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CCNA duration ?

K

KUOCH

n00b
Joined
May 19, 2008
Messages
32
Hi guys! Sorry if this has been posted before but I just wanted first hand information from you guys who are CCNA certified on how long it took to complete. I am asking this because I have 1 more year in college left and is currently working a helpdesk role. I get some exposure to the routers and switches but never get to configure them or anything. Thanks
 
I studied for a month. 5 hours a day after work M-F, 12 hours a day on the weekends. Ends up being a little more than 200 hours.
 
Depends on how much you know going in. If you know nothing about networking but you're pretty smart, probably not more than 6 months, but I'd say somewhere around 1-3 months would be doable. The CCNA is very broad and shallow, you learn about a lot of different things, but you don't go too deep into them, just basic understanding.
 
CCNA is difficult because it covers a broad array of topics very shallowly, rather than a few topics really deeply.

If you've got a background or education in IT, then the CCNA may be easier. But it definitely requires some studying! :) I can't really comment on my study time because I had the opportunity to do a Cisco Netacademy in high school and a networking degree in college, which made the test pretty much review.
 
Took me over 4 years. I worked with networking equpiment went to classes but never went and took the test. When I did go and take the test I passed it so whatever works. :)
 
I have been in various aspects of IT for over 8 years. I started my CCNA last year around the 1st of October, and completed it around mid-December. I studied around 20 hours a week simply because I had no experience with Cisco IOS and the amount of stuff you need to know. I also split the tests into two. That can be either a deal saver or breaker.
 
As you can tell, it varies greatly. My brother got his CCNA within 30 days. He never touched a piece of Cisco equipment prior to or during. He got Sybex's booka nd studied every night. He used simulators. Crammed really hard and long and fast and got it done quickly.

A former co-worker of mine had some Cisco experience from using some of our extra equipment. He studied during downtime at work and lab'd up the equipment. He probably put it less than 30 days worth of time and was able to easily pass the test.

I've been administering Cisco equipment for the past 6 years, firewalls, routers, switches, access points, etc. I've been far to lazy to take my CCNA but I've done a variety of practice tests and they are super easy for me overall. The stuff that catches me up is the geneal networking theory and manual subnetting. Since I rely on calculators for subnetting and you never recall theory in day-to-day, it's stuff I would need to freshen up on before taking a test.
 
I passed mine over 4 years ago (didn't even know what a dns server was back then). I think it took me 3-4 months of INTENSE studying. But like I said, I didn't know shit back then.

I'm doing my CCNA again, plan on studying 30 days to get caught up and gonna start my ccnp. My plan is to do a test a month
 
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Thanks for all the replies.. really informative. I guess my plan is to start in the summer once finals are over and see from there. If i have any questions I will revert back to this tread! thank you all! have a good day! :]
 
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