Customer Reviews

CCDA: Cisco Certified Design Associate Study Guide

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I just passed the CCDA yesterday. If you are going to buy one book for the CCDA test, then buy the Cisco Press Book by Kim.

Nothing against Todd Lammle, this book is well written and a valuable source of information. But it does not cover all the information that Cisco wants you to know for the CCDA test.

I found Lammle's CCNA book to be invaluable for that test (which I just passed several weeks ago). But this book is lacking in areas such as: 1. Cisco's approach to designing a "cisco network solution" 2. It does not cover the "cisco" product line as much as I would have liked, as I do not have a ton of experience with their products. 3. Many of the questions in the review sections and CD tests are extremely poorly worded and very vague.

In my opinion the Cisco Press book (by Kim) does a much, much better job at covering this material.

As with the sister book, CCNA, this book gives you absolutely the right information. Unlike many exam books, it does not fall into the trap of trying to tailor itself to predicted exams (unlike every Microsoft book), or being to abstract to be understandable. I went on the Cisco DCN before reading this, and believe me I needn't have bothered. This book is all you need (plus a little experiance!)

Don't waste your money on the Cisco self-study, nor the Cisco Press book. They are both over priced and worthless. If you want to know what to expect for the CCDA exam, then this is your book. Easy to read and understand, and I also found the reveiw questions were mostly the same as the real exam. Made it even easier.

If you want to know how to pass the CCDA, then this is your book. Well written and organized, it helped me pass the CCDA easily and quickly the first time. The Case Studies in the book are exactly what you'll see in the real exam. I am really impressed with the writting style and ease of study this book provides.

I first was exposed to Todd Lammle with the CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide, a most excellent study resource. With the CCDA Study Guide, Todd Lammle, et al are at it again, with a fantastic resource for anyone needing to firm up their understanding of Cisco's view of Enterprise Network Design. The book makes no bones about its stregths, and weakness. You MUST study the material, learn the material presented, and build on it.

Unlike the CCNA, which can take someone with a basic knowledge of PCs, Lans, and internetworking, and enable them to pass the CCNA without too much extra effort, the CCDA study guide is designed to be one of many books on your shelf to prepare you for the test.

I happened to pass the CCDA Beta Exam in December 1998, but didn't know it until after I became a CCNA. Now with my organization, I am in a position to oversee the development of several of my peers. The CCDA is required reading for my team, and they not only have to pass the CCDA test, but internal expertise exams, and this book will assist them with that.

Overall, a great 5-Star book for the quality of the material you receive, and the quality of the presentation. This isn't CCDA for Dummies, but then again, if it were that easy, there would be no value to the certification, right?

Bottom line, buy the book, read the book, go back and study the book, take the test, pass the test, get the raise, then pass the book along. Any Cisco professionals in the Sacramento, CA area, or looking to relocate, drop me an email, ranchorich@yahoo.com.

I've used the CCNP Sybex book to pass CCNP easily, I've been a Cisco engineer for 9 years and I failed a CCDA with this book.
I questioned my sanity. But sure enough the book doesn't cover the material. In fact it missses out MOST of the exam topics.
Score less than the required 825 with this book.
It's not just the books fault though. The exam is a classic Cisco foul up with answers being ambiguous as hell. A bit like the original CCNA for those that failed that one. You are not alone.
I'm off to buy the 'top down' networking manual from Cisco Press as that's what they used to write the exam. that's why Cisco don't allow you to take the exam again for 3 days, so you can realise you had the wrong study guide.
Bitter - Yes
Twisted - maybe.

Unfortunately, this book is a miss. It missed out on too many objectives. Lammle does a great job with CCNA, and he's a terrific writer, but this book came out with too little research and too little attention to current objectives. Plus, there's a lot of obsolete material in this book.

To pass CCDA, see the article by Andy Barkl (a coauthor of the Sybex book, interestingly) at www.tcpmag.com (click on Exam Reviews and then CCDA) and peruse it. Follow the links to the Cisco site, especially the CCDA objectives and the SAFE white paper. Then buy the Cisco Press Exam Certification Guide and CCDA/CCDP flash cards, and cram/practice/cram until you have it.

Problems with the Sybex CCDA and reasons it won't be worth your time follow.

The design methology on the test is not the one taught in this book. The book teaches PDIOO; the exam is all about techical and business goals and constraints.

The Enterprise Composite Network Model (ECNM) is not covered in anywhere enough detail. The design methodologies on the exam have to do with different areas of the ECNM.

The stuff in the book on IPX, Appletalk and Token Ring are all irrelevant.

The voice section and the IPv6 sections are just cursory explanations of topics you will be tested on in some detail.

The network management and security sections are also too high level.

One good thing about this book -- the VLSM section is a good intro and covers classless addressing in enough detail. Lammle is really good at teaching this type of stuff -- his tutorial on subnetting in CCNA is just a great way to learn.

He's a master teacher, and unfortunately just got this one out the door without properly matching it to the exam objectives. Barkl, like Lammle, is also an excellent writer, and (as I said above) his writeup on www.tcpmag.com is on-the-money as to what this exam entailed, but unfortunately this book (though lucid and smartly written) isn't as faithful to the exam objectives.

Maybe they'll rev the book, but until they do, you need to stick with Cisco Press on this.

I took the CCDA/DCN test and passed it with an 854 using this guide as my only study source. However, being in the industry for a while, I expected a much higher score for myself. My expectations: that this book would address topics on the test that Cisco wants those pursuing CCDA certification to know (specifically the terminology and language used by Cisco). Reality: I'm not sure if studying from this book helped me answer one question correctly. Everything that's in the book I already knew from studying for other tests or real-world experience, and nearly every question that I was confused with had to do with Cisco design terminology and language that is not described in the book. Also -- some of the information is dated. The test (as of 6/6/2001) requires that you know about newer models of switches and routers than those described in this book. Also, lots of time is spent on topics that the test doesn't touch (at least in my sitting). I thought Sybex's CCNA guide was far superior to this. Those without a lot of mileage and real-world design experience will probably want to either augment this with other study sources or use other books to prepare.

Sybex and Todd Lammle did a fine job with this book. I have been in the Routing and Switching field for just a year now. I will agree with other reviews (and Todd for that matter) that you should pursue your CCNA first. This is a book about designing routed and switched LANs. You will need a good solid foundation of routing and switching before having the ability to design LANs and WANs. I leave off one star because 5 STARS is perfect in all means. You won't find one perfect book that will cover all objects thoroughly enough to ace the exam. It is always a smart idea to supplement your studies with hands on experience. I am a CCNA and now a CCDA thanks to this book. I am currently pursuing my CCNP and am using Sybex books by Todd Lammle. I feel that he has the knowledge and skills needed to educate us in his books and if anyone can produce a 5 STAR book, he can!

This book did not cover even 10% of the exam I took. It might work fine for the old version of the exam, but not for the new version of the CCDA exam(started a week ago). Things like ATM devices to use in certain situations, gigabit ethernet, ISDN specifics not covered and LANE and it's components were not covered near enough to consider this book of any use towards the exam. Use the Cisco book and look up these topics on their website for better preparation. Also, there were a large number of technical mistakes in the book! By the way, DS0 stands for Digital Signal 0 not Digital Stream and the private ip address ranges start with 10., 172., and '192.', not 198.