CCNA Certification....I am in need of wisdom...

[techcontroller]

Goal 1: Study for thee CCNA exam, not only to pass, but to gain knowledge. I want to know what I am doing and have a cert to prove it (not just try to breeze thru the test, which I have heard can't really be done).

Goal 2: Continue my venture into the IT world primarily revolving around Cisco, although I am open to anything.

Basically what it comes down to is that I work in a NOC (Network Operations Center). I currently have control of over 150 devices. I plan to start studying for my CCNA and realized that after four years of work here, I really don't know a damn thing. I have never opened a Cisco book with the intention of taking a test. Ultimately, I can do my job, I just want to be better at it.

I am familiar with CiscoWorks, ACS and switches and I know a little bit about routers. I just don't know everything that I should considering the amount of time I have been doing this job.

Any insight, recommendations or ideas are welcome. I have CCNA Intro and ICND books, but I am not sure how up to date they are (I am at work and the books are at home).

I have been reading this section to get people's opinions and this one stuck out:

http://tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1328095&page=2

So I plan to take a look at some of those books. I have the CBTs at my disposal. I plan to take a look at buying some older equipment as well.

-Tech

 

[lerdalt]

For some study resources:
The Ciscopress books are ok, but I've heard much better reviews of the books by Todd Lammle.

This forum was one of my best places for information when it came to topics I didn't understand as well as I thought I should.

Cisco also has a CCNA prep center on their website that was a lot of help. Had some good links and games to help studying.

Know subnetting. I can't say it enough...subnet, subnet, subnet.

I posted a FAQ here with many links that I gathered to help me study. I know I added some that I received from other posters as well.

http://www.tek-tips.com/faq.cfm?pid=473

Picking up a couple of older routers and even a switch would be good to help get the feel of IOS if you aren't already a little familiar with it. I got to the point I was running several debugs to watch the interaction better for particular events. Much of that was for the CCNP, but may still apply here.

For all of my tests, I've found it better if I can devote several hours every night for a couple of weeks to get through the book(s) and other material, taking good notes along the way, asking good questions, and letting the material soak in. Then take the test on a day I'm feeling really confident about the material.

It also helped me to have a friend working on the test at the same time. We were able to bounce things off of each other. One of us might understand one topic better than the other, and could explain it a little clearer.

just my quick $.02

 

[techcontroller]

Thank you for the advice. I am looking into purchasing books as we speak due to the ones I have being older.

 

[burtsbees]

I second the vote for Todd Lammle books. He breaks everything down in layman's terms. For a dummy like me, that's good. Also, along with subnetting, there was a lot of switch (I.E VLAN and VTP client/server) stuff on it when I took it.

Burt