CCNP Cisco Press Books

[lck092580]

I'm a bit confused with the difference in the Cisco press books.
I see that there's one that's a "Self-Study" such as the BCSI that I just picked up yesterday called:

CCNP Self-Study: Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI)
Second Edition
By Catherine Paquet / Diane Teare.

I also picked up the:

CCNP Self-Study
CCNP BCMSN
Exam Certification Guide
Third Edition
By David Hucaby

These two books look different and I found that there's a "Exam Certification Guide" version of BSCI by Clare Gough on Amazaon and also another book for BCMSN by a different offer.

Can someone clarify which one of these are current? I suspect it's the ones that do no have the "Exam Certification Guide" (at least for the BSCI) because the dates of the other one seems more current.

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CCNP Self-Study: Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI) by Catherine Paquet (Author), Diane Teare (Author) (Hardcover - April 20, 2004)
Books: See all 6 results
Our Price: CDN$ 57.42 New and used from CDN$ 57.00 Usually ships in 24 hours
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CCNP BSCI Exam Certification Guide (CCNP Self-Study) by Clare Gough (Author) (Hardcover - December 1, 2003)
Books: See all 6 results
Our Price: CDN$ 49.49 New from CDN$ 48.00 Usually ships in 24 hours
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CCNP Self-Study: Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN) by Richard Froom (Author), et al (Hardcover - July 18, 2005)
Books: See all 6 results
Our Price: CDN$ 60.06 New from CDN$ 60.06 Usually ships in 24 hours
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CCNP BCMSN Exam Certification Guide by David Hucaby (Author) (Hardcover - October 11, 2005)
Books: See all 6 results
Our Price: CDN$ 45.51 New and used from CDN$ 45.05 Usually ships in 4 to 7 days

Thanks.

Terence

 

[Belushi]

I'm not 100% sure what the difference is but I think the Self-Study books are for learning the material where as the Exam Certification Guide is used not only for learning, but verification that you are ready for the topics covered on the exam.

I can definitely tell you this, I'm a CCNP and I used the Cisco Press EXAM CERTIFICATION GUIDES:

1. BSCI by Clare Gough
2. BCMSN by David Hucaby

Just a personal word of advice on BSCI, I would augment the material with updated information on CCO because that test requires detailed knowledge of debug informtation. The test gets pretty descriptive and the book might just glance over some subjects that don't appear to be too important but in all actuality are tested pretty heavily. For me ISDN call setup and teardown didn't appear to be such a big issue, however I was tested heavily on it.

 

[lck092580]

Hey Belushi,

Thanks for the reply. So it appears you made it past the BCSI and BCMSM exams with the EXAM CERTIFICATION GUIDES. I've been looking at the dates for the books and it appears they're older than the other ones I've listed. I'd hate to use more money than I need and seeing how the other books (not the ones you've used) are more expensive, I don't want to spend the extra money *unless* I somehow get more knowledge out of them. I'm thinking about returning one of them today so need a quick answer.

Does anyone have anymore input on this? THanks.

 

[gwildfire]

The self study guides cover the whole curriculam from scratch, so best used in the first instance.

The Exam certification guides are designed purley to gear you for the exam. They have less detail but cover more relevant topics

I had both but only read the exam certification guide for BSCI! the self study guide was bloated with loads of extra stuff but wasnt aimed at passing the exam.

It depends on your previous knowledge

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