Customer Reviews

Cisco CCDA Training Kit

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The CISCO CCDA training kit (like the CCNA training kit), is NOT a CBT. The individual reading assignments are actually just sections of an over 300-page long PDF file.

The "interactivity" is limited to a menu interface that just refers to sections of this huge PDF file. Using the practice tests, you can also jump to the page relevant to the question displayed. That is the extent of the "interactivity" of this product.

The good: 1. Information in the PDF file is more condensed than the Cisco press books, yet more elaborate than the "enough to pass" Sybex alternative. 2. The testing software has many useful options (Such as don't ask questions answered correctly N times) and can be effectively used as a study tool, as opposed to just a benchmark. It is definitely better than the testing software that comes with the certification books.

The bad: 1. Anybody who has used a real CBT module would be extremely disappointed in this product. There is no TRAINING element to just linking to a big ol' PDF file through a menu. 2. Navigating through one big PDF file is more awkward than using a real book. I ended up printing out over 150 pages (2 pdf pages per sheet of paper) and studying from that.

This product does not deliver as promised, and I would go as far as to say that the product description is in fact misleading. (Cisco never even MENTIONS Adobe Acrobat or PDF files.)

The bottom line is that if you are not confident that you can pass the real test - this product will help you determine weather or not you're ready. But one final thing to consider - for the price of this product, you can take the actual test itself.

The exam focuses on three areas: a broad overview of network technologies, a set of methodologies and guidelines for designing a network, and marketing information about Cisco products.

The book (it is actually a large PDF file, no computer-based training, as another reader pointed out) is somehow disappointing, in the sense that it is a careless cut-and-paste of good training papers and/or excerpts from pre-existing good and well written books.

Apparently, nobody cared to proofread the result. Just to give you a feeling:
at page 5.13 there is a "network health checklist", which claims to be the same network health checklist of chapter 3, "reported here for reader convenience". Unfortunately, it is different from the "network health checklist" at page 5.31 (8 items to check against 14), which shares the same claim.
There are many forward references to chapters 6,7 and 8, while there are only five modules.
Appendixes are also referred to throughout all the book, but none of them can be found.
You will also enjoy some "deja vu" experience (on page 4.19 and 4.34, for example), and from time to time you'll wonder if you have missed a page.
Sometimes the text is unreadable. For example, at page 3.89 and 4.89.
The ROI analysis for customer ABC at page 5.42 shows how you can draw the wrong conclusions in order to sell a new network project to an "actual customer" (to be honest, this is the only case in which I have found a true error in the book)

In conclusion, the lack of organization in the book makes more difficult to make a synthesis and to grasp the "big picture".

Despite this, the book reflects the exam contents, and the mock exam is very similar to the true one. This can be a good reason to buy the book.

I can provide you with these advices:

1. I have prepared both CCNA and CCDA before taking any actual exam, and passed CCNA two weeks before CCDA. I think it has been a good idea, do the same if you can.

2. Download CCDA exam notes (examnotes.net)... Those notes have a good summarization of all the steps necessary to do a good network design according to Cisco, and they can help you organize the parts of the course oriented towards methodology

3. During the exam, take note of the case studies when they are presented to you. You may want to draw a network map as well. You will leverage those information later, since you will be faced with three or four case studies during the exam, and there will be other subsequent questions on the same case study.

Good luck

I've taken other CBTs from Cisco, mostly on the web. Those were usually Powerpoint presentations with audio. I was very disappointed with this training.

The "CBT" is actually just a PDF that has been indexed by the menu-driven "study engine". Except that the PDF was written exclusively from the study engine. This is evident when you start with Chapter 1 and it takes you to page 53 in the PDF. Immediately, the PDF starts referencing material covered in the earlier pages (which you haven't read yet).

Like the other reviewer, I printed out the PDF on a duplexing printer (377 pages on 188 pieces of paper) and am reading the PDF in sequential page order.

THE GOOD: The test engine is very good and will allow me to "familiarlize" myself with the type of questions I might get on the test.

This book is very difficult to follow. Topics are not presented in a way that promotes learning, full of lists of ill referenced tables and facts, abundant use of acronyms without definition. Many review questions referencing terms not presented. Typos abound, is it RTCP or RCTP? You've got me. A struggle at every turn of the page. Decidedly NOT recommended.

You complete the CCNA exam and now you ready to tackle the CCDA exam. You want to find some sort of application software to aids in your study. Cisco wrote the exam so why not let them give you a hand with the CCDA Training Kit.

As with the CCNA kit this also auto starts and under Windows 98, NT and 2000 the installation was easy and done in less that 2 minutes. I had to disable my anti-virus software but other than that no problems were encountered. The reading assignments will give you the material you need to comprehend before taking any practice exams. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed in order to use this feature.

There is also a study mode to give the chance to review any assignment. You can work at your own pace to make sure you understand each of the concepts. There are also practice exams to test you knowledge as you learn.

You have the option to register the software right on line and the questions seem together than any others I have come across. Finally you can run the application without the cd and overall this seems to be a good CCDA package.