Just passed the CCNA 1

[maturus]

Just thought I'd put in my two cents as to how I passed it. I read both the CCNA Self-study library by Cisco Press and the CCNA book from Sybex by Todd Lammle. I would recommend reading the Sybex book first for an intro and to fill in some of those tiny BS questions that are tedious. The book is more scheduled to taking the exam than actually knowing the knowledge.

Then I'd read the Self-study library. This has lots of details and is harder to read, but with a more thorough understanding from the first book you should be able to get by. It fills you in on things that might not be necessary for the exam, but helps you understand the whole concept. It also covers sections like NAT'ing better as the NAT section in the Sybex book was one page and had no configuration and the test I took had 3 Nat questions on it.

Hope this helps whomever wants to get their certifcation next!

 

[cyberspace]

Congrats, cheers for the tip!!

Is it sufficient just to use the Cisco press books?

Is there ONE Sybex book for the whole CCNA or is it split into two parts like Cisco Press?

What is the self-study library?

 

[maturus]

Information-wise, the Cisco press books are enough. As I said the Sybex book (which is just one book) kind of filled in the tiny gaps and was more geared to the test so it seemed to have answers to questions he (the author) was fairly certain would be on the test (and were indeed on my test.) Also, the author's instruction of how to do configure a setting was a little more step by step and easier to understand.

As for the self-study library, it is just the item that packages to the two books together. Instead of buying the INTRO book and then the ICND book, you can just purchase this ISBN and get them both.

Obviously you can choose your own path with however confident you are you can pass. I took the test twice and only missed by one or two questions, so after I purchased the sybex book I found a lot of the information in there useful b/c it talked, pretty much, about specific questions that I saw before and after I passed.

 

[CiscoGuy33]

maturus,

Great job !!!!

I always use at least 2 different books when I study for any Cisco exam.

I like Cisco Press and Sybex, but I always find a differnt publisher then Cisco for the 2nd book.

Sometimes different books explain the same thing different ways and lots of times an area that one book is not quite clear on will be covered much better in the other book.

Keep up the good work !!

E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[askb]

Hi

What did you use for practice questions? test king etc???

Thanks

 

[maturus]

askb,

I used everything in the book, cd's that came with, anything on the internet I could find (I used CCNA, CCNP and CCIE level questions b/c free questions tend to be simpler, so they weren't really that level,) and I also I found other free means of finding questions that can't be mentioned on a forum. =)