CCNA - Cisco Networking Academy or Cisco Training Partners?

Author

Cisco Networking Academy or Cisco Training Partners?

taxidiara

2004-08-06, 12:21 pm

Hello, i want to get a CCNA certification and i want to know what is better:
A Cisco Networking Academy or a Cisco Training Partner? I am an electrical engineer but i dont have any experience in networking.
Cisco Networking Academy : 280 hours, 8 months.
Cisco Training Partner: 70 hours ,1 month.

If i take the short one will i be able to pass the exam or learn anything?

Mat P

2004-08-06, 1:01 pm

I did the 2nd one and it worked OK for me, but I did have a couple of years networking - though not Cisco.

I followed it up with a couple of weeks studying and passed.

nickhardy

2004-09-19, 6:16 pm

I used the networking academy through the local FE college. CCNA= 2 x £650 at the time.

I don't know about the Cisco Training Partner route personally, but I can't see how you can understand CCNA thoroughly with only 70 hours effort and no prior experience.

I passed the CCNA first time, which speaks volumes on the quality of the course. When I started I had not used PC's before, let alone had any networking experience. So I did A+ at the same time, also through the networking academy. This enabled me to comprehend all the stuff I didn't know but was taken for granted in the CCNA.

It is not very easy to do this at evening class, the same time as holding down a job with long hours. Especially when the job doesn't involve computers at all!

If you are in a similar position you must be prepared to really put your back into it. Most of the people who started the course with me dropped out, there was a high failure rate even of those who persevered.

The FE college networking academy course tutors were very friendly and are prepared to help you a lot if you are a grafter, they were not only qualified but actually intelligent and knowledgeable. They were a great source of help to me.
The course is mostly for self study at home online, you need broadband, class time is best spent on the racks.

The course does contain some "typos" which are easily missed and perplexing.
For example ".... IGRP doesn't send subnet information in routing updates...." seems OK to the newcomer at first, if taken for granted, but when you do the practical, setting up subnets on 5 routers running IGRP, you soon realise this doesn't make sense.... it should read ".... IGRP doesn't send the subnet MASK in routing updates....". So expect these "errors" and use them to really delve into the subject.

Maybe the course wasn't arranged in the correct order. EG I would have preferred switching to occur before routing, but perhaps people with prior experience would disagree.
The course was arranged in 4 semesters and divided into chapters, the toughest to deal with are at the end of semester 4, frame relay and ISDN. Semester 1 can be difficult too as this is where the OSI model gets hammered into your head, so that you can understand the rest of the course from the OSI perspective.

There are quiz's, SIMS and end of chapter tests. There are also loads of labs to work through, where you must have access to a rack of 5 routers and a switch (four 2501, one 2514 and a 1900), or a good simulator. By getting on fast with the course you should be able to get 100% use of the racks in class while the moaners are still whining about the OSI model. Getting the hands on makes all the difference! I did it solidly for as long as I could.

The end of semster tests, and the end of course test, can be tough as it is so easy to forget material if you lack the repitition that only practical experience can bring. However they are useful to highlight your weak points, make sure you relearn the stuff you seem weak on.

The end of course test is very hard and was a real eye opener for me, so much subnetting that I ran out of time. It was a wake up call and gave me the extra slap we all need just before crossing the finishing line. I expected the CCNA exam to be just as tough, or worse, and worked hard on subnetting to the stage where I could subnet in my head really fast, and also memorized all the OSI stuff scrupulously.
The course material is sufficient to pass a CCNA, but the course doesn't stress that you absolutely MUST become very fast at subnetting and know the OSI model like the back of your hand to avoid running out of time in the exam.

In my experience the CCNA itself was very similar to, and much easier than, the networking academy end of course exam, so that can act as a predictor to your performance in the big one.

There are many other bonuses with the networking academy. When you pass the course you sign up as alumni. This means you still have access to the course online, and most importantly you have access to the new updated versions of courses you have completed to enable you to keep up to date and recertify after 3 years. There are also many other resources which are well worth having, not least is the free software, Config Maker, Confregna, Ciscopedia etc.

smrkdown

2004-09-19, 6:43 pm

Books, routers, switches and self-study will allow you to pass in about 2 months (give or take). I know you didn't ask about this route (no pun intended), but I figured I'd throw it out there as another option.

nickhardy

2004-09-19, 8:18 pm

Do you actually know of anyone who has got a CCNA from scratch with no networking knowledge in two months (give or take) with only books and a home lab ? Did you do it?

Or are you saying this tongue in cheek ?

Even if I didn't have a job and kids, and all the other time consuming stuff in life 2 months seems next to impossible.

smrkdown

2004-09-19, 9:05 pm

I didn't have "no" networking knowledge, but basically no Cisco networking knowledge, and I did it from scratch in not too long a time. The CCNA is not a difficult exam. You can read the Sybex CCNA book in two weeks easy. Then you can re-read it again in another two weeks. Then you have four weeks left to practice hands-on and review. You shouldn't need any more than two months.

CoffeeFreak

2004-09-20, 9:59 am

I agree with down, self-study and a router of your own cuts the time in half...

I used to be in the cisco acad, I dropped out about half-way through semester 3..
When you are really trying to learn this stuff as fast as possible and you have to sit in a class for hours waiting for the other people that don't study on their own to catch up can get really annoying..

nickhardy

2004-09-20, 2:35 pm

OOPS! when I gave my previous comments I was under the impression that the networking academy courses were implimented in the same way everywhere.
CoffeeFreak's post indicates that is not so!

Here in the UK we could join the course at anytime of the academic year, go at whatever speed we wanted, and take the tests and final exam whenever suited us.
You don't even get a bill until 4 months after starting. There was no formal teaching as such. Just piles of Cisco routers and switches, Adtran Atlas 550, rooms full of fast PC's and a tutor around to answer questions and discuss the more interesting and arcane oddities that arose periodically.

Anyway, Taxidiara, you had better check this out with the course provider before you end up in some shitty school like situation as described in CoffeeFreaks post !

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