CCNA Certification Library 182
| Self-Study Certification Library | |
| author | Wendell Odom |
| pages | 1232 (combined) |
| publisher | Cisco Press |
| rating | 6 |
| reviewer | Michael Bennett Cohn |
| ISBN | 1587200953 |
| summary | Useful but annoying; Decent study materials for Cisco tests 640-811 and 641-821. |
Although it is possible to enroll in official ICND and INTRO courses created by Cisco, the books that make up this "library," apparently, are not the books used in those courses. Within the ICND book, Odom refers to "the ICND course, on which the exam is partly based," suggesting that what you have in your hands is a reverse-engineered study guide: a study guide for an exam that is based on a course that does not use said book. Odom occasionally presents tables that he claims come from the ICND course. Clearly, some parts of the course are not fair game for the study guide.
In other words, don't think that just because you are reading the official Cisco press CCNA study guides, you are dealing with a set of information that is as close as possible to the set of information from which the test was drawn.
Studying these books will prepare you for the CCNA in the same way that reading the Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z will prepare you to identify the capital of Nairobi. It goes without saying that a CCNA candidate should not be studying just to pass a test, she should be studying to qualify herself for a job. But in this case, the difference between the material presented and the material actually making up the test is excessive.
Odom goes to a lot of effort to make the reader feel like he is being spoken to by a friend. "Fun, isn't it?" he writes, after presenting an illustration of function groups and access points that I had to re-draw for myself several times in order to understand. Later, he describes Inverse ARP as "another case of learning by listening, a great lesson for real life!" Gee, thanks. The subtle condescension in the non-humorous asides, the gleeful overuse of exclamation points, and the fable in which Pebbles Flintstone invents networking is compounded by the persistent contextual encapsulation of every single topic in the book. Odom tells you what he's going to tell you, then he tells you, then he tells you what he's told you, much more than necessary.
A better way to put the flustered reader at ease might have been to proofread the books. The ICND guide, especially, is so full of typos that it is often embarrassing to read. In some cases, these are nothing more than obvious misspellings that can be passed over without much more than a little annoyance (e.g. ICND p. 472, "status enquiry messages"). In other cases, the meaning of the sentence is muddled. Worse, the configuration examples have obviously not been proofread either, resulting in, for example, the prompt "R1(config)#" when the appropriate prompt is "R1(config-if)." The difference may seem trivial, but understanding its significance is the kind of stuff the CCNA is all about.
Each book comes with a CD containing a practice test engine and a router simulator (both from Boson). The mistakes in the ICND book pale in comparison to those in the CD test engines. In fact, an argument could be made that studying with those practice tests will hinder more than help the CCNA candidate who has not read the books thoroughly enough to recognize the mistakes. Many multiple-choice questions count correct answers wrong and vice versa (and some of these are taken directly from the books, which usually give the correct answer). A configuration entered into the CLI on a simulator question will be graded as wrong, and the user will then be presented with an identical configuration as an example of the correct way to solve the problem.
None of these problems change the fact that these books will, if used correctly, absolutely help you pass the CCNA. But do it this way: Read the INTRO book. Take the exam right away. If you don't pass, flip through the ICND book and find the areas that you actually need to work on. You'll save months of study time that could be better spent working on your CCNP.
I give the library as a whole 3 out of 5 stars.
You can purchase the CCNA Certification Library from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
CCNA is worthless for this very reason (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, come on now. If this networking novice can pass a test for a networking cert then the value of that cert is substantially reduced. The CCNA is almost as worthless as the MCSE and A+. Any schmuck can get their MCSE.
What good timing (Score:3, Insightful)
Hopefully I can find those books somewhere on the internet, because I am even more broke than a blonde joke.
What other certs would anyone recommend? I just want to add some credibility to my resume.
Thanks in advance.
Re:CCNA is worthless for this very reason (Score:4, Insightful)
And you have yours, right? On Windows 2000? Or, is your only experience with Windows an old desktop running Windows 98? I have to say, the Windows 2000 MCSE is difficult enough that "any schmuck" would have problems getting one.
P.S. - Yes, I have mine, in NT4, Windows 2000, and a Red Hat Linux RHCE (and about six years working in both Microsoft server and Linux OSs). Repeat after me: The Proper Tool for the Job...
Re:CCNA is worthless for this very reason (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:CCNA is worthless for this very reason (Score:2, Insightful)
Getting your CCNA is about the equivalent fo getting your MCP, they're both entry level, one or two test, certs. You don't expect someone with a CCNA to be able to configure BGP anymore than you would expect an MCP to set-up your Active Directory. The next step up is a whole other issue, the CCNP/CCDP is significantly harder to obtain than an MCSE, and there's really no MS equivalent of a CCIE.
It shows the person knows their ethernet cords from their power cords and is probably willing to learn more, if you expect anything else, it's your own fault.
The CCNA is precisely what it claims to be (Score:5, Insightful)
network that someone else has designed. Some companies will undoubtedly misunderstand this, hire a CCNA, and feel misled when they get someone who knows how to type "interface ethernet0/0, ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0, no shut," but the failure is on their end -- they did not look into what the certification covers. It's all there on Cisco's webpage.
Re:Brain Dumping (Score:5, Insightful)
Bingo - that's it, the problem, the head of the nail that we're hitting (as it were).
The reason that certifications have lost so much ground in the last five to ten and the reason that nobody respects MCSEs any longer is because of the nature of the testing. When certification exams are a matter of cramming your mind full of administrivia and memorizing cheat-sheets that teach the quick powers-of-two needed to compute a subnet mask, it's no wonder that the average level of the passing applicant falls. Facts and Figures can be memorized with some ease.
MCSE exams fell prey to an entire cottage industry that exists to help people pass them. Think of every radio ad you've ever heard promising that wealth, riches, and beautiful women can all be yours if you just step into the magical and happy world of Information Technology! The industry's job is to ram you through a bootcamp training session and then have you dump that information back out on a certification exam, automagically, while your brain is still raw and bleeding. How much you retain isn't important to them at all; they try to drill into you the erroneous concept that Certification == Job
The brain dump sites online, the exam cram book writers, and the people promising instant results can actually deliver: it is totally possible to ace a certification by studying old tests, reading old questions, and overloading for the purpose of passing your exam.
And, just like back in college, you will not remember most of this information after the fact.
The only way to really prove yourself is to start small, to learn what you can, and to etch it into your mind through repetition and hands-on experience.
Do what you have to to get your certification. Do not expect to land an 80k/yr job off of it alone -- it won't work. (God help you if it does, you'll learn what being fired feels like very shortly thereafter.) Expect to land a starter job, and use that to make an impression on your bosses; learn fast, learn often, be a good employee.
The recommendations of people you've worked for and with will serve you better in the long run than your certification will. It's time to rely on your qualities, rather than the qualities the paper says you have.
Remember: Suspend logic during interview process (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:CCNA is worthless for this very reason (Score:5, Insightful)
He is on Slashdot, after all.
Still, your point about the value of the CCNA certification is valid... I know a lot of people that have gotten their CCNA having never logged into a Cisco router or switch.
It is, at it's crux, an entry level certification. The material that is presented at this level is theoretical, not practicle.
I'm teaching an informal CCNA class internally here at work this week. We're covering the core topics:
This is all foundational knowledge... The CCNA isn't about learning to configure Cisco routers, switches, or firewalls.
It's more about building a vocabulary, and a basic understanding of networking topics.
Once you've got that, then you can start learning the real stuff.