CCNP 2010? Anyone pass this test?

[alkemyst]

I am getting my CCNP and CCNA wireless by September. Looking for the best methods.

I picked up the Exam and Study library. The Switch book in the Foundation Learning Guide is terrible. The one in the Official Certification Guide is written much better.

I also have Cisco IOS in a Nutshell, Cisco IOS Cookbook (2nd edition, I already have the 1st edition I am borrowing and it's an EXCELLENT book), and I have preordered the new Network Warrior. I heard this book is great as well.

I was thinking of doing the Boson as they were really helpful for my CCNA.

I am going to be playing with GNS3/Dynamips this weekend. I do work for one of the top Cisco partners (Cisco is actually right next door) so access to IOS and other partner only resources is not an issue.

I am not looking for braindumps and the like.

They really changed the format and no one I know has taken the newer tests.

Thanks

 

[James Bond]

Interested in replies here as I'm studying for SWITCH now.

I've never liked Boson personally. Just too buggy. The labs aren't bad though.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Good thread, I am going to pick up those books for some night time reading...stay on top of it all.

 

[Uhtrinity]

Check out http://www.techexams.net/forums/

Great community concerning certs.

 

[drebo]

I just took CCNP ROUTE. The test itself was a lot easier than the size of the book and the amount of material lead me to believe. Two of the simulation questions were broken, though. Otherwise, I'd have finished the test in under an hour. The only time I had to use the scratch paper was for one question where I had to write an EUI-64 IPv6 address.

Overall, I expected the exam to be a bit more difficult than it was. The Wendell Odom CiscoPress book prepared me well for it. Total prep time for the test was about 3 months.

I'm studying for SWITCH now, though I've heard that the CiscoPress book only teaches you about half the stuff that's actually on the test, which worries me a bit. Supposedly, there are lots of really obscure questions and stuff and they're worded differently than you would expect.

Well, we'll see. I plan to take it in about 3 months.

 

[James Bond]

I just took CCNP ROUTE. The test itself was a lot easier than the size of the book and the amount of material lead me to believe. Two of the simulation questions were broken, though. Otherwise, I'd have finished the test in under an hour. The only time I had to use the scratch paper was for one question where I had to write an EUI-64 IPv6 address.

Overall, I expected the exam to be a bit more difficult than it was. The Wendell Odom CiscoPress book prepared me well for it. Total prep time for the test was about 3 months.

I'm studying for SWITCH now, though I've heard that the CiscoPress book only teaches you about half the stuff that's actually on the test, which worries me a bit. Supposedly, there are lots of really obscure questions and stuff and they're worded differently than you would expect.

Well, we'll see. I plan to take it in about 3 months.

What subjects were the labs on? How were they broken?

 

[alkemyst]

What subjects were the labs on? How were they broken?

It's against the TOS to discuss questions. More oddly though I am not sure how he passed if two sims were broken. Usually that is a retest situation.

 

[airdata]

I am not looking for braindumps and the like.

That's good. People need to realize that cisco will ban you if they know you've used them.

I saw some guy posting in one of the cisco groups on facebook. They revoked his certs and barred him from taking any future exams. Not sure how they caught him using them though.

If you grab the latest CBT Nuggets, one of the first videos is mostly about using GNS 3 and he actually does the labs within GNS3.

 

[alkemyst]

The thing with a braindump esp with Cisco is you are not going to know how to implement the technology. You may pass the test, but you will never pass the technical interview.

These are really popular in MCSE circles.

I need to learn more on GNS3...I am thinking of using it to attach to our labs here and at other offices.

 

[James Bond]

It's against the TOS to discuss questions. More oddly though I am not sure how he passed if two sims were broken. Usually that is a retest situation.

Wasn't trying to pry on the material so much as how they were broken. I mean was it not taking commands or what?

 

[drebo]

It's against the TOS to discuss questions. More oddly though I am not sure how he passed if two sims were broken. Usually that is a retest situation.

I just did really well on all the other questions. Like I said, the actual exam was easier than the amount of material would have you believe. Had I failed, though, I would have demanded a retest voucher.

Wasn't trying to pry on the material so much as how they were broken. I mean was it not taking commands or what?

They were broken in the sense that, because they are not real routers or real IOS images, they have to be programmed to respond certain ways based on what you've done. Specifically, show commands would contradict each other and did not reflect the actual config that existed on the devices I was supposed to configure (OSPF show commands would list interfaces in the wrong areas, etc). In one case, the show commands didn't even reflect the default config that was pre-existing on the devices before I even started looking at them. They were both relatively easy, as well (when I got home, I labbed them both up and completed them the same way I had attempted during the exam).

It was frustrating because I wasted an hour on those two simulations before I gave up. Thankfully, I passed anyway.

 

[drebo]

If you grab the latest CBT Nuggets, one of the first videos is mostly about using GNS 3 and he actually does the labs within GNS3.

Be careful. There is some bad information in the CCNP ROUTE CBT Nuggets series. Specifically as it relates to EUI-64 IPv6 addressing (he forgets that you invert the 7th bit of the MAC address).

Overall, I was underwhelmed by the CCNP ROUTE CBT Nuggets series. It was missing a lot of information, and he recycled a lot of nuggets from the previous BSCI series, some of which did not really apply.

The CiscoPress certification guide has everything you need, and more.

 

[alkemyst]

That's good. People need to realize that cisco will ban you if they know you've used them.

I saw some guy posting in one of the cisco groups on facebook. They revoked his certs and barred him from taking any future exams. Not sure how they caught him using them though.

If you grab the latest CBT Nuggets, one of the first videos is mostly about using GNS 3 and he actually does the labs within GNS3.

They more than likely caught him if he used his facebook account to log into a braindump site and it posted to his newsfeed as a like.

 

[mcmilljb]

I got my CCNP when cisco was doing their free retake promotion a while back. I could knock out each exam out in about a 4-6 week period because I could prepare as much as I thought I could, then measure myself against the real exam. I came close on my first try every time. Missed passing the Switch Exam by 4 points on the first try. Each time I just took a day off afterwards to refresh, and then I prepared again for 2 weeks and would usually pass in the high 900's. Plus I got all my exams at a discount by buying vouchers online. I did pass the ONT and Remote Access exams on the first try though.

I used the cisco press books, the cisco press labs(they sucked), practicing the technologies, reading other people's questions, and any decent source I could find online. I had decent equipment to practice on: 2 3550's, 2 2950T's, 1 3640, some old 2500's. Plus I had GNS3. I will note that trying to do BGP on 2500's was informative because their were some differences in defaults so I knew them quite well.

I also think seeing the test format so many times made me comfortable. Plus I went to the same testing center every time. Just entering configuration commands and then using show commands to verify is one of the best ways to practice if you're thinking "I want to enter this configuration, and I should expect this result". If the result is not what you expected, then you have some work to do to figure it out but well worth it.

 

[alkemyst]

on many of the exams certain commands esp. show types are disabled.

 

[mcmilljb]

on many of the exams certain commands esp. show types are disabled.

Why did they disable those commands? I had to use them on some questions to get the information needed for the answer. I thought they usually disabled commands you didn't need. I also remember problems with their software on simulations. I had to make a configuration change to specific ports so I used the range interface command so I could do it all at one time instead of typing it over and over. The stupid output from show command had it only configured on the first port however my changes were in the configuration so I was pleased with that.

 

[alkemyst]

Why did they disable those commands? I had to use them on some questions to get the information needed for the answer. I thought they usually disabled commands you didn't need. I also remember problems with their software on simulations. I had to make a configuration change to specific ports so I used the range interface command so I could do it all at one time instead of typing it over and over. The stupid output from show command had it only configured on the first port however my changes were in the configuration so I was pleased with that.

It's to make sure you know how to do things. Certain commands like sh int br just give a lot of info that make most of the CCNA test especially easy. They kill that command in the sim and then you have to figure out the other commands to get the info you need.

 

[spidey07]

I had to recert a year ago. The switch exam is no joke. Know wireless strong, voice strong, be able to dissect spanning-tree given only show commands and a diagram - strong. I consider myself a master at spanning-tree and was thrown for a loop on some questions.

Had to do some route redistribution as well in the simulations given limited info.

You had better know IP SLA

 

[alkemyst]

I had to recert a year ago. The switch exam is no joke. Know wireless strong, voice strong, be able to dissect spanning-tree given only show commands and a diagram - strong. I consider myself a master at spanning-tree and was thrown for a loop on some questions.

Had to do some route redistribution as well in the simulations given limited info.

You had better know IP SLA

wireless and voice have been depreciated a lot on the CCNP due to both CCNP-Voice and CCNP-Wireless being tracts now. IP SLAs being moved to the CCIP.

The exact exam topics for SWITCH are under cisco (you have to log in)

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-6569

 

[freegeeks]

I'm still under the old ccnp cert, need to recert in 10 months, hopefully I have my CCIE by then

 

[Harrod]

I finished my ccnp in may last year, I used the cisco press books, Boson netsim and gns3. If I had to do it all again, I would buy the lab books also, they are really helpful to get a better understanding of the material. I've always thought that the cisco press books never seemed to cover all of the materials I saw on the tests. Try to learn as much as you can, but also be prepared to take all of the tests twice.

 

[itsmydamnation]

call me cynical (i've been around the block a few times) but whats cisco's training number this FY :whiste:.

I guess once you pass your cisco exams you can get much cheaper juniper exams :biggrin:

CCNA
CCDA
CCNP
CCSP
CCIP
DCNIS
a bunch load more that i would have to look up...

 

[Railgun]

It's against the TOS to discuss questions.

Who's?

 

[spidey07]

Who's?

Cisco. You can talk about topics, but not reveal exact questions.

 

[MtnMan]

The thing with a braindump esp with Cisco is you are not going to know how to implement the technology. You may pass the test, but you will never pass the technical interview.

These are really popular in MCSE circles.

I need to learn more on GNS3...I am thinking of using it to attach to our labs here and at other offices.

I had a project I needed to hire a bunch of temps for about 3 weeks. I was looking for A+ to PC hardware literate. Ended up with one guy that had passed 6 of the 7 MCSE exams, yet when I gave him the task of adding RAM to some workstations, he didn't know where to begin.

He spent the rest of the day on the loading dock breaking down cardboard, and I had the temp agency replace him for the rest of the project.

I call them paper tigers.