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IT certification study tips...

M

mcburks

n00b
Joined
May 25, 2010
Messages
8
...or just study tips in general.

Back in High School I never really mastered the art/science of studying too well. Back then my plan for the future was to "just get a job and 'be'". Well after working in various factories as a temp for about year I decided that was for the birds. So about 10 years ago I started my IT career. I've done decent I guess but every job I've gotten in the past has been because of connections to the company. Either people knew me or my family or had been past co-workers who moved up to a hiring position at a different company and subsequently offered me a job. Now I'm at a point where I need to rely on my own skills, and thus training and certifications to gain said skills. (I know what some are thinking, certs don't mean everything and that skills/experience carry more weight but in my situation I'm not able to gain any more skills until I get another job which I think the certs will assist in doing so). So, I'm back to studying again and I'm running into the same issues I did back in the day. Losing focus, not comprehending what I'm reading, finding time to do meaningful studies. I should mention here I have a full time job, home duties and a 14 month old son who goes NON STOP. I'm wondering if any of you who have an impressive alphabet soup after their names have any suggestions for studying for and successfully passing IT certifications? I do have A+, Network+, Server+ and MCP but I acquired those back when life was a little simpler. Currently I'm working on CCNA and then may move back to the Microsoft Certs and go for either MCSA/MCSE or the newer ones that cover Server 2008.

Any help would be more than appreciated.

-Matt
 
implement what you read in your home setup. I used to have issues reading and retaining and it's basically a state of mind and once you get it down it's easy. I find that reading out loud really helps me.
 
In that big long drawn out life story you've forgotten to include the things that matter and that we actually need to know to help you.

What do you LIKE to do? What are you good at? Where is your interest? In what field do you see yourself in 5 years?

Do you like phones? Networking? Servers? Programming?
Are you good at out of the box thinking? Logically thinking? Big picture thinking? Detail orientated thinking?
Are you interested in planning/implementation? Consulting?
Do you want to be an administrator in 5 years? An engineer? A manager? A technician?

Help us help you.
 
Well... I didn't ask WHAT to study, I asked HOW to study. The answer to my question would be the same if I was studying for CCIE or if I was studying the Physics and Dynamics of Under Water Basket Weaving.
 
The CCNA has changed recently. Its mostly simulations now. You need to actually know how network traffic flows rather just memorizing random acronyms.

In whatever CCNA book you get it should come with a simulator like netsim or whatever. do all the practice configs over and over and over. When someone asks you how to build Vlans with access-lists you need know(god help me I get into enough arguments at work over it.).

You need to understand how eigrp, ospf, and ripv2 work and how to troubleshoot them. You need to be able to configure and troubleshoot a little bit of RSTP.

I'm not sure if we are allowed to post the CCNA blog but theres a guy who did a 20 chapter blog thats a good read though it has some of the sims so Im not sure if thats considered cheating.

At the end of the day you either need a router and a couple switches or you need a good simulator. Build a network with routes. break it and rebuild it. end of story.
 
mcburks said:
Well... I didn't ask WHAT to study, I asked HOW to study. The answer to my question would be the same if I was studying for CCIE or if I was studying the Physics and Dynamics of Under Water Basket Weaving.
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No actually. It wouldn't. You need to figure out WHAT you want to know before you figuring HOW to know it.

You can't start at step 2 without first figuring out step 1.
Studying for studying's sake is worthless unless you know why you are studying and have goals and have figured out what you want to get out of it.

I could study on how to rebuild a rocket engine all day long and not get dick out of it because I have no interest in rocket engines and don't ever see myself in a career building rocket engines.
 
I3roknI3ottle said:
implement what you read in your home setup. I used to have issues reading and retaining and it's basically a state of mind and once you get it down it's easy. I find that reading out loud really helps me.
Click to expand...

Seconded. If you have trouble conceptualizing and visualizing the things that the books are talking about, build it. If you're working on Microsoft certs, build yourself a VMware ESXi server and start building your own Active Directory infrastructure. This will let you play around and implement what the books are talking about. It has the added bonus of allowing you to break things too. You break it, you learn to fix it!

If you're doing cisco, either build a Dynamips box, or bite the bullet and build a cisco lab (eBay is your friend here). I've done both, and it makes the study process fun and allows you to go beyond the material because you are playing with the ACTUAL eqipment/software.

Yes, I understand it cost real money to build labs, but you'll learn far more than you will from just reading a book. Maybe you're lucky and you can procure some of the stuff from work; old servers etc. I've always approached the $ value of labs from the point of view that I would otherwise have to spend $1000s of dollars on week long classes and would probably not get the same value.


mcburks: You sound like you're in a similar predicament to me (right down to the 14 month old son!). Mind you, I'm 25 and have been in IT from the start. Power to you and I hope you find the above helpful.

I'm also going down both the Microsoft and Cisco paths. I've finished my MCITP: Enterprise Admin, and am working on my CCNA at the moment (first exam on the 28th!). Also doing Citrix, but work is forcing me to do this.
 
cyr0n_k0r said:
No actually. It wouldn't. You need to figure out WHAT you want to know before you figuring HOW to know it.

You can't start at step 2 without first figuring out step 1.
Studying for studying's sake is worthless unless you know why you are studying and have goals and have figured out what you want to get out of it.

I could study on how to rebuild a rocket engine all day long and not get dick out of it because I have no interest in rocket engines and don't ever see myself in a career building rocket engines.
Click to expand...

cyr0n has a pretty good point here. It sounds like you probably have an idea of where you want to go anyway, but if you have any doubts or are just doing whatever certs people are telling you to do, STOP and reflect for a bit.

You should ask questions like, "what do I really enjoy in IT" and "what can I see myself doing for the next 10 years and loving it". If it's networking, Cisco. If it's working with users, working with Windows, etc etc, Microsoft. If you are like me and enjoy all aspects of IT and have the time, do it all! :)

It is important to have a plan. Also another final thing, and I cannot stress this enough: BOOK YOUR EXAM NOW; TODAY!

This last point is the most important. Book it far enough in the future that you have adequate time to study, but not so far off that you never begin studying. Work out a plan with the wife; tell her you need to study X nights a week and the other nights you'll be responsible for the kid.

Doing that last point allows you to experience a bit of pressure, much like college or university; you have a deadline you're aiming for. Plan accordingly.

Again: Book your exam today!!
 
Thanks for the replies. You guys have gone beyond my original question with advice. I appreciate that very much. tormentum, you actually reminded me of one of my previous tricks that I had forgotten about. I think of the four other certs I have I booked the tests way in advance which made me study.

A couple of clarification questions,

Labs/Simulators: Are the sims that come with the books good enough? Or should I purchase one of the "boxed" simulators that allow you to build networks beyond what the individual lessons require? If I was to build a Lab what routers and switches will work? Obviously the latest and greatest from Cisco but those would be WAY out of my price range. It looks like the 2600 series have dropped to a reasonable price on eBay. I do have a couple of 2510s that I bought a while back, would those still work?

What's a "Dynamips box"?

My target job would be a Network Admin, Systems Admin, Network Engineer or a Systems Engineer. I'm currently an IT Director for a small rural hospital and working in middle management is definitely NOT what I want to be doing a year from now.
 
There is a whole thread about Dynamips, but at the risk of starting a bit of a religious war, check out GNS3. It is a nice graphical front end to Dynamips, and it allows you to build labs running actual Cisco IOS code. It is the next best thing to real equipment.

It takes a bit of a learning curve to get setup, and there are a lot of video tutorials. I would suggest you head over to http://www.blindhog.net/ and check out the Dynamips and GNS3 tutorials to get an idea of what you can do.

For study tips - what works best for me is to take a few months to really go through the material in depth, then schedule a bootcamp for a quick refresher and test the last day of the bootcamp.

Head over to Cisco's website and look for exam examples. The new TShoot section will kill you if you are not ready for the questions / format. Take the other exams available under the CCNA section as well, half of passing the test is knowing how to take a test the Cisco way. During the test, don't get too hung up on a few questions you don't know.

As for material I like Sybex books and Cisco Press books. I thought Todd Lammle's CCNA book was excellent back when I went through. I also took his bootcamp: http://www.lammle.com/
 
Which routers and switches is always a difficult one to answer as there are different ways to approach this; what you need vs what is ideal vs what you want.

Personally I've set up a lab with a few 2620XM's (I wanted to be able to run IOS 12.4) because I wanted to be able to use the lab all the way through to CCIE. It's very much personal preference but I found this which does a good job of laying things out: http://www.ciscokits.com/pdf-new/CCNA_Lab_Suggestions.pdf

You'll want at minimum, 2 routers, 3 is better. Serial interfaces are important because the CCNA tests this. You'll end up setting up one router as a frame relay switch.

A few switches are useful as well as you'll be able to configure VLANs, Port Trunks etc etc. I'm not sure what the minimum switch level should be (I have 2 3560's which is extreme overkill). Dynamips/GNS does not allow you to do any advanced switch configuration (it's purely for routers), so if you want to practice with switches, you'll need to buy some.

Finally, depending on how many devices you end up going with, it's always nice to have a terminal server that you can connect to each devices console port. This way you don't have to continuously be re-patching that blue console cable whenever you want to make configuration changes on a different device. This is more of a want than a need however :). If you end up with a few routers, depending on what you have available, you can configure one of them as a terminal server. I personally use a 2611 with a NM-32A and a few octal cables. The other nice thing about a terminal server is it allows you to access the lab remotely. I do so from the office all the time.

One of the great things about setting up a cisco lab is that you learn so much about the devices themselves; things you don't learn from a book, or from Dynamips. Some of the time when devices come to you from eBay, they still have configs on them, or the seller has forgotten to remove the password, so you need to figure out the password reset procedure. All a learning experience. Oh, It's also fun :)
 
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Awesome, I have two 2514s (I said 2510s earlier but I was mistaken) and it appears they still support 12.3.x IOS. I'll dust them off and bring them upstairs and get them ready for building a lab.
 
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yes they should work fine for the CCNA. It might be worth getting 1 more when it comes time to do frame relay, but for now, the two should be fine. Get started with them and you'll begin to get a feel for what you'll be needing.

I'm off to play with my toys now. :)
 
I just found an old Cisco 800 router in a box where I work. Is that of any use at all for Cisco cert labs?
 
yup, in fact i think the 800 series will still run 12.4, though you might need some RAM. The important thing to note with routers is that you'll need the right interfaces to connect to other routers in order to study. You can get by with a few that you find lying around, but if you get serious about it, you'll want to probably get some that are similar in configuration, so you can easily interface them with each other when creating topologies.
 
Bit the bullet, my test is scheduled for early August. I just hope 2+ months is enough time to study. I am doing the two part CCNA path so I'll be sitting for the CCENT test in Aug and then maybe the CCNA (ICND2) test in late October or early November.
 
With about 2-2.5 months of studying I was able to do both ICND1 and ICND2. It's doable if you're diligent. You've done the hardest part which is schedule the exam.
 
Man, that's what I'm hoping. I'd love to have CCNA by August. My plan, worst case scenario, is to have it by Christmas. I just started reading my ICND1 book last night and I'm already about 20% through it.
 
Testking questions and GNS 3 were invaluable to me. Once you can answer most of the test king questions, and do the labs the book recommends without having to follow directions, you'll ace it. I took the single test just to get it over with. Now I have to get off my lazy ass and schedule a few of the ccnp tests for sometime over the next few weeks...
 
Don't kid yourself into thinking that using dumps is a valid way to study. Using them as your sole source of study is tantamount to cheating, as you are really only learning the answers to an exam, and learning nothing about the material being examined.

Having said this, all through University, after having studied the material in a given unit thoroughly, I would always take a look at previous papers to try and understand the types of questions that would be asked, and to practice the best way in which to answer them. Dumps used in this same way are valid imho.
 
awesomo said:
Testking questions and GNS 3 were invaluable to me. Once you can answer most of the test king questions, and do the labs the book recommends without having to follow directions, you'll ace it. I took the single test just to get it over with. Now I have to get off my lazy ass and schedule a few of the ccnp tests for sometime over the next few weeks...
Click to expand...

Testking...sigh...

Whatever happened to reading, studying, practicing to pass? If you know the material, the type of questions are immaterial let alone the actual questions.
 
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