Customer Reviews

CCNA Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(57)

 

 

I found this book to be a boring read. I know it is a study guide, but it was still very difficult to follow. The boring text is coupled with poor formatting and numerous errors of fact. There are several places where you are referred to particular page, diagram or table only to find the information is not there. I never did get the CD to work.

I purchased this book because its formatting was appealing. What I found very useful with this book is the HTML version of the entire text on CD. This is great to compile your own notes and use them to cram for the exam once you have read the book. I also liked the "From the Classroom" sections in each chapter. They put a lot of that theory in the perspective of a production environment. The inaccuracies that have generated so much bad press are covered for the most part in a downloadable errata. Again, most books (not just this one) have published errata -this is a fact of life. I am a veteran test taker. I am a MCNE and a MCSE. I do not understand people who think that by reading one book they can become certified. Experience accompanied by a lot of study and preparation are the keys to success. This book is not the only source of documentation I have used to become a CCNA. I would never dream to read one book and become certified in anything (reality check #1). In addition, only 68% is required to pass the test. That represents only 47 questions right out of 70 -make no mistake though this is a tough exam. A failure on the CCNA can only be attributed to a lack of studying and a lack of preparation. It is preposterous to think that a book can contribute to failing an exam. I would recommend this book as a good source of information. Do yourself a favor, be critical of what you read. Browse the book at a bookstore and see whether or not you like it. It is still the best way to buy a book for us book lovers.

This book is poorly arranged and confusing. It is full of typographical errors and in several cases the material is simply incorrect. I felt that the authors rushed this book to press without thoroughly reviewing it.

I would be surprised if anyone without prior experience in this subject could pass this test based on this book.

There are several other texts for this test that are much more accurate and of much better quality.

This book is packed with good information on Lan/Wan technology. But I found it poorly organized and some times hard to follow. Too often terms or concepts are thrown in with out sufficeint explination. This seemed to be written for an experienced wan tech looking for a review and not a lesser trained lan tech. If you fall under the cisco "newbie" lable, try some thing from sybex or another publisher first.

You can pass the test if you go to Cisco's website and get the exam objectives. Then make sure you get all the objectives covered buy studying the books. This book didn't adequately cover some stuff like CDP, subnetting and Wide Area Networking. On some points it did give easy to understand explanations. I would recommend this book as a supplement to Todd Lammle's CCNA study guide which has much more print outs of how a router's configuration really looks like from scratch. Spend the money and buy both books, because they make up for each others weak spots. Then study hard and you'll definately pass the test.

This is a good book, but I kind of got lost in some of the wording at times. I think this is a great book to sit down with if you have a Router Sim or an actual router to try things with.

After reading the book and taking the test, I was highly disappointed in finding out the information that was to prepare me for the exam. My suggestion would be to purchase the Cisco Press, Introduction to Cisco Router Configuration book and studying it. Poor job Syngress!

I liked the book. Some of the reviews here almost scared me off, but I bought it anyway as I thought that the more help and reference I had, the better. I'm glad I thought this way. This was an excellent book, and one that helped clarify things such as VLAN and IP Configuration that I wasn't totally comfortable with. I've recommended this book to several co-workers, and they have all used it successfully as well.

This book does NOT cover the test, regardless of what THE WRITERS SAY. I took the test and found very little of the information in this book. There are other books coming out, and I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND BUYING A DIFFERENT BOOK! OF course the person involved in this book would say they follow the test, wouldn't you? This book does NOT cover the test objectives. I am not looking for an easy way to pass the test. I want a book that will help me understand the objectives, which this book does not. By reading this book, I didn't know most of what I needed to become Cisco certified. The writers were in such a hurry, or was that the publishers, to get the book out, they left a lot of the information needed out of this book. The inside cover of the book says that the test is 44 questions long. The NEW TEST is 70 questions long!!!!

This was one of the first CCNA books to hit the market and I'm glad I bought and read it. However, working in the industry and being an MCSE gives me a good foundation to build on. I haven't read other Cisco books and haven't had any router or switching hands-on experience. But, I've understood all the material in the book. I'm actually pleasantly surprised at how well I understood everything the first time around! It's logically arranged and well written. The two-minute drills and self-tests are fairly challenging and the CDROM is a great tool to cut and paste your own set of notes and quizzes. The book also maps directly to Cisco's web site learning objectives. Also, it's great if you've got the hardware to play around with.

Trying to learn about Cisco internetworking and attaining CCNA certification isn't easy. Like anything else, this book will be an easier read, if you have a good foundation. I recommend the book.