specific books for the IE exam would be more relevant in that case though.

Really, I didn't understand some topics until I read about them on a more detailed level. The explanations that are written in the books are sometimes written by people who have been doing the stuff for years, and they might gloss over something that is necessary for it to *click* for you.

If you want to really understand the protocols, make sure to read some of the design-focused books, as well as the RFCs. I wouldn't necessarily recommend RFCs to someone just starting out, but if you're to the point of doing CCNP, then it makes sense, because you have enough background knowledge to put things in context, and your eyes won't glaze over when you see ASCII drawings

I got into reading a few design books, and they really opened my eyes on what the protocols were really about, and I wish that I had read more of stuff like that while doing CCNP, as it would have made it much easier to digest.

Hope this helps!

Do you remember exactly which design books helped you instant?

Yeah, WLC is the new PLDC equivalent. I appreciate the humor, made me laugh a little bit. I didn't get quite as far in the book as I wanted to. Only read roughly 100 pages. The CSCT course wasn't what I was expecting. We played with Kali a little bit. Created VM's for all the systems we were studying. We went over SCCM, Group Policy, Cisco ASA's, and jurisdication of DoD, DHS, and DOJ. It was a really short course. CECOM really did a horrible job on the length of the class. We just skimmed over the subjects. Still going to continue the slowwwwwww reading progress, then hit up the labs afterwards. Hopefully I will be taking my ROUTE exam beginning of June.

I was actually able to finish reading the ROUTE Simplified book this weekend. After PT this morning I set up the first lab from the back of the book. Hopefully I have time to run through it this evening. BGP Path Selection and Manipulation. Finally got done with the reading and I get to do the FUN stuff!!! Stoked!

Iristheangel wrote: »

I read all the books you have in your picture there for the CCNP but I have to say the Simplified series way way better than all of them. I learned a lot and then some. It felt more real-world oriented and somewhat preparing you for the next step (CCIE) with some of the concepts they started discussing in there such as EEM, OER/PfR, etc.

When I was done with my CCNP, I ended up giving all the books away except the Simplified series. Those now lives on my desk at work for reference.

So could you have read just the simplified series and passed the ccnp exams? Just looking of clarification on whether this could be used as the sole book when prepping for the exam.

Thanks

So far I believe ROUTE Simplified can be used for the sole purpose of passing the ROUTE exam, and then some.

mistabrumley89 wrote: »

So far I believe ROUTE Simplified can be used for the sole purpose of passing the ROUTE exam, and then some.

thanks for the input I just ordered this one

Be weary of the typographical errors though. It can throw you off sometimes. If you know that it should be, for instance, R3 not R4, then it is just a typo. There are a handful of errors in the book, but the wealth of information is unmatched compared to when I read the FLG. The FLG had plenty of information to take the exam too, IMHO, but it didn't dive off into some of the other arenas that you might see in a production network like ROUTE Simplified did.

The labs have been kicking my ass. The amount of time it took me to read to second book is really hindering me, but I'm jumping back in forth through the Chris Bryant videos to help supplement and kickstart my brain in areas where I just can't remember. It isn't so much the theoretical parts or understanding the nitty gritty of how the protocols work, I just forgot which commands to use. So as of now my routine is: Video, Lab, Notes, Video, Read, Lab, Lab, Lab, Lab. Hopefully I'll be able to take the exam before my son pops out of my wife's belly. She is due June 18th, so I guess it's crunch time.

Going to schedule my exam for the 21st of May if my NCO will let me go during staff duty. Will let you know pending his answer.

Update: May 21 at 1000hrs (Pacific), I go in to take on the beast

I have done about 10 hours of labs today. My brain is completely fried. Did a couple OSPF labs, EIGRP & OSPF redistribution, BGP path manipulation, OSPF virtual links, IPSLA, OSPFv3. Going to practice making route-maps, prefix-lists, distro-lists tomorrow after work

Well, I have been studying full force the past couple of weeks. I've been able to convince the wife to watch our daughter after work so I can study for 3-4 hours a night before bed. If you could walk through my brain, it would be like walking through mud. It is just complete mush at this point. I seem to be having the most difficulty in remembering the specific IPv6 nuances. Not something you can just figure out, I just have to memorize it I guess. Labs have become very liquid, and I seem to fly through them rather quickly. Hopefully that is a good sign. One week until my Exam. I am going to finish out this week with review of my CBT Nuggets, and my Chris Bryant videos. Wish me luck! If I pass, then I will immediately be jumping into my SWITCH materials. I go to Korea in August. I won't be on night shift again, so I will have to find time to study whenever and wherever I can. I'll start off with the CBT Nuggets, followed by OCG, Chris Bryant videos, and SWITCH Simplified. Hopefully I will tackle this beast before the end of the year. I will be taking off the first quarter of next year for R&R if I get my NP before then. I know this post is full of if's and when's, but it will eventually happen.

Definitely will happen, I'd make flash cards of all the IPv6 crap, and just burn that stuff into your brain. I did not enjoy memorozing even small portions of it on the NA level, not particularly looming forward to NP level memorozation.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll pass, you picked up voice very quickly, I'm sure R&S will be no sweat brotha!

You got this. IPv6 is a large portion of the score, but the scope is not big.

Thanks for the encouragement. I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of most of the topics. Still a little fuzzy on some of the branch office stuff, but I know enough to do some damage. 2 Days away and I'm already getting pretty nervous. This is the first time I've ever scheduled an exam to encourage my studying. I don't feel as prepared as I normally would on an exam, but I still feel confident. I will let you guys know how it goes. Hopefully I will be back with a pass. Wish me luck!

PASSED! What a relief! I found the exam to be pretty challenging. On to my SWITCH studies

Well I'm about 1/4 of my way through the SWITCH FLG, and 8 videos deep into CBT Nuggets. Haven't learned too much. Most of what I read is just review and fluff. VLANs, trunks, trunk encapsulations, STP & variances of it.... etc. A couple things I have never really worked with are PVLANs, and etherchannels (we had a couple etherchannels between our distrubution switches, but i haven't ever configured them) The concepts of PVLANs seems relatively simplistic, but alotttt of mapping. Seems more like tedious work than brain frying. Etherchannels are relatively self-explanitory as well. On to more studies.. Tally-ho!

Congrats on the pass sir!

Thanks! I wasn't very confident when I clicked on the 'Finish Exam' button. It was pretty close. The branch/remote office section was what I did the worst on. Scored an 83X

As I get farther along in the FLG, I am really starting to notice how atrocious the diagrams are. Some of them don't even convey what the text is saying, or maybe it's the other way around. The text doesn't explain the diagram accurately. I'm about to jump ship and go with my SWITCH Simplified book. I always prefer hardbooks, but I bought the kindle versions of the Simplified series because they were so cheap. Even though I seem to take an exponentially longer time reading e-books, I would rather learn correct information than going abouts my day doing stuff wrong thinking that i'm doing it right.

Congrats on the pass. This is the encouragement I need to kickstart my studies again. I bought Chris Bryant's book to read, and will be watching CBTs as well as Trainsignal/Pluralsight vids too.

Good luck on your Switching studies.

Well, my wife just gave birth on Sunday. It's been rough trying to juggle a newborn, my 14 month old daughter, and studying. I've managed to watch a few more CBTs and read about 15% of the Switch Simplified book. I didn't realize how much I really worked with switching until I watched most of the CBTs. Only a couple of topics that I learned something new, so far. I have 3 weeks off of work. I am going to take advantage of the time as best as I can. Have to get all of my sons birth paperwork in order first, though.

Congratulations! How do you find the SWITCH simplified so far?

The concepts are much more clear and way more in depth. It makes everything much easier to grasp. The book is much larger than the OCG and FLG, but worth the extra read

Tonight I finished my CBT series. Now time to do some serious work on this book. Hopefully I will be ready to test before mid August.

congrats on route and good luck! ill be following your steps hopefully.

and thanks on the linkedin connection!

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