CCNP-Route: Best Study Methods?

Hi all,

I'm going to start preparing to study for the CCNP-Route. Can you guys comment on these study methods? I was thinking...

- Wendell Odom's CCNP-Route book - I used his CCNA book and it was a big help. My only concern about his CCNP book is, per Amazon reviews, it has a quite a few errors, so I'll need to download the errata from the Cisco press. Not a huge deal, especially when its one of the most respected authors with Cisco networking.

- Bryant Advantage, CCNP-Route - Heard good things about this book, I could possibly use it to compliment Odom's...

- CCNP Route portable command guide: http://www.amazon.com/CCNP-ROUTE-Portable-Command-Guide/dp/1587202492 - Something to carry around and flip through on trips, downtime, etc

- CBT Nuggets - I've used this off and on with the CCNA, thought I'd give it a shot with the CCNP-Route as well. I believe Jeremy also utilizes GNS3 with CBT Nuggets, which brings the next point....

-GNS3 - Never used it, wish I would have. Definitely dont have the real gear to lab CCNP so I suppose this would be the best bet.

Thoughts? I'm hoping to obtain the CCNP within a year, so maybe 4 months for Route, 4 for Switch, and 4 for Tshoot.

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Comments

mistabrumley89

Many members, including myself, can vouch for the ROUTE Simplified book. Kindle or paperback. Has all the labs you will need in the back of the book, and it also takes your studies one step further than the OCG/FLG. GNS3 should suffice for the ROUTE portion. I also recommend the SWITCH Simplified book. Also includes the labs you will need. You can go out and buy the 101 Labs book, which has labs for all 3 exams.

I haven't gotten my CCNP yet, but ROUTE took me 4-5 months. I've been studying SWITCH for 2.5 months and my exam is next Wednesday. I only plan on studying for about a month for my TSHOOT exam. Just make sure you lab, lab, lab, and then lab some more.

CBT's are a great way to supplement your reading. It really helps to drive the point home. Chris Bryant also has some videos. They are pretty boring, but they are much more in depth than Jeremy's videos. Either one is fine though.

For SWITCH you are going to need physical hardware unless you have access to GNS3 ALPHA and can manage to get your switches spun up properly.

For TSHOOT, the topology is posted on the Cisco website here. Memorize it. Also on youtube, Kevin Wallace has a good little series. It's called TSHOOT Bull's Eye. Three part series. You can find it here, here, and here.

Hope this helps you in your future endeavors

Kenneth196

mistabrumley89 wrote: »

Many members, including myself, can vouch for the ROUTE Simplified book. Kindle or paperback. Has all the labs you will need in the back of the book, and it also takes your studies one step further than the OCG/FLG. GNS3 should suffice for the ROUTE portion. I also recommend the SWITCH Simplified book. Also includes the labs you will need. You can go out and buy the 101 Labs book, which has labs for all 3 exams.

I haven't gotten my CCNP yet, but ROUTE took me 4-5 months. I've been studying SWITCH for 2.5 months and my exam is next Wednesday. I only plan on studying for about a month for my TSHOOT exam. Just make sure you lab, lab, lab, and then lab some more.

CBT's are a great way to supplement your reading. It really helps to drive the point home. Chris Bryant also has some videos. They are pretty boring, but they are much more in depth than Jeremy's videos. Either one is fine though.

For SWITCH you are going to need physical hardware unless you have access to GNS3 ALPHA and can manage to get your switches spun up properly.

For TSHOOT, the topology is posted on the Cisco website here. Memorize it. Also on youtube, Kevin Wallace has a good little series. It's called TSHOOT Bull's Eye. Three part series. You can find it here, here, and here.

Hope this helps you in your future endeavors

This is a huge help. Thank you sir. Good luck on your SWITCH exam next week

ghonay

To me, the actual material (ie describing what everything is and how it works) was the easy part, I always had the toughest time wrapping my head around the commands because there's so many to cover, and the chapter end command summaries in Wendell's books always blew my mind up. What made it a lot easier for me were remembering the "top level" commands and just resign myself to using the help function on the actual exam. In other words, vlan is the top level command for vlan stuff (obviously), so I'd remember that instead of overstudying by memorizing every single subcommand and variable you could include.

As for the material itself, Wendell does a great job of covering everything, and I used Youtube and Google to search out clearer explanations of stuff I had a hard time grasping after reading Wendell.

Gregory