03-09-2010, 04:28 PM
YES, I passed my CCNA!! The purpose of this post is to share how I prepared, and to share what strategy worked for me. Good luck to all those studying.
I took 3 main approaches, getting a good text book, doing the hardware labs, and thoroughly testing myself with practice exams.
1)Textbook-I recommend getting Todd Lammle's CCNA book. It is thorough, and I felt he covered all topics that I actually saw come exam day. And do the questions at the end of the chapters. I read it twice to make sure I got it all.
2)Labs-Either get some of your own equipment, or buy a hardware simulator. I bought Wendel Odom's hardware sim, came with 250 labs, and was $150. I did all 250 labs, and felt comfortable on exam day as a result. Kind of pricey, but not compared to real equipment.
3)Practice Exams-This step is key to being able to finish all the CCNA questions before your exam time is up. Even when you understand the topics, the questions can seem overwhelming on exam day if you have not been practicing. I bought the exam simulator from myPowerPass (mypowerpass.com). This simulator is an excellent way to get a feel for the exam and for the types of questions you will encounter. It is under $20, and doing their practice exams allowed me to know when I was really ready to schedule my CCNA exam.
Best of luck.
I took 3 main approaches, getting a good text book, doing the hardware labs, and thoroughly testing myself with practice exams.
1)Textbook-I recommend getting Todd Lammle's CCNA book. It is thorough, and I felt he covered all topics that I actually saw come exam day. And do the questions at the end of the chapters. I read it twice to make sure I got it all.
2)Labs-Either get some of your own equipment, or buy a hardware simulator. I bought Wendel Odom's hardware sim, came with 250 labs, and was $150. I did all 250 labs, and felt comfortable on exam day as a result. Kind of pricey, but not compared to real equipment.
3)Practice Exams-This step is key to being able to finish all the CCNA questions before your exam time is up. Even when you understand the topics, the questions can seem overwhelming on exam day if you have not been practicing. I bought the exam simulator from myPowerPass (mypowerpass.com). This simulator is an excellent way to get a feel for the exam and for the types of questions you will encounter. It is under $20, and doing their practice exams allowed me to know when I was really ready to schedule my CCNA exam.
Best of luck.