Customer Reviews

Cisco CCNA Exam #640-607 Certification Guide (3rd Edition)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Wendell Odom has, yet again, created an excellent study guide for the latest CCNA exam.

I teach Cisco courses at a large, Chicago based training center. Since we are not a Cisco authorized training center, we do not have access to the Cisco course materials. I use this book since it is as close as you are going to get to the Cisco course material. No one is going to write a book that compliments the exam material as closely as Cisco Press. As an instructor, I appreciate the depth in which the material is covered. This book does not cover exactly what is required for the exam. It covers significantly more. Given the competitive nature of the industry today, enough is not enough. You can't enter this industry and be average if you want to succeed. In the past, I have used the Sybex material for our training courses. Regularly, I had students that learned enough from the book to have questions the book didn't answer. The one complaint I have about this book is the speed in which the material gets deep. There is little ramp up time for a newbie to the material. If you are brand new to the IT industry and Cisco, you may want to start with a more watered down book, such as the Sybex 607 book and graduate to this book for additional detail.

This book has an excellent assortment of charts, graphs and pictures for the visual learner. Read, see and do are all required parts of the learning process. I find I learn best when I read about a concept, refer to a diagram to solidify the detail, and then, if possible, do it.

Lastly, the CD that comes with the book is excellent. In the past, Cisco's CCNA CDs have been mediocre at best. The new CD has the complete book in PDF format and a separate "topic focused" study guide for the last step of exam preparation. The practice exams on the CD are as close as you will come to the real thing (without paying).

If you want to learn about Cisco, understand their products and get your CCNA certification. Stop here. You have found your book.

This has to be the worst book released since the first edition of the McGraw Hill CCIE Study Guide. It's jam packed with technical errors, questions without proper answers, and explainations without context. I made the terrible mistake of waiting to offer a CCNA course until this book became available so my students would have the benefit of the latest material. Bad idea folks. Don't even bother with the practice exam, even if you pass... the test won't know it! This book needs to be recalled and a corrected version made available ASAP. I can only assume they were in a rush. I feel sorry for the author, who otherwise has an extremely good track record.

I'm sure the next release will be much better and I seriously recommend waiting for it.

- Dan Stachowiak
dan@its-inc.biz

As mentioned by some other readers that this book is not for beginners. The author take the start from directly the cisco operating system instead of first building the ground for a new commer to understand the networks, its topologies and some other terms. Some of the chapters are explained very well like 'OSI Data Link Layer Functions', 'LANs Bridges and Switches', 'Spanning Trees, VLANs and Trunking'. Most of the time author goes in so much details that at least at a CCNA level you don't need it.

Another big issue is the test questions on the CD. There are many questions with wrong answers. For example correct answers shows for one of the questions is "line-vty 0 4". Infact there is no command in Cisco IOS with the dash in between 'Line' and 'vty'. The correct answer 'line vty 0 4' also listed in the options for the same questions but when you click on the button to show the right answers it will select the wrong one and score you on the same. There are issues with the drag and drop items. You drop the items correctly, you saw them that they are correct by clicking the button to see the result, yet when you complete the test the result shows that you never selected the answer rather you skipped the question. The test engine has certain issues that will not give the student the right score. There are spelling mistakes on the question. Another question that asks that how many bits in node section of the IPX has all the options listed for Apple Talk protocol. Non of the options for this questions can bs seleceted for IPX. These are only the few I mentioned and I am sure that there are many more.

The reader who said that he teahces the classes for Cisco and the CD is excellent has to review it before writing any comments and misleading the new reader.

If you need to pass the exam you need to get two books. This book and Sybex book written by Todd lammle for CCNA. Read the material that you think you can digest from it and read the rest from another book.

When I started studing for the Cisco CCNA exam. I started with the older 640-507 book, and then purchased this book to make sure I had the latest info. I have to give kudos to the author who makes everything easy to understand - but you can easily tell this book was rushed. The testing software is useless. And the book has MANY inconsistancies. I took and passed the CCNA test today. I was totaly unable to use this book for my last minute studying and resorted to the old 640-507 book.

In short this author is awesome so DEFINITELY get this book but! WAIT FOR THE FIXED REVISION!

If you want a study guide to become a CCNA then this book offers more than you will actually need for the exam. But be warned about taking the practice exam. It might shake your confidence a bit. The score you get on the practice exams is often misleading. The exam itself needs a lot of editing. A lot of the items on the practice exam are gibberish. To make matters worst, it seems that no one bothered to publish an errata yet. An update on the practice exam is in order.

Wendel l Odom's book is excellent in that it gives you a lot more information than you need to pass the CCNA exam. However it is let down horribly by the extremely poor quality of the test CD. Many of the answers he gives are wrong, and there are even questions that don't make sense. Other than this, I would have given it 5 stars. Considering that the book has been out for a few months and several reviewers have obviously complained, I am surprised that the author hasn't responded to the feedback by publishing a revised edition. The simulation questions (introduced in 640-607) on the CD are particularly good. In short an excellent book which will serve you well even after the CCNA exam, but with the big gotcha of a terrible CD.

That's it! I have tried several times to keep focused and read this book but it's a very poor training guide. If I didn't have a background in networking it would be impossible to learn anything new. I have read several certification guides with no complaints. I am very disappointed and ready to order a different book. Time to auction this baby off!

The editors of this book did a horrible job. The book has many errors. A lot of questions and answers in this book but the answers don't necessarily match the question. The CDROM is very frustrating since it is not possible to get several of the questions correct since the answer format doesn't allow it. I also had trouble with the flashforms which represent the practical experience questions. After I would finish configuring the routers and clicked on "done" I would go to the next question but then the test engine would get stuck on that question and couldn't go forward. I'm completing the Network Academy and I wanted this book to get experience on the hands on questions. It's just too bad that the editors didn't catch all the errors in the book and CD.

With this book and my knowledge of cisco through their networking acadamy it helped me solidify my knowledge. With this book I passed the CCNA exam, and it was my only study guide. Also, I passed the exam the first time, with a 930. I recomend this book for all the people who are goning to take the CCNA exam.

Clarence H. Cannon IV
CCNA

I've worked on the maintenance and installation of networking and communicaion equipment for nearly 20 years and never have I seen such a poor quality instructional aid. The book has unbelievably poor structure for an exam guide - nearly unusable.
The book has numerous errors, typos and inconsistancies. Section quizzes frustrate with questions on topics not covered.

The included CD with practice exams is so terrible that timed sessions expire before they're up, answers are incorrectly graded, and questions are not rotated for exposure to different topics. The CD is nearly useless it's soooo bad. NO Quality control on this item what so ever !!!

I am a professional trainer and I purchased this book as point of reference in use for preparing field engineers to install routers and qualify for the CCNA exam certification. From an professional instructional consideration, the overall effect is one that frustrates and itimidates rather than provide an effective learning environment - which is exactly what the book was intended to provide. This completely misses the mark.

There is a great deal of information presented in a hap hazzard disorganized flow that overwhelms instead of instructs - save your money - but something, almost anything else. THIS HAS TO BE ONE OF THE WORST INSTRUCTIONAL AIDS I'VE EVER SEEN.

For better organization and relevant material, see Todd Lammle's Study Guides (they're not as current but they're at least usable). Cisco Press's Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices is also useful, but after my experience with the CCNA Exam Cert Guide, I'm very,very leary of anything Cisco Press has published.