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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livelovelaughaturmistakes

I Suck at wan techs

fredrikjj

STP killed me on the CCNA, and I almost didn't pass because of it.

OfWolfAndMan

All I gotta say is... FRAME RELAY. Most of the other WAN questions were pretty straightforward, frame relay is just a pain. I had fun with the routing stuff. I guess parts of the extended ACLs were a little tedious as well

junmacarambon

so i need to focus more studying on WAN to pass CCNA.

DevilWAH

I think the reason most people have issues with WAN, is is new. All the rest deal with IP / MAC address and build on the basic networking that people pick up when you use a desk top PC. WAN's is something a bit different, its not hard to get your hard round as long as you spend a bit of time getting your hand dirty with it.

mikerodriguez

It's the NAT and Access Lists that are a real pain for me...

Magic Johnson

EIGRP I am finding tremendously difficult at the moment.

theodoxa

AWetzel1025 wrote: »

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.

I was the opposite. I scored 100% on ACLs and NAT, but my lowest score was on WANs for both ICND1 (60%) and ICND2 (83%).

pierrevilleres

I have problems memorizing the commands sometimes but I understand the underlying concept behind the different protocols.

kianm

WAN technologies

ibn_shaddad

I voted for
Bridging/Switching

because STP and RSTP was the hardest thing on me

robby005

spanning tree in depth and complete osi model understanding is hard

Cisco Inferno

I would have to say that spanning tree was the hardest for me to understand completely.
You really just have to have an image or sketch of 4 switches and start labeling ports roles and to determine blocked paths.
Could also be because it is Chapter1 in Lammle's book. By the time you finish the book, you can't remember everything.

Also, I thought Frame Relay was a close second. Once you understand the commands and the show outputs(sh frame-relay map), you'll understand it much easier. Also, knowing why to choose p2p or to choose multipoint interfaces helps out.

For Third, I would say making sure you know everything about the metrics involved with EIGRP and OSPF. Especially good to compare both protocols to better know each.

jjs1234

IPv6 is the most difficult. I just dont get it.

Everything else was easy. EIGRP is a DISTANCE VECTOR. OSPF is a LINK STATE.

Both dont work if the Hello and dead timers are wrong. For OSPF its the AREA #s. For EIGRP its the Process ID number that needs to be the same.

STP and RSTP are easy. RSTP adds two extra link states. It has rapid convergence.

OSI MODEL:

Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away

Physical
Data Link
Network
Transport
Session
Presentation
Application

AlejandroJimenez

undoubtedly, the hardest topic are NAT and Access control lists.

DPN1

Voted for WAN technologies due to Frame relay mostly, as others have said it is a bit different from everything else you learn. STP is quite hard too but thats just due to the amount of stuff there is to learn for it, it starts to click once you play with it. NAT was another topic i struggled with for ages.

Simrid

I voted for WAN technologies too. Learning the different encapsulation types, working out which is being used, Frame relay - The list goes on. The struggle is real but we will get there.

quickman007

WAN, only because of Frame Relay. So much labbing just to "kind of" understand it.

digitheads

they pull some pretty tricky **** in those exam questions, there are several areas you need to be solid in: the OSI model and what happens at each layer, and what they use as input, bytes, frames, packets.... remember Do Sargent's Pay For Beer - Data, Segment, Packets, Frame, Bits and the OSI model and how it relates to the tcp/ip model... worst I think is all the protocols, internal and external... rule of thumb if it is a Cisco proprietary protocol, then most likely it isn't routable....
order the CCNA book from cisco with the disk, I picked mine up from barnesandnoble.com $25.00 or there abouts, comes with sample tests a lot better than anything I have found on the web, includes questions from INCD1 and INCD2 exams, you can practice until you get it right...

DPN1

Been using Measureup practise tests plus the old CCNA books i have, I've been working in the networking sector for 6 months now so hopefully the experience help towards passing the CCNA aswell

CyberWolf

AnimeFrusionSmoothie wrote: »

hmm... WAN wasn't a problem for me.. Routing Protocols i got a 33% on

This is funny

aderon

How do I vote for NAT?

inside local, inside global, outside local, and outside global made my head spin lol

pinkiaiii

Just done today semester one exam got my a$$ handed to me with just over 60% score

,how likely im to get screwed when doing routing protocols.Since i lack any intelligence in understanding vlsm ipv6,switch functions,and even random class c subneting questions at this point.Does it come to a point where one comes to revisit same terms or im i in a boat just gonna slowly sink downwards as progressing further ?

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bender_fender100

pinkiaiii wrote: »

Just done today semester one exam got my a$$ handed to me with just over 60% score ,how likely im to get screwed when doing routing protocols.Since i lack any intelligence in understanding vlsm ipv6,switch functions,and even random class c subneting questions at this point.Does it come to a point where one comes to revisit same terms or im i in a boat just gonna slowly sink downwards as progressing further ?

Did you take ICND1 or the whole composite test?

You shouldn't be so hard on yourself because of what happened. Try to think about this as a learning opportunity. At first, I was in for a rude awakening when I saw my score and I was downright disappointed and feeling down that first day, but eventually I started feeling better about going through my weakest areas and wanting to try again. Cisco makes their exams difficult for a reason and looking at it that way, it will make getting them more of a meaningful achievement.

pinkiaiii

doing just part time course in college for ccna,that was first netacad semester exam,covering basics.So sort of bumped up about scoring so low,as ipv6 and subneting didnt sink it at all besides subneting class c and some basic vlsm.
To say the least with speed course is going and amounts to read,every time i am left with more questions then answers doing chapters.And difficulty seems to increase twin fold every time.

Only regret i have that didnt do proper look into course material and what depth it goes into/amount of time needed before starting it.thus while did binary and some classes on youtube before starting but when got 1000+ pages book and equipment that that seen in couple servers rooms and never thought as it much as being something more like hub,its like getting bricked you get labs assignments most times with everything put down and just to practice commands,yet if someone asked whats the difference between one router or another/switch answer would be maybe more interfaces on one then another.

JamesKurtovich

NAT and ACLs!

dustervoice

Subnetting i struggled with anything other than /24 confuses me even to this day

bender_fender100

NAT, ACLs and the CAM table for me. Port security took me a while to get too.

RealUnited

WAN Protocols