My CCNA Journey
I’m writing this as I just passed the CCNA exam a couple of days ago and I want to share my experience with whoever comes across this post.
I will keep it simple and just share how I approached the learning process, what I did a couple of days before the exam and present some personal tips.
I began to study for the CCNA like about a month after I began the university, which means around October-November 2023 and I took the exam in August 2024. This gave me around 9 months to study more or less. I initially planned to take the exam in September or October 2024, but I felt prepared for it earlier.
During my study time, I mainly used Jeremy’s IT Lab CCNA course on Youtube, which is a perfect fit for anyone who didn’t have any prior knowledge of networking concepts. My plan was to watch one video per day and do the practical exercises and flashcards the next day. I stuck to this plan until the middle-end of the course when the videos got longer and also when I was busy studying for university. Also, around that time I began reading the first volume of Wendell Odom’s CCNA book. I eventually finished the Youtube course and the first book and began reading the second volume
I want to emphasize that my studying schedule was not always as I planned, because I had days when I watched more than one video and read a little bit and there were days when I barely did anything or nothing related to CCNA.
The first tip that I want to share, which I got from a close person to me, is to try to always practice a little. Never let a day pass without at least reading a paragraph from the books or watch 15 minutes from the video course. It is best to not let 2-3 days pass without studying anything because otherwise you’ll lose your focus (at least that was my case).
Now, I’ll present you in more detail what materials you should use:
Jeremy’s IT Lab CCNA course is the best resource out there to start your networking journey, regardless if plan to take the exam or not. Jeremy’s style of teaching suited me perfectly and many others. He also offered free practice labs and flashcards. Basically, just watch his videos and he’ll tell you way better than me how to use his resources.
The CCNA books are also a very important resources, because the concepts are very well explained and stick to the point exactly as for what is needed in the exam (in Jeremy’s course, he might add some extra information, which may make you confused at times). I recommend reading them after watching the video course, because in this way you can revise and improve what you already know.
Also, the books offer you free practice questions which are a great way to make you have an idea on how the exam will be.Anything that has to do with practice and memorizing. During the video course and when your read the books, take notes! (get a notebook and pen for this). It will help you with details that you may not find important, but could appear during your exam (the things that I hated to memorize were MAC addresses, multicast addresses and IP ranges, but hey, they are completely necessary to know in order to call yourself a network engineer one day).
After you finish the studying process, you should consider booking the exam and take it in a couple of months, if possible.
Now, focus on practicing. Use the quizzes given in the CCNA books. Revise the flashcards from Jeremy’s course and also take advantage of online question dumps.
If you have the necessary financial resources, you can invest in buying Boson’s software as I read many people really liked it. I personally didn’t use it and I can’t really have an opinion about it. One thing I can recommend that I used one week before the exam were Jeremy’s quizzes. They cost around 11 euros each, are harder than the exam, but really show if you’re prepared for the CCNA.
On the first quiz, I scored 65/100, got a little disappointed and spent the next days before the exam really learning and revising every topic which I didn’t thoroughly understand and on the next quiz I scored 81/100, which gave me some assurance that I’ll pass the CCNA.
This is another tip, one week before the exam, make sure you really revise and keep the exam the only thing in your mind. In this way, if there is something to remember, it’ll remain in your mind until the exam day.
On the exam day, I was nervous, can’t lie, but luckily the people at the testing center were very nice and patient, presented me everything I needed to know and, in this way, I started the exam. It could be the same for you.
To be honest, it was easier than what I encountered in my practice quizzes and labs and I really couldn’t believe my eyes. Fortunately, I passed it. Here are my grades.
