Time taken to get CCNA

[leosayer]

Hello data poeple,

I'm in the voice side of things and I have just completed ACA, ACS and ACE in Avaya IP Telephony. It covers quite a lot of the cisco in terms of IOS, TCP/IP, QOS. An Avaya voice sided CCNA I guess. In short I have the basic theory and the basic skills in data world, so thought I'd take a crack at the CCNA.

I have no experience at hardware on switches or routers and I'm just ok on the Subnets etc.

I'm going to read as suggested here Lammie and get up on subnets and use some on-line or downloaded sim's. Can you advise given the above, how long it would take me to be propared for a CCNA in your opinions. I can study about 3-4 a day on average.

I'm hoping to switch job asap, so will be on my toes once i get the ccna if possible, so honest short time scales would make my day.

Keep up the advice, very useful

Regards

VOIP Man

 

[norteldude78]

Well the exam is changing soon...I think November is when you have to take the new one. I think the new one is going to be harder. Anyways, I work with a bunch of voice guys who are working on getting their CCNA and after about a few weeks of studying I still think they are at least a month or more away from being ready (depends on how much they study on their own). I failed the first time in 2005 without really studying much...I read the Sybex book, that was it.

I passed it in Feb 2007 using the Cisco Press books, my home lab, this site and free tutorials on the net. I was studying probably 3-4 hours a day (more on the weekends) for at least 3 months before I took the test. I got a 981 so I guess I did a good job studying. It's not an easy test by any means, you have to be familiar with routing, switching, subnetting as well as a little frame relay, ACLs, and NAT. There is a lot of stuff but if you know the fundamentals and get familiar with IOS, you will be fine.

 

[leosayer]

norteldude78,

Many thanks, I have ordered a couple of books and downloaded stuff from the web. The Voice acredations were quite detailed on the IOS,TCP/IP routing, frame etc, so I'm hoping to be okay there or at least have a heads up. I have allowed myself 3-4 hrs a day for study for a month and go for it. The hardware side might be a nightmare for me, just using sims but I'll have a go.

I shall let you know if I get near your mark (unlikey).

Thanks again and good luck to your other voice people

 

[iolair]

Having taken Novell's CNE tests, Microsofts MCP tests, and Sun's SCSA tests, I can say that Cisco is the toughest yet.

Iolair MacWalter
Director of IT

 

[CiscoGuy33]

leosayer,

Make sure one of your books is the Sybex CCNA Study Guide by Todd L. as listed above - GREAT book to get you about 90% of the way to CCNA

Get yourself 3 2501 or 2503 routers on eBay with 16 DRAM and 16 FLASH - they are dirt cheap now!!

Nothing better then lots of hands-on labs - even with sims - stuff that you can do on real Cisco routers that just helps it to sink it much faster!

You can still work the sims - you will need them to do some basic switching - switches tend to be a lot more $$$$$ to set up a lab with!

Good luck


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

 

[MattyGmon1]

Hello, I went through the CCNA academy about four years ago and need to know the best way to get current. I took the test and failed it years ago. Is this cert helpful if I have no experience?

 

[CiscoGuy33]

MattyGmon1,

Welcome to Tek Tips - do not "piggy-back" on other posts - start your own new post with YOUR question but READ back a few weeks to see what is already up here!

Good Luck


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

 

[MattyGmon1]

thank You, CiscoGuy33.
Do you suggest I start a new thread? Or, is there something else I should do? I just want to do what I can to get the best responses.

 

[norteldude78]

yes, you should start a new thread

 

[lerdalt]

Getting back to the original topic, I thought I had more than enough hands on before I started my studying for the CCNA. Only to find out I was way off the mark. But at the time, I was spending about 50% of my time on Novell products and about 25% on Cisco and 25% on backfilling with dns/dhcp, sniffer, meetings (ok..probably mostly meetings).

Ciscoguy is right, get the Todd Lammle books. I used the CiscoPress book and was able to pass Intro with a little breathing room on the score, but for ICND, I picked up his Quick Pass book to back fill the info. Passed on the second attempt with flying colors.

When I started to realize I didn't have enough hands on, I spent many nights building my own labs, working on subnetting (especially VLSM), and taking lots and lots of notes.

If you think you are just OK at subnetting, take a second, third, maybe fourth look at it. Biggest advise I can give for the exam is practice, practice, practice. Practice subnetting, practice using the CLI, and practice anything else you can think of.

This site is an excellent resource. Don't be afraid to ask any question. Plenty of knowledgable resources, that I still give a lot of credit to helping me pass my exams up to CCNP.

 

[leosayer]

Everybody,

Thanks for the very useful advice. Looks like home labs is the way to go. I have ordered the recommended books and will start reading.

I aim to start in July and complete cert by end of July. I'll let you know if I'm sucessful or just naive in giving myself just a month.

Thanks again

 

[burtsbees]

Good luck---I think that a month is cutting it way two short ( I would say at least 2), but that's just me and the way I take things---plus, you won't know until you try. At least you are reading and using real equipment and not memorizing TestKing---kudos to you! Good luck!

Burt