Customer Reviews

CCNP Official Exam Certification Library (5th Edition)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent buy for getting the complete CCNP exam prep books. It would cost significantly more to buy them individually.

The books have been updated for the new tests. The BCMSN covers Wifi theory very well, but it is lacking in the "practical" aspect. I.e. the actual test had questions regarding more specific Cisco wireless products that the BCMSN book did not contain. The BSCI is quite good. I can not comment on the other two (ONT and ISCW because I have not read them yet.) However, the topics covered look really interesting.

What is especially great about these products is that they include some study software. I personally find this invaluable. This is the deciding factor between buying the Authorized Self-Study versus the Exam Prep books.

Some of the examples in the books have errors, which can cause some confusion. This is normal Cisco Press behavior. Also, some of the examples appear to differ from the text. Sadly, Cisco's product line is similar; some features are available in some versions, and not in others. So, this is kind of a real-world example of what Cisco products are like.

All in all, I really like these books. I find them much more useful than the competitors offerings; especially the exam prep software.

A couple of years ago I bought the Cisco books for the CCNA exam, and using them and some spare Cisco equipment that I had collected, self-studied for and passed the CCNA without difficulty. I thought those books were excellent, the material was well presented, and the explanations clear and easy to follow. Having such great success with Cisco Press, I eagerly purchased the CCNP set.

I have been quite disappointed by the CCNP books so far. The main impression that I got was that they would probably be a great reference, if you already knew the material. If you're trying to just learn the material though, good luck. First of all, long parts of them read like they're written in management/marketing-speek. Lots of elaborate sounding twenty-dollar words describing just how fantastic Cisco's vision of the network is. You know, I understand we need to talk about architecture, reliability, and allocation of resources...but when we're droning on for page after page about the "network align[ing] itself with the business priorities of an orgainzation..." you've lost me. I'm a tech guy. I'm sure this is all important, but boil it down to the key points here please instead of drowning me in marketing BS.

The other thing that I've noticed is that the technical explanations in these books seem to be lacking. Often to introduce a new topic they will present a list of terms (defined using other terms in that list or other things that have not been explained), a couple of diagrams, and some textual explanation relying on other topics that they have not explained. Now this may be perfectly adequate to get a CCNP certification, I don't know, I haven't taken the test. But if you want to get a real solid understanding of the topics being discussed, it fails totally. I don't feel this set is going to prepare me for the CCNP, so I'm back on Amazon looking for other guides.

I received my CCNA last year using the Sybex/Lammle books. I was really worried when I found out there weren't any current Lammle books for the CCNP so I broke down and bought this set hoping it wouldn't bore me to tears with traditional technical manual writing. So far, so good, with the official exam library. The material is clearly written and explained with good examples and diagrams. I have taken 2 of the CCNP classes with the "official" Cisco curriculum and didn't get nearly as much detail as I have with this library. Don't be worried that the books are 4th edition, this is the 5th edition of the library and all the books are the most recent versions. The chapter-opening quizzes were very good at helping me decide what I needed to review when going back through the material a 2nd and 3rd (and 4th time). Don't forget to get your hands-on lab experience with free GNS3/Dynamips labs (routing only), they are a life saver and open-source to boot, check out gns3-labs.com. My only complaints are, first, there is no Kindle edition yet and, second, some of the tables are just page filler. For example, do I really need a 5.5" x 2" table showing that EIGRP is the only vendor proprietary routing protocol?

The CD has the PDF version of the book plus the test engine. It's a decent engine, I was hoping to find the pre-chapter assessments so I wouldn't have to flip to the appendix but I had to go to General - Book Questions then to Select Categories and remove all but the chapter I was interested in, then I had the questions I was looking for. It would have been easier to have a tab of pre-assessment questions with chapter buttons. The Study Saver was kind of fun, it turns your screen saver into an exam review. Not that I use a screen saver in this must-be-green age but handy anyway.

They may not have the humor and one on one style of Lammle books but they get you the information with examples and a friendly reading style.

One last thing to watch out for unrelated to the books themselves. I had them sent USPS media mail to save some cash, it took 11 days from TX to CO. It was a grueling wait.

So,

Here's the real deal from someone who got his CCNP a month ago. These books are a must have to get your certification. If you intend to know the material, about 95% of what you need to know is in these books. There are some other options of course, but you will want to have worked your way through each of the 4 books at least once. It's a foundational set that gives you a TON of information. I got my CCNP in a little under 6 months, after having a CCNA for over a year. Each one of these books served as my primary method of study, combined with labbing. The money I spent on this set may be one of my best investments ever. That said, there are places where the writing could use a little help, and the presentation of material is just mechanical, and not always easy to understand. Let's face it, Wendell Odom obviously didn't write these books, but they're still pretty decent, and they give you want you need.

Just buy it.

:)

-Matt

Cisco is renowned for making new versions of examinations without having published any material relating to the exams. This series was the only publication released soon after the new CCNP exams were implemented. Fortunately, the texts were outstanding!
Each book thoroughly covered the relevant materials, with one exception. I thought that the BCMSN text should have covered and placed more importance on STP. It's a large part of the examination, per the Cisco exam guidelines. The text gives a good review of STP but should certainly go into more depth.
The texts on ONT and BSCI were outstanding in coverage of all of the segments of the exam materials. Also, the texts were very useful in real-world environments. The material was easy to read and easy to understand even though it discussed highly technical material.

I bought the 5th Edition after returning from a one week instructor lead Global Knowledge BSCI course. Using the books in this edition I was able to study for and pass all three (I took the composite BSCI & BCMSN) CCNP exams within one month. Prior to this I had been working with Cisco equipment for approximately one year.

The guides really are a terrific resource. I let them lead the way by following the model of taking the quiz at the beginning of the chapter, reading the chapter and then using the Q&A at the end to test my knowledge and study. The questions at the end of the chapters and the questions on the CD that comes with each book are both excellent resources to prepare you to solve the problems you will be presented with on the exams, but it is important you thoroughly study the material first. Many people who complain that these guides do not prepare them for tests, I think, spend too much time memorizing the answers to the questions provided for study. The question bank for the exam is much larger than what you get to study, so memorizing answers won't help you. However, if you read through the material thoroughly and then use the materials to identify weak areas, you will find this a extremely valuable resource.

I have heard much feedback that the BSCI guide is not sufficient for the exam and I have to agree it is the weakest of the series. I had the added help of an instructor lead course for the material covered by BSCI, so I may not be in the best position to comment on this particular guide. I will say that I studied for the exam with this guide, not with the materials provided by my course and that I feel the same principle applies to BSCI as I outlined above, only the BSCI material is by far the most difficult and most likely to stump you if you are memorizing facts instead of understanding concepts.

If you plan to buy this product, please note that you must schedule your tests before July 31, 2010. After that the BSCI, BCMSN, ONT & ISCW exams will be discontinued and the exams they have been replaced with, though they may cover a large percentage of the same material, will not align directly with these guides. Buy this product if you have started and want to finish up with the old track.

The books are an excellent price. You can not beat getting all four books for these exams for this price. If you are going to purchase these text just remember that the CCNP tests are changing June 23, 2010. Which means that the ISCW and ONT exams are going to be removed, the names are being changed to ROUTE, SWITCH, and TSHOOT. So, I'm not sure how helpful they will be until that point. I am trying to get my exams all done before then. But, these books are EXCELLENT they are well written and have everything you need to know in them. The only disappointment that I have with the text, is that they do not include Boson practice test software like the CCNA exam certification library did. I would say if they included that, this would be a 100% awesome package. I would rate it an 80% just because the Boson exam software is not present in the package. I used them on my CCNA and they tremendously helped me because they were a lot harder than other practice test questions and even the questions in the text.

Éstos libros son TODO lo que necesitas para prepararte para tus examenes del CCNP, no necesitas naad mas, únicamente complementarlos con unos laboratorios y listo.

La compra incluye todos los libros y me llegaron a mi casita en el DF sin ningún problema. tardaron aproximadamente 1 mes pero valen la pena.

The books would be good for reference,

But because they have so much flabber, they would not be good for studying for the 'NP. I would suggest the ccnp quick reference, along with some kind of good video, but make sure, you get some kind of eyes-on or hands-on practice, or both (preferably), because there is a lot of information to learn. so you definitely don't need a lot of flabber.

This is the official guide from cisco. I believe it's one of the best to achive the CCNP and it's cheaper than buy one by one.