My CCNA Journey So Far
So, I sat for my CCNA exam last night. In this article, I give a rundown of resources I used while studying.
Resource 1
Do I Need to Purchase the Cert Guide?
Well, that depends on your background of knowledge. If you do not have enough background knowledge in Networking as I did. I will strongly recommend you buy the cert guide from Cisco Press. Omg, the book is a fun read!
Resource 2
Keith Bogart is one of my favourite tutors, he teaches at INE. And the company has a free session where Keith deciphers STP. It's very yummy!
Will I ever forget how STP works after this video?
Yes, of course. So you need to constantly practise engaging in conversation in your study group and try to help people understand how the protocol works. My favourite study group is Art of Network Engineering.
Another STP resource is this thread started by Daniel Dib. It helped me a lot!
Resource 3
Keith Barker is another one of my favourite instructors. These are a few of his videos on subnetting I love:
I also paired this video with this book from Network Bulls
Resource 4
This one was tough for me to comprehend. But hanging out on Twitter and Discord a lot made me pick an interest in this old book by Jeff Doyle, Routing TCP/IP Vol 1.
Resource 5
If you want to understand IPv6 better, this book was also helpful.
What Other Resources did you use?
David Bombal’s course on Udemy, I love how he explained Syslogs, SNMP, etc.
Boson Netsim for heavy labbing
A whole lot of Cisco Live sessions around topics I struggled with. Like a lot
What did you use for practice tests
I used the Pearson Test Prep. When you order the cert guide from Amazon, you can find the access code at the back of the book.
I also used a practice test by Jon Buhagiar
CCNA Practice prep from Cisco
What would you have changed with your approach if you started the CCNA again?
I wish I had found out about the Pearson Test Prep earlier, it has this feature where you can select one chapter.
The test prep from Pearson is my favourite. It's very challenging.
Thank Yous!
I want to say a huge thank you to Girard Kavelines. He had a giveaway for the CCNA exam voucher, and I won. I was so excited!
Another huge thank you to The Art of Network Engineering for the Boson Netsim. They had a giveaway session and I won too. The simulator helped me so much!!
When I joined the Network Engineering Twitter community didn't know my way around resources. Ernest Ogbuanyagave out a lot of Udemy courses one time from David Bombal, and I was opportune to get one for myself.
Another huge thank you to Austin Nwaka, I was able to get a place for my school internship at a Wireless ISP in Lagos, Nigeria all because of a single tweet from him. That internship made me very familiar with Wireless technology.
Ozioma made me familiarise myself with Network Engineering certifications via Cybrary courses. Which is huge for me.
Chukwudi Theodore for taking me on the Cisco Networking Essentials Netacad course
Also, huge thank you to everyone who randomly answers my questions when I tweet about it or ask about it on Discord.