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I got my CCNA a little over a year ago, and have been studying for the CCNP. I'm planning on starting out by taking SWITCH 642-813 in February. I'm almost through with the CBT Nugget training videos that I have access to, and I already knew 90% of it. CCNA completely threw me off guard with how difficult it was even after 4 months of self-study, but I had zero real-world experience at that point. I'm a network admin now, so I'm thinking that maybe because I see this stuff on a daily basis, it just comes more naturally, but I also don't want to walk into this thing expecting it to be a breeze and bomb horribly. For anyone who has taken the exam since 2010, is the SWITCH test really as easy as it seems to be?
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Jan 12, 2014 07:01
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G.I. Jaw posted:For anyone who has taken the exam since 2010, is the SWITCH test really as easy as it seems to be? From what I understand, they ask more intimate questions about STP and rSTP, and especially VLAN information. Talking to someone outside of these forums, they suggested that I pick up a Layer-3 Cisco 35XX for CCNP SWITCH, so I got 2 of them, so I can imagine there would be questions about access-ports and the like. I'm hoping that there's some questions about BVI in the book (haven't read it yet). Gotta take my sweet time with that book, as switching in general was a little of my weak point.
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Jan 12, 2014 08:10
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It really wasn't bad to me, but I wallow around in switch land pretty regularly now (especially compared to when I got my CCNA, green as poo poo). Good path though, I went switch -> route -> tshoot and by tshoot I barely studied at all.
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Jan 12, 2014 08:12
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G.I. Jaw posted:I got my CCNA a little over a year ago, and have been studying for the CCNP. I'm planning on starting out by taking SWITCH 642-813 in February. I'm almost through with the CBT Nugget training videos that I have access to, and I already knew 90% of it. CCNA completely threw me off guard with how difficult it was even after 4 months of self-study, but I had zero real-world experience at that point. I'm a network admin now, so I'm thinking that maybe because I see this stuff on a daily basis, it just comes more naturally, but I also don't want to walk into this thing expecting it to be a breeze and bomb horribly. Ehhhh. A lot of it is esoteric crap that you'll set up once ever (FHRP) and never touch again, or at least not with enough regularity to make the material easy. Whole lotta stuff on Dot1X, STP, and VTP with a few more questions about security features and advanced/integrated services sprinkled inbetween. One of the worst parts, actually, is how terribly the questions on the exam are written: it's hard to tell what the hell is being asked some times. On the whole, it's much easier (and much more boring) than ROUTE.
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Jan 12, 2014 11:03
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Has anyone here taken the Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) exam? I'm having a real hard time staying motivated to actually finish studying and take the exam. It seems to combine the mundane A+ type questions with the windows type exams of "know exactly what it says on this tab under system properties".
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Jan 13, 2014 02:00
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G.I. Jaw posted:I got my CCNA a little over a year ago, and have been studying for the CCNP. I'm planning on starting out by taking SWITCH 642-813 in February. I'm almost through with the CBT Nugget training videos that I have access to, and I already knew 90% of it. CCNA completely threw me off guard with how difficult it was even after 4 months of self-study, but I had zero real-world experience at that point. I'm a network admin now, so I'm thinking that maybe because I see this stuff on a daily basis, it just comes more naturally, but I also don't want to walk into this thing expecting it to be a breeze and bomb horribly. From what I've gathered, the SWITCH exam is a lot of badly-worded questions that try to trip you up in lieu of actually testing you on useful information. But, that's just the word on the streets. Your timing is pretty bad though! February is when the beta version of GNS3 v1.0 comes out, with (supposedly) included support for switching!
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Jan 13, 2014 19:00
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incoherent posted:NAP is a bitch to learn and understand, its a huge chunk but nobody in medium and smaller deploy it. If you need to bone up ever on it though, microsoft has a whole book dedicated to it. I have some experience with active directory at my job, though it's mostly related to user/computer in the AD. As for doing it out of sequence, I did the 70-680 before this, so there's some overlap with the event monitoring, firewall and backups. Also setting up file shares at work. Seemed like a good point to start.
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Jan 13, 2014 19:35
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echo465 posted:Anyone passed the Microsoft 70-646 recently? I failed it with a 646 3 months ago, and failed it again with a 610 yesterday. This is after passing the 640 and 642. MS Press kinda sucks in terms of teaching stuff. I used the Sybex 70-646 book and passed with it: http://www.amazon.com/MCITP-Windows-Server-Administrator-70-646/dp/0470293152
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Jan 13, 2014 20:44
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Jonny 290 posted:I'm taking CCNA+Wireless in a week or two - just finished the classes - to renew my base CCNA and go up a bit. I know how this goes - not asking what's on the test - but can those of you who have taken it kind of ballpark its difficulty as compared to the base CCNA? First three posts: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3521165&userid=132819. Sounds rough. I'll be waiting for the new book to drop in March before taking it, but I'm interested in any commentary from test-takers.
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Jan 14, 2014 03:25
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MJP posted:MS Press kinda sucks in terms of teaching stuff. I used the Sybex 70-646 book and passed with it: http://www.amazon.com/MCITP-Windows-Server-Administrator-70-646/dp/0470293152 How long ago did you do the test? I've used Sybex in for other exams, but that particular book came out in 2008 and it doesn't look like a newer edition was published. In my attempts, many questions on the exam were on topics that didn't exist when that book was published. It seems to me that Microsoft is updating the tests with new material, but all the focus on study material is rightfully on the new stuff.
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Jan 14, 2014 05:54
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Passed SWITCH . . . by two points, but a pass is a pass, so gently caress it. Part of me is worried it'll trigger a review and they'll be like "Nope." I'm debating whether to schedule TSHOOT now (7 months before I'll be back in the states) so I have a leg up on applying to jobs when I get back, or to wait until I get back and to do it then. psydude fucked around with this message at 13:05 on Jan 15, 2014 |
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Jan 15, 2014 13:02
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psydude posted:Passed SWITCH . . . by two points, but a pass is a pass, so gently caress it. Part of me is worried it'll trigger a review and they'll be like "Nope." Definitely do it now to get that leg up, no point in waiting.
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Jan 15, 2014 14:37
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Pussied out and did the ICND2 to renew my CCNA rather than going full bore and doing ROUTE just because I got super busy. Studied for like four days and got 986. I don't want to say what's on the exam or anything but I have some serious questions about the testing format which I was expecting and didn't see. Do they give you an easier exam if you're re-certifying or something? Because I was actually shocked that I didn't have to preform some tasks I was expecting to.
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Jan 15, 2014 23:53
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Passed my 98-365 today. I know that's probably small-time to a lot of people but I haven't taken a test since I dropped out of high school so I was pretty nervous. Got an 80% mark, pass rate was 70%. I took 4 minutes to complete the test and was given an hour. That was a mistake, even though I went through the questions methodically I could have probably gotten 90% or higher if I had slowed down and thought about it. For the next 3 I'll slow down. Picked up a lot of forgotten study skills since revising for this. I've got 3 more of the MTA exams to go until I get £1k added onto my salary (  ), and then onto MCSA! Exciting.
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Jan 16, 2014 00:11
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DrAlexanderTobacco posted:I took 4 minutes to complete the test and was given an hour. Wait, what? How many questions were there?
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Jan 16, 2014 01:03
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Cenodoxus posted:Wait, what? How many questions were there? 36, all multiple choice. I did have a lengthy post with some example questions from the test but then I realised that would be extremely unethical and similar to a braindump. They were fairly simple "Name one advantage of an XXXX server within a company", but a few covered group policy, AD etc. The textbook I used went into A LOT more detail then I needed. It covered installation of a server from start to finish, including Active Directory, Group Policy etc.
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Jan 16, 2014 01:58
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Wow, GNS3 has integrated VirtualBox now. When they finally add the simulated ASIC support for managed switches, you'll be able to run a $5000 lab on your desktop, to include a complete server infrastructure.
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Jan 16, 2014 02:23
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psydude posted:Wow, GNS3 has integrated VirtualBox now. When they finally add the simulated ASIC support for managed switches, you'll be able to run a $5000 lab on your desktop, to include a complete server infrastructure. I noticed that as well. Figured I would use GNS3, since the latest updates seemed to narrow down the CPU that I use a lot better. Going to use it to emulate a few OSPF findings, and may systematically dismantle my physical lab. Congrats on passing SWITCH; I'm feeling more confident in ROUTE and may schedule it for April as opposed to May.
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Jan 16, 2014 03:58
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psydude posted:Wow, GNS3 has integrated VirtualBox now. When they finally add the simulated ASIC support for managed switches, you'll be able to run a $5000 lab on your desktop, to include a complete server infrastructure. Someone should do a gug on GNS3
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Jan 16, 2014 04:03
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Hmm, so my CCNA expires on the 17th. I passed ICND2 this afternoon to renew the cert. The paperwork says it can take up to 72 hours to verify and record the result. I wonder if Cisco is going to de-certify then re-certify me  I'm guessing that since I actually passed the exam before my CCNA expired I'll be fine.
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Jan 16, 2014 04:58
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Edit: Nevermind. Cisco moved the bookmark.
trunkwontopen fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Jan 16, 2014 |
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Jan 16, 2014 06:02
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DrAlexanderTobacco posted:Passed my 98-365 today. I know that's probably small-time to a lot of people but I haven't taken a test since I dropped out of high school so I was pretty nervous. Got an 80% mark, pass rate was 70%. I took 4 minutes to complete the test and was given an hour. That was a mistake, even though I went through the questions methodically I could have probably gotten 90% or higher if I had slowed down and thought about it. For the next 3 I'll slow down. I have this on tuesday for school. Glad to see it wasn't that difficult.
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Jan 16, 2014 13:08
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:Someone should do a gug on GNS3 I've found my calling in life.
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Jan 16, 2014 14:42
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Sat the ICND2 today. I took a minute at the beginning to jot down a binary/subnet chart and other helpful references, but ended up using none of them. About 10 questions from the end I began to accept defeat, but still passed with a 907. My lowest section was LAN Switching with an 82%, which is definitely my weak spot. CCNP SWITCH is going to be the death of me.
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Jan 16, 2014 17:25
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Martytoof posted:Pussied out and did the ICND2 to renew my CCNA rather than going full bore and doing ROUTE just because I got super busy. Studied for like four days and got 986. Without getting too much into specifics, I felt the same way when I took the ICND2. I got a 993 and it was my first time taking the test/getting certified. I feel like the A+ exam was more difficult than the CCNA. While being as vague as possible, there are a number of technologies that I studied the poo poo out of and it ended up being that I could have read the first two paragraphs of their wikipedia articles and still have done fine. 12 rats tied together fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Jan 16, 2014 |
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Jan 16, 2014 20:28
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Cenodoxus posted:Sat the ICND2 today. I took a minute at the beginning to jot down a binary/subnet chart and other helpful references, but ended up using none of them. About 10 questions from the end I began to accept defeat, but still passed with a 907.
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Jan 16, 2014 21:48
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geera posted:I completed the ICND2 class last week, so I'm looking at taking the exam in the next few weeks after some studying and practice exams... I'm getting the impression it's not very difficult. Possibly easier than ICND1 was (which I passed on the first try, in the high 800's I think)? Also good to know I may not have to brain dump a subnet chart at the beginning. I was expecting a lot better from myself coming from a 960 on the ICND1. I would rank the ICND2 as being tougher pound-for-pound, but I also didn't lab as hard as I should have so it's probably my own frustration talking. The sooner GNS3 rolls out switching functionality, the better. I've been spoiled by having GNS3 for my routing labs, so I don't want to lay down any money on switch gear if I don't have to. Edit: I flagged a bad question for review on the Pearson ICND2 practice test a few days ago and today Wendell Odom himself e-mailed me to follow up on it. Neat. 
Cenodoxus fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Jan 17, 2014 |
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Jan 16, 2014 22:37
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Cenodoxus posted:Edit: I flagged a bad question for review on the Pearson ICND2 practice test a few days ago and today Wendell Odom himself e-mailed me to follow up on it. Neat. I bet his email was 17 pages long.
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Jan 17, 2014 01:22
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He is truly the Tom Clancy of the Cisco world. Take that how you will. edit: Except he's still alive.
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Jan 17, 2014 01:25
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I think Odom gets an unnecessary bad rap. Yes, he's wordy, but he will give you the information you need. In fact, I find his clarity refreshing compared to Lammle who tended to jump all over the place.
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Jan 17, 2014 01:40
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Oh I'm totally joking of course. Odom is great if you want to learn about the minutiae of a subject. There's really none better. He's just unfortunately dry at times which really puts people off. Myself included, I mean. I can only read about so much miniscule detail before I fall asleep.
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Jan 17, 2014 01:59
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take the red pill posted:I think Odom gets an unnecessary bad rap. Yes, he's wordy, but he will give you the information you need. In fact, I find his clarity refreshing compared to Lammle who tended to jump all over the place. Making the subject interesting is just as important as knowing the subject inside out when it comes to teaching, just ask anyone who went to a large state research university and was taught by grad students. By the time I was studying for ROUTE, I was already familiar with networking and so I could muscle through Odom's dry prose, but as a beginning CCNA student I would have been completely put off by him. psydude fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Jan 17, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 02:31
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This is why CBTNuggets works great in conjunction with Odom for example. Jeremy is a complete spaz but he does a great job of making the broad concepts "fun", or at least less boring. Then once you're familiar with the basics you can choose to go more in depth (which you'll need to, of course) with a dryer source. If you're just using Odom to study I think you're doing yourself a disservice, unless you are really really into just absorbing dry material.
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Jan 17, 2014 03:36
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The INE videos seem to strike a balance between spaz Jeremy and dry Odom. It's not all-encompassing but it's a good middle ground. They're nice if you can track them down.
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Jan 17, 2014 03:54
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The Train Signal CCNA videos were like the watching paint dry, FWIW. More in depth than Jeremy's, but hoooly poo poo. I guess Chris Bryant is no longer with Train Signal though, which in itself got bought out by Pluralsight or whatever. I don't really keep track. INE's are good from what I've seen. I'm actually considering buying their CCNP series because I kind of need some videos and I don't think Jeremy is going to gel with me.
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Jan 17, 2014 04:00
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I'm using the GI bill to pay my masters, but I'll have some time/money left over after I graduate (at least that's the plan). In terms of pursuing certifications (A+, Net+, Sec+ and CISSP), does anyone here have any opinions on Training Camp/SANS courses? I don't think I'd consider it, normally, but since it'd be completely paid for, I wanted to ask. The appeal is learning in an intensive and structured environment and I know it's still up to me to pass the exams. Crap/not crap?
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Jan 17, 2014 04:21
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SANS is good stuff, not a fan of week long bootcamps though, I much prefer finding a local community college and taking a continuing education course through them for that stuff.
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Jan 17, 2014 04:25
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Passed the ICND1 today with a 947. Was completely nervous and spazzing out before hand, didn't think I'd even pass and then it popped up and I don't think I've ever felt that relieved in my life.
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Jan 17, 2014 04:57
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quicksand posted:Passed the ICND1 today with a 947. Congrats. 
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Jan 17, 2014 05:36
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Just got my BCCPA and BCCPP today. The tests were RETARD level easy. The OIC of another section, a new tech, and I got everything done in 6 hours. Does anyone know the market value of BlueCoat certs? I didnt pay for them so Im really not to worried; its just another bunch of letters on my resume.
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Jan 17, 2014 09:14
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