I have purchased the 4 book set of Sybex books for the CCNP exams. I've been reading the BSCI material for a few months now. The book is like 500+ pages long and to read all of it, it's a pain. I've got about 200 more pages to go and then I'll have to start preparing for the exam. Anyone have suggestions on how to prepare for it? Anyone have success with a certain method or certain study guide? Please advise. I'm planning on taking this in the next few months and want to have a good plan. For my CCNA I read an old CCNA Passport book and then read the Sybex exam cram, but this information is at a much higher and specific level than the CCNA. Any advice from people who have passed this exam would be greatly appreciated.--thanks--AJ
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CCNP Study - 642-801 - Any Suggestions? 2
- Thread starter AJA1
- Start date
SGrebliunas
Technical User
Hello,
I have used:
Ciso press titles (INTRO and ICND). Guess Sybex are also OK.
Boson Network simulator v5.xx(a MUST!, i should say, use it every day till now)
Whizlabs CCNA exam simulator (You will get something similar on Sybex CD/DVD + flash cards)
and passed....
regards,
Sigitas
I have used:
Ciso press titles (INTRO and ICND). Guess Sybex are also OK.
Boson Network simulator v5.xx(a MUST!, i should say, use it every day till now)
Whizlabs CCNA exam simulator (You will get something similar on Sybex CD/DVD + flash cards)
and passed....
regards,
Sigitas
Hi Aja1,
i passed the first exam of 4 for the CCNP (BCMSN). Ive prepared myself by reading a copy of course material and some additional material like some ppt´s found on cco. My best experience i made with writing down my braindumps for each section. Im one with you thats a pain to read all this stuff but for a professional certification you need professional skills. Also i recommend you to look for the test king questions.
Michael
Germany
i passed the first exam of 4 for the CCNP (BCMSN). Ive prepared myself by reading a copy of course material and some additional material like some ppt´s found on cco. My best experience i made with writing down my braindumps for each section. Im one with you thats a pain to read all this stuff but for a professional certification you need professional skills. Also i recommend you to look for the test king questions.
Michael
Germany
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1
- Thread starter
- #4
My workmates told me that ca 20 or 30 percent of the testking question are 1:1 exam questions. For my exam it was true... But as recommended in the test-king preface do not only memorize the questions. For me the questions were only a ressource to get a "feeling" for the knowledge you need to pass.
platypus55
Programmer
siepratm says:
"My best experience i made with writing down my braindumps for each section. Im one with you thats a pain to read all this stuff but for a professional certification you need professional skills."
I totally concur. Writing summaries in your own words, and in your own language as you go along is EXTERMELY useful. You will remember it better if you wrote it, and even better if you make your brain believe you do it.
I reserve the term "braindump" for after you have taken the exam trying to remember exactly what was on it and tell other people, which is a violation and cost you the cert if you get caught doing it.
Free IT practice exams:
"My best experience i made with writing down my braindumps for each section. Im one with you thats a pain to read all this stuff but for a professional certification you need professional skills."
I totally concur. Writing summaries in your own words, and in your own language as you go along is EXTERMELY useful. You will remember it better if you wrote it, and even better if you make your brain believe you do it.
I reserve the term "braindump" for after you have taken the exam trying to remember exactly what was on it and tell other people, which is a violation and cost you the cert if you get caught doing it.
Free IT practice exams:
Hum...
I chose to do the Composite myself. Got some NAT stuff that reading both BSCI+BCMSN books didn't cover. If I was to take the BSCI exam today, I'd still review NAT, it won't be lost...It's covered more in length in BCRAN but just in case I'd take the time to read it.
Make sure you get a good bit of reading on the Enterprise Model...won't be lost either because CCO is using this model now as a guideline...
M.
I chose to do the Composite myself. Got some NAT stuff that reading both BSCI+BCMSN books didn't cover. If I was to take the BSCI exam today, I'd still review NAT, it won't be lost...It's covered more in length in BCRAN but just in case I'd take the time to read it.
Make sure you get a good bit of reading on the Enterprise Model...won't be lost either because CCO is using this model now as a guideline...
M.
I am going to start my CCNP training by the end of this month. I found the Sybex books along with the CBT Nuggets training video's very usefull for my CCNA. Should I use these resources for studying or should I stick with Cisco Press?
Thanks!
Jeffrey
Thanks!
Jeffrey
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1
- #9
My advice for passing the CCNP exams is as follows.
1. Purchase the Cisco press books, but make sure that they are the current ones, as Cisco like to change the exam objectives every 12 months.
2. Read a chapter at a time and make notes from each chapter, when you have read the book and taken all your notes, start condensing these down. I started with 29 pages of notes and over a four week period condensed these down to two pages.
3. Read your notes every day with out fail, twice a day if you can, at the same time use the Boson tests to prepare for the exam and keep referring back to the Cisco books.
4. If you can get hold of some Cisco kit, great, if not, purchase some CBT’s off Ebay, a lot cheaper and quite good.
I won’t lie to you its hard work. But the end result is worth it.
1. Purchase the Cisco press books, but make sure that they are the current ones, as Cisco like to change the exam objectives every 12 months.
2. Read a chapter at a time and make notes from each chapter, when you have read the book and taken all your notes, start condensing these down. I started with 29 pages of notes and over a four week period condensed these down to two pages.
3. Read your notes every day with out fail, twice a day if you can, at the same time use the Boson tests to prepare for the exam and keep referring back to the Cisco books.
4. If you can get hold of some Cisco kit, great, if not, purchase some CBT’s off Ebay, a lot cheaper and quite good.
I won’t lie to you its hard work. But the end result is worth it.
CiscoGuy33
Instructor
I have passed the old CCNA (2.5 years ago) and the new CCNA (July 2004), the CCDA exam, Network + and the 1st CCNP exam (Advanced Routing) - for all I used both the Cisco Press and Sybex books. For CCNP I am also using the CBT Nuggets (bought new from CBT Nuggets but they are worth it !!!).
Sybex tends to be more to what is on the exam and Cisco Press gives you all you need to know if you are going to work in the area, but can be overkill for the exam.
You must ask do I just want to pass a test or learn this stuff - I want to learn it and work to be a CCIE so .....
I also built a lab from Cisco 2500's, 1900's, 1200's etc. on Ebay. I think this helped tons to understand routing concepts and to look at all the config., show and debug commands for RIP, IGRP, BGP, EIGRP, IS-IS and OSPF. The test covers it all and I do not know how one would do it without hands-on experience.
I am working on the Switching Exam now. Again I am working to learn it not just to pass a test.
I have seen so many students just pass an exam but get killed at the first job interview.
The local airport authority was hiring CCNA's and out of 5 CCNAs in the interview only one could break a password on a 2600 router. 4 out of the 5 had never been on a "real" Cisco router only sims.
Sybex tends to be more to what is on the exam and Cisco Press gives you all you need to know if you are going to work in the area, but can be overkill for the exam.
You must ask do I just want to pass a test or learn this stuff - I want to learn it and work to be a CCIE so .....
I also built a lab from Cisco 2500's, 1900's, 1200's etc. on Ebay. I think this helped tons to understand routing concepts and to look at all the config., show and debug commands for RIP, IGRP, BGP, EIGRP, IS-IS and OSPF. The test covers it all and I do not know how one would do it without hands-on experience.
I am working on the Switching Exam now. Again I am working to learn it not just to pass a test.
I have seen so many students just pass an exam but get killed at the first job interview.
The local airport authority was hiring CCNA's and out of 5 CCNAs in the interview only one could break a password on a 2600 router. 4 out of the 5 had never been on a "real" Cisco router only sims.
The method that works best for me hits the material from various directions.
1. Read the Cisco Press Self-study Book. I always use Cisco Press. Once I've read through the book once, I go back and hit the Chapter Summaries to refresh myself.
2. After I've read the book, I start taking practice tests, I use I take tests daily, and keep going until I can get my scores to 90-100%.
3. Also after I read the book I start listening to audio CD's on my way to and from work. I get my cd's from PrepLogic. I found them on
4. About 2 weeks before the test I start polishing up on my hands-on experience. I use "rack rental" from I usually try to squeeze in a couple of hours a night before going to bed. I do this if I can't attend the 5 day course.
5. If possible, set in on a 5 day class for the exam...that is if I can get work to pay for it. I got them to send me to the BSCI and BCMSN courses and it really helped. I took both exams on the last day of class and blew them away.
I took the BCRAN exam without attending the course, but rather using the "rack rental" and failed the first time, but I squeezed by on the second attempt. I have to recommend the 5 day courses, but they cost between $1500 and $2000, so if your company won't pay for it, go with the "rack rental".
I'm sure this is not the best method, it's just what I use. It really works great for me. I've pretty much used this same outline for: 3 Microsoft exams, Comptia Net+, Cisco CCNA, and Cisco CCNP exams.... I'm taking the CIT tomorrow....wish me luck.
I've found that with each resource, I'm introduced to some material that the others left out, so it ends up being a more complete knowledge base to take to the exam.
1. Read the Cisco Press Self-study Book. I always use Cisco Press. Once I've read through the book once, I go back and hit the Chapter Summaries to refresh myself.
2. After I've read the book, I start taking practice tests, I use I take tests daily, and keep going until I can get my scores to 90-100%.
3. Also after I read the book I start listening to audio CD's on my way to and from work. I get my cd's from PrepLogic. I found them on
4. About 2 weeks before the test I start polishing up on my hands-on experience. I use "rack rental" from I usually try to squeeze in a couple of hours a night before going to bed. I do this if I can't attend the 5 day course.
5. If possible, set in on a 5 day class for the exam...that is if I can get work to pay for it. I got them to send me to the BSCI and BCMSN courses and it really helped. I took both exams on the last day of class and blew them away.
I took the BCRAN exam without attending the course, but rather using the "rack rental" and failed the first time, but I squeezed by on the second attempt. I have to recommend the 5 day courses, but they cost between $1500 and $2000, so if your company won't pay for it, go with the "rack rental".
I'm sure this is not the best method, it's just what I use. It really works great for me. I've pretty much used this same outline for: 3 Microsoft exams, Comptia Net+, Cisco CCNA, and Cisco CCNP exams.... I'm taking the CIT tomorrow....wish me luck.
I've found that with each resource, I'm introduced to some material that the others left out, so it ends up being a more complete knowledge base to take to the exam.
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