Read this earlier
Passed with 897! If you are starting to study for CCNA READ THIS!
Long post. Not sorry. Opinions given.
First off, thank you to everyone on this subreddit who has helped me and answered my questions over the last few months!
Background: In 2006 I took a two year computer networking college course (which included CCNA and CCNP) but only really had one 9 month IT job since graduating. So minimal networking experience. Worked mostly tech support customer service jobs that would not fall into the realm of IT.
Lost my job in January (nothing to do with covid) and decided it was time to get back into the field I initially studied for rather than finding customer service jobs to pay the bills. Started studying in February with Neil Anderson's course/labs. I was a bit mistaken when I initially thought that his course was all I needed. I soon found out how wrong I was. At the end of his course, he promoted AlphaPrep. I checked it out and that is where I learned that I had a lot more to do.
Let's talk about AlphaPrep for a moment. I know it's controversial. I HEAVILY relied on it before hearing about Boson. I think it has a great interface and it does ask you, mostly, great questions. One BIG positive about it is the value. For those who don't have OCG and don't want to pay the crazy price for both volumes (PDF) on Amazon, subscribe to the cheapest tier on AlphaPrep ($45) and you will get BOTH volumes of the OCG along with their questions! As far as value goes, DO IT. Both volumes for less than the price on amazon. As far as the questions go, they are good... but not great. They do go beyond the exam (Ex. OSPFv3). The feel is also not like the exam either. It's different. Still good for testing your knowledge, however, I would not rely on their scoring to determine if you are ready for the actual exam. Summary: Alpha Prep is GREAT value since the PDF books are included along with the questions however it's not the standard for the exam. I also had no issues with their customer support or cancelling my subscription.
Now, let's talk about OCG (Official Cert Guide). Everyone learns differently. I think reading is one of the ways I learn best along with note taking and reviewing those notes. In someone's previous post about passing, they called the author of the book a liar because he said in the book that he doesn't expect to see any EIGRP questions on the test. Can confirm, he lied... well.. not intentionally I'm sure. The book is good. However, I would not rely on anyone's course and OCG alone. Both methods will contain great information. Get the book. Won't hurt.
After going through Anderson's course as well as OCG, I took a break as I was burning out from studying. For fun, I spent a couple of weeks studying Security+. I figured it would help back up my security knowledge from CCNA and it did help a bit. I didn't finish studying it. Then, for the heck of it, I studied CCNP for awhile through ITProTV. Some of the videos helped me understand network automation and a few other concepts better.
After my trial of that ran out, I decided to go ham on CCNA again. I subscribed to AlphaPrep again to continue testing my knowledge. I was studying for awhile when someone posted on here about the 50% discount about a month ago (I can't remember who you are but thank you!). I scheduled my exam and it was crunch time. Over the last month I studied a minimum of 4 hours a day. Mind you, I'm single and don't have a job or any responsibilities so I have time for this. Some times, 8-10 hours of studying. Only took days off if I needed them.
During this time of studying I took the advice of David Bombal and didn't just study for the sake of it, but really research the topics and took an interest in them. I started off with a topic I wanted to know about and dug into it. Then I moved on to the next one. That was my approach over the last month.
At the beginning of July, Boson announced their 25% off sale. I scooped up their test exams immediately (Saved half on the exam and a quarter on the text exam. I've been very blessed. Especially since I'm in Canada and everything costs 3 billion times more). I did the first exam last Thursday or Friday, the second one on Sunday, and the last one on Tuesday of this week.
Let's talk about Boson. Boson is THE closest thing you will get to the real exam. Hands down. No doubt about it. It is harder than the real exam. My scores were A: 717 B:743 C: 815. Some people say that you should be getting 900 on Boson to be ready, I disagree. I'd say it's most accurate to be getting in the 800's to feel confident, however, that is NOT a hard and fast rule as I've seen others score only in the 700's and pass with a good score. I'd say it's a good and reasonable goal. Exam questions are great and explanations are great. My biggest gripe with Boson: Holy crap is their UI ever clunky! For example, lets say you finish an exam and you want to go over all your wrong questions. You can filter out the right ones and filter to the category you want to focus on and then click on one of the questions. When you do that, it takes you back into the exam again. Once you're done going over the question, you have to hit the grade now button, go back through, put the filters back in and repeat. There is no list of the questions themselves. I also didn't realize you could save an exam to review later until exam C. UI is not very intuitive.
I continued studying with Neil's and David's labs along with OCG and googling topics. I got into Keith Barker's stuff a bit later in the game but it was still good. If you want to have a bit of fun with studying, Keith does these live streams every Sunday afternoon where you can play along and answer questions. It's neat!
A few days ago, I really felt like I had studied all I could and was tying off loose ends in my understanding.
I came into the exam today not knowing everything. I was still fuzzy about somethings. As it turned out, that didn't matter. I logged in a half hour early as they suggested. They sent a link to my phone for a website where I took my own picture and pictures of my desk and surrounding area. After those were sent, I continued on my computer and someone came on and politely asked me how I was and asked that I had no notes on my desk and that my phone was placed beyond my reach. After that was settled, they mentioned that I would need to wait for my proctor and begin my exam. My exam begun and I didn't hear from anyone. Just like everyone else, there were moments when I thought I was failing, especially at the beginning. However, about 30 questions in, I felt my brain kick in and I got into the zone. I felt confident most of the way through after that initial hump. I was a little under 10 minutes when I completed the last question. I knew I didn't do horrible before I submitted the exam and felt confident that I had passed but at the same time was worried that I didn't. It's been an emotional roller coaster.
As many others have said, and I emphasize: GO SLOW. READ EVERY QUESTION AND ANSWER EVEN IF YOU KNOW THE ANSWER RIGHT AWAY. I can tell you for a fact, going slow and nit picking the wording of the answers saved my butt. Go through each answer and ask yourself why each answer is wrong. This is a strategy and it will work. Look for immediately wrong answers and eliminate them. This will help you greatly.
In conclusion, for those of you who are just started or on your way to the exam:
1. If you want the OCG and are ok with PDF format, don't buy it from Amazon. Save your money and subscribe for one month to Alphaprep (No, I'm not endorsed by them).
2. If I could do things differently, from the start I wouldn't have the mind set of "getting through" the material. I would take the first subject of interest, learn it all until I have the fullest understanding possible, then move on to the next. Break down and learn every subject.
3. Eat right. I remember one evening I had a burger and fries and was sluggish because of it. From that evening forward, I started eating healthier food so that my studying wasn't affected. I even started taking fish oil.
4. In addition to the topics in the outline, know EIGRP, know HSRP along with VRRP and GLBP. Perhaps not completely in depth but have a working knowledge of them.
5. As someone said previously, the questions are very broad. At least on my exam they were.
6. You will over study for the exam. You will know more than you have to.
7. Make sure you know how to interpret a routing table and know how the routing table logic works. I can't stress this point enough. Make this second nature to you.
8. Know subnetting as well, if not better, than 2 + 2. In fact, you should have to work out on paper what 2 + 2 is because you've forgotten how to do regular addition because you know how to subnet so well. In fact, forget most math that you learned in school. Only remember what you need for subnetting. Never count in base 10 again. Only count in binary. Your whole life should be a maximum of 255.
9. Google topics. If you don't understand something from one source, someone else might say it in a way you'll understand. Cisco also has full articles about topics as well that aren't just for the exam: [
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/tech/index.html](https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/tech/index.html)
10. I am not a fast learner. I would probably be considered to be dumb. If I can do it, you can do it.
