What do people think i should study once i have finished CCNA and can anybody give me some advice on best way to study for the final from experience ??
Well the obvious progression is the CCNP, the CCNA is a good basic cert these days but its also very commonplace.
You could look at doing the CCNA Voice / Security / Wireless but I think its better to specialise into things a bit later on.
It also doesn't hurt to look at other vendor certs, we see far too many people who are *just cisco* and have never even seen / used anything else.
And is there anywhere i can find Course or Exam material so i can study and see how much i know or dont know before i do the final and pay for it ?
Best way to study it to just really know your stuff, its an 85% pass mark and you're under reasonably tight pressure for time. I tend to do a lot of practice exams and also just good old fashioned revision and learning by wrote. A good classroom taught CCNA course can also be worth the money if you're starting from scratch, or as I did learn 90% of it on the job.
For practice materials, a copy of GNS3 or PacketTracer to mock up some labs with is a good start, unless you have a couple hundred quid spare to go buy a couple of routers and switches with.
Sample questions you can do a lot worse than the Pass4Sure stuff - I find the way they layout the questions and their wording of them is extremely similar to the stuff you will find on the exam.
Some sites you might also want to browse (some videos, workshops etc.)
http://www.ciscohandsontraining.com/ - Good video pod casts, covers most things in the CCNA and a few things beyond it.
http://www.freeccnaworkbook.com/ - Much as above, site isn't complete with content but what is there seems quite good.
http://www.9tut.com/ - They have practice labs to download in GNS3 and PacketTracer format.
http://www.mcmcse.com/ - Register and there are some practice questions you can do.
Looking at my bookshelf I have a Sybex CCNA Study Guide and that's it for CCNA books.
Cisco Press also do their own line of books, but I don't remember being that impressed with the CCNA ones.
