Preparing for Cisco Certs
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So I'm beginning prep for my Cisco certs, specifically CCNA Route/Switch and CCNA Voice to start. I was challenged by my buddy to match an accomplishment done by only one person previously at my new job at Shoregroup...make engineer in 1.5 years or less. I need to get at least my CCNP to do that. The company will pay for all the certs, so I'm running through training material now. I want to be ready for my CCNA Route/Switch within three months.
I always had issues with Cisco before because I never had a practical place to apply it. Now I do. However, does anyone have any suggestions for good resources?
Thanks,
A.J. -
@thanksajdotcom said:
So I'm beginning prep for my Cisco certs, specifically CCNA Route/Switch and CCNA Voice to start. I was challenged by my buddy to match an accomplishment done by only one person previously at my new job at Shoregroup...make engineer in 1.5 years or less. I need to get at least my CCNP to do that. The company will pay for all the certs, so I'm running through training material now. I want to be ready for my CCNA Route/Switch within three months.
I always had issues with Cisco before because I never had a practical place to apply it. Now I do. However, does anyone have any suggestions for good resources?
Thanks,
A.J.You need Cisco Gear at home in a lab to toy with that's one of your best learning resources. There is Cisco Packet Tracer which is a network simulator, it's nice but not the same as real gear. Todd Lammle writes some good Cisco books. If you don't have much practical Cisco networking and routing experience getting your CCNA in 3 months is a bit unrealistic.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
So I'm beginning prep for my Cisco certs, specifically CCNA Route/Switch and CCNA Voice to start. I was challenged by my buddy to match an accomplishment done by only one person previously at my new job at Shoregroup...make engineer in 1.5 years or less. I need to get at least my CCNP to do that. The company will pay for all the certs, so I'm running through training material now. I want to be ready for my CCNA Route/Switch within three months.
I always had issues with Cisco before because I never had a practical place to apply it. Now I do. However, does anyone have any suggestions for good resources?
Thanks,
A.J.You need Cisco Gear at home in a lab to toy with that's one of your best learning resources. There is Cisco Packet Tracer which is a network simulator, it's nice but not the same as real gear. Todd Lammle writes some good Cisco books. If you don't have much practical Cisco networking and routing experience getting your CCNA in 3 months is a bit unrealistic.
I've done ICDN (or whatever it is called) 1 twice. Once in high school, once in college. I have an old version of packet tracer and will be getting the newest version soon. I'll check out the books by Todd Lammle. Thanks.
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Don't rush it just because you want to beat a record. You might turn out to be only good on paper and not actually useful in the real world.
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Take a bit of time to get some real world experience before proceeding with the next level. What's the point of holding the record if you have no idea what 60% of the stuff is that you temporarily stuffed into your head the night before the exam? -
What's the point of holding the record if you have no idea what 60% of the stuff is that you temporarily stuffed into your head the night before the exam?
I was going to use the term 'learned' in the above but that's not really learning. That's passing a test for a piece of paper in a manner akin to cheating yourself.
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Definitely take the challenge to get certified to that level but don't get sucked into doing it in the time frame. You might live to regret it.
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@nadnerB I have excellent retention for that kind of knowledge, and I don't believe in cramming.
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@nadnerB Thanks though.
