Any CCNA certified people here?

[brad82]

Hey All,

Any of you guys taken the CCNA exam? Im planning on taking it soon, been ploughing through the materials trying to remember it all.

Also is taking a practice exam worth the money?

 

[Skidilliplop]

Yes. Twice over.

I wouldn't pay for a practice exam. There are plenty of practice questions out there for free.

Also how the questions are presented doesn't matter so much if you know your stuff inside out. Getting on the Lab and doing it over and over is probably of more benefit to you.
99% of the questions will either be multiple choice - i'm sure you don't need to practice ticking boxes on a form, or lab sims - which are simple if you've done lots of labs.

99% of the paper is more than enough to pass

 

[chrislip]

I did it a few years ago but have let my cert lapse

THe one thing I found difficult was not being able to go back to questions, once you click the next button that is it (or at least it was when I did it..) When doing M$ exams I like to zip through the questions then go back to ones I'm not too sure about so you do need to check your answer before you go to the next question.

Like Skidilliplop says it is practice in the labs that is the best revision so you know exactly what commands you're entering to answer. Good luck!

If you can't get hold of the actual hardware the Boson netsim is great, or there is teh freeware GNS available but I've never used that so don't know how useful it is

 

[beast_gts]

I did it a few years ago but have let my cert lapse

Ditto. Not directly working with their kit so hard to justify it.

If you can't get hold of the actual hardware the Boson netsim is great, or there is teh freeware GNS available but I've never used that so don't know how useful it is

There are also many free "community labs" such as Packet Life that are real physical labs you access over the Internet.

 

[siclilmonkey]

Hey i Just passed last week.

There are a lot of practise questions out there with out paying for them.

www.9tut.com is the site i used for most of my revision.

hope this helps

 

[Skidilliplop]

I did it a few years ago but have let my cert lapse

THe one thing I found difficult was not being able to go back to questions, once you click the next button that is it (or at least it was when I did it..) When doing M$ exams I like to zip through the questions then go back to ones I'm not too sure about so you do need to check your answer before you go to the next question.

Like Skidilliplop says it is practice in the labs that is the best revision so you know exactly what commands you're entering to answer. Good luck!

If you can't get hold of the actual hardware the Boson netsim is great, or there is teh freeware GNS available but I've never used that so don't know how useful it is

GNS3 is fantastic for config labs. But it basically is a hypervisor running the routers as virtual machines, so you do need to get hold of a copy of the IOS to run on the routers. You also need a half decent PC to run it.

Cisco Packet tracer is quite good now as well if you do the challenge labs.

Nothing is as good as the real thing though, I have two 2900 series switches, four 1700 series routers and two 2500 series routers making up my Lab. It's worthwhile investment as you can always sell it on, or use it for mockups of things you're doing at work etc.

 

[Dist]

GNS3 is fantastic for config labs. But it basically is a hypervisor running the routers as virtual machines, so you do need to get hold of a copy of the IOS to run on the routers. You also need a half decent PC to run it.

Cisco Packet tracer is quite good now as well if you do the challenge labs.

Nothing is as good as the real thing though, I have two 2900 series switches, four 1700 series routers and two 2500 series routers making up my Lab. It's worthwhile investment as you can always sell it on, or use it for mockups of things you're doing at work etc.

What are the packet tracer challenge labs? I remember during my OU CCNA course where I had access to the cisco academy I had activities in the packet tracer to complete where it would even check my work after solving a problem, the problem is I no longer have access to the CCNA material through the cisco academy as I've finished my course (although havn't taken the exam yet due to other coursework).

I much prefer packet tracer to GNS3, but thats mainly because GNS3 never worked for me, it ran but had errors when trying to emulate a router from an ISO (which were proper ISOs).

As mentioned though hands on experience can be useful, I remember from one of my OU day schools where we did hands on work, half the students couldn't even manage to connect to the router through the console port, they just had gibberish show up. Turns out they couldn't manage to set up hyperterminal correctly, something you wouldn't experience in a simulated lab.

 

[Skidilliplop]

When you download packet tracer (at least when I last did it) you could download it with or without labs.
There were normal labs and challenge labs, challenge labs were more troubleshooting focused than setup focused. Which made them a bit more interesting and more like some of the exam labs.


If you've done the course you still should be able to access the materials through the Alumni program.

 

[m1979]

I teach CCNA (online and in house) and can tell you, that Packet Tracer is more than enough to pass your exam.

I use real routers and switches and it makes a difference but not on a CCNA level. If you go for CCNP, buy some devices or use GNS3