Customer Reviews

CCNA ICND2 Official Exam Certification Guide (CCNA Exams 640-816 and 640-802) (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The ICND1/ICND2 books lack critical information needed to pass the CCNA or ICND1/ICND2 exams. For example, the author states in the ICND2 chapter on OSPF that "DR (designated router) and BDR (backup designated router) election is covered in Cisco CCNP course material... however this material is *critical* to passing the CCNA exam.

While taking practice tests in from one of Todd Lammle's books, I found myself completely stumped by some of the questions - material that was never covered in Odom's book(s). I cannot in good conscience recommend these books to anyone that is looking to pass their CCNA exam, unless you buy at least another book or two as filler.

I began this book ready to knock it out then ace the test. I'm about a third of the way through and I simply feel like Odom has simply given up on trying to actually explain himself. I'm reading the VLSM calculations in chapter 5 right now and have come to the conclusion that he just wants to give examples now with ZERO explanation as to why you'd do anything. For example: page 210, step 5 contains the answer to two possible classful or classless scenarios. Odom, however, gives no reasoning behind why the first 4 subnets would not work in a question that would not allow the zero subnet. Why are they not allowed?! Maybe I missed his explanation somewhere earlier but a recap sure would be nice. This book is plagued with this type of shoddy reasoning and like other people are saying, I too think he is just making words up at this point. I'm also sick of rereading paragraph after paragraph just to understand what he's attempting to say. Mr Odom, please, please, please write a study guide that puts the scenario setups before the explanations. Start a new topic with a scenario, answer the scenario then explain why you did what you did. Do not explain the topic, give reasoning about some scenario that was setup 2 chapters before, begin another example, give the reasoning, restate what you've just said 10 different and more confusing ways, then give the answer to summarize. It's confusing! topic, scenario, answer then explain...

This book is the authority on all topics required to pass ICND2. Every little detail on the test is covered by this book. Here's the best part - it reads very well. Its not full of fluff or unnecessary text that the author added it just to beef up the book. Wendel is straight and to the point. After you're done reading this, do about 300-400 practice questions only on the ICND2 topics; I did, and I passed ICND2 on the first try.

I passed the ICND1 test with Odom's book, and the included Boson Test engine test questions had me well prepared for the actual exam. The Boson test engine included with this particular book does not prepare you well for the actual exam, with hardly any scenarios where you are doing an actual beginning to end configuration of the various technologies that are part of the ICND2 exam objectives. It is also filled with bugs, and the Boson people have provided a bug reporting system. They do not respond and have not corrected any of the bug requests that I sent over five months ago. Read the book, but forget Boson as reliable gauge as to what will be asked of you on the exam.

Many of the explanations are rushed, vague and inconclusive. Instead of explaining command syntax the text often relies on examples extracted from show running-config output that fall short of illustrating the options in the commands. Have the CCNA Portable Command Guide handy, though that text, also, has strange ommissions. What I've ended up doing is to rely on the ICND2 cert guide as a framework for my studies while bouncing between it, the ccna portable command guide, and the CCNP ROUTE and SWITCH foundation learning guides, as well as frequent use of google to find the hard-core Cisco docs online. THIS BOOK SHOULB BE MORE COMPLETE. Seriously: there's no reason on earth to write a study guide that doesn't contain what's needed.

One more thing: Odom and Cisco Press ought to have had this run past a competent technical editor. Here's some typical bad language: "The information that correlates to the next-hop router's Layer 3 address, and the Layer 2 address used to reach it, is called mapping." While that's true, in a tortured way, it couldn't have been said much more badly. No one edited this stuff. Here's a simple principle: the language should make understanding easier, not harder. A mess like the one I just quoted makes it all much harder.

There are outright errors that will be confusing for someone learning the material for the first time. Here's the first example of an IPv6 address from chapter 17: "2340:1111:AAAA:0001:1234:5678:9ABC" A little short, no?

This book amounts to a skeleton outline with SOME successful explanations and examples. As such it's not a bad thing to organize your studies around. But wading through it is a LOT more work than it should be: the difficulty of the material doesn't justify the difficulty of reading it. The difficulty of working around the mistakes is considerable.

Noticeably absent from these reviews are all the people who used these books to pass the exams. I believe that might be because these books are not very effective learning aids. I struggled to follow along on topics I was fairly familiar with. But when the books took me into topics I was unfamiliar with, I found myself rereading paragraphs - not once or twice, but 5 or 6 times! I've been in enterprise computing for almost 4 years now, yet this author used terms I've never seen or heard (some words I think he just made up.) But the real problem was the 40 to 50 word sentences loaded with commas and double negatives. Here is how the author introduces you to Classful Routing

"Classful Routing: When a packet's destination only matches a router's default route, and does not match any other routes, only use the default route if this router does not know any routes in the classful network in which the destination IP address resides."

That was when I said to myself, "I'm going to need another book to teach me this material because I can't take another 400 pages of this." So, I think what I will do is find another book to teach me the material, and use these books to fill in the blanks.

If you are looking for just a reference manual for Cisco devices, this book will probably serve you well. If you are looking for learning material, then my advice is to keep looking.

I've sat on this book over a year now. I'm including the ICND1 as well. Out of all of the materials I've used to study for the CCNA, this is by far the least effective. Don't even think about this book unless you already have a decent grasp on the topics discussed.

This book is hard to read, and difficult to understand. It doesn't flow well and isn't particularly well laid out. A specific example would be to look at some of the network diagrams in Chapter 2. It's too much, too fast. The diagrams are not documented. I found myself staring at one diagram in particular for over 10 minutes trying to figure it out. This is in chapter 2. It's not that I'm not capable, it's just that it does not make any sense!

This book just isn't very good. It's a painful, confusing read. I would have thought that a Cisco Press book would be a lot better.

I can safely say that after studying and passing the A+ and Network+ Certifications, being very close to passing the CCNA (no thanks to this book), and having studied and passed several other certifications, this is the worst study material I've paid for. There are better materials.

I have read both of Wendell Odom's ICND1/2 books, and also the CCNA book by Todd Lammle. This book is very different. Much more thorough and detailed, and in my opinion a better resource for passing the exam. This book provides a comprehensive resource and study plan for passing the ICND2/CCNA exam.

There were a few errors. This book is in it's fifth printing, so most of the errors have been corrected over the previous two years. However there is a comprehensive errata document available for download that should be used to correct the few that have been discovered in this printing.

The "do I already know this" 6-10 questions at the beginning of each chapter I found very useful as a catalyst to pique my interest and keep me focused as I was reading through the chapter. (This may only be useful if you already have experience and/or intend to re-certify).

The overall structure and layout of the book is excellent. It is logically structured by chapter, linked to topics/learning objectives. The individual chapters are logically structured, introducing concepts first, then configuration, and finally troubleshooting. The index and table of contents are useful and laid out in a similar fashion.

The overall presentation of the material is also very well done. This is not just a re-packaging of information that is available in support articles or online documentation. The authors occasionally provide background material and history where it can be useful to grasp the concepts. They provide recommended approaches for troubleshooting the various technologies under discussion. They know when to dive deep and when to not inundate you with superfluous information. This is not a book that was slapped together in a couple of months. It is the culmination of years of knowledge and experience. It was written by an expert, and is very polished and professional in both content and presentation.

The Boson exam environment (BEE) is excellent. It is a spot-on realistic simulation for the real exams. Boson updates their exam environments frequently to fix any known issues and add functionality. (Make sure you download version 1.5 or later of the BEE from Boson). The exam provides 150 questions, with options such as randomizing the questions and answers, the ability to save your exam (if you want to resume later), and the ability to only show questions that were previously answered incorrectly.

The complete eBook is included in PDF format. The table of contents is hyperlinked. Another huge plus: when you are taking the Boson practice exam, and click "show answer", there is a hyperlink to the exact location in the eBook where the topic is discussed. Very nice!

I cannot figure out why this book + practice exam only costs $27. This is a tremendous value.

A final word. The Cisco exams are very challenging. Much more so than only a few years ago. The Boson exam helps prepare you for this, but you should read the entire book, understand the concepts, and take the practice exam. If you are re-certifying, you only need to take this one exam (ICND2). But if you are new, reading the ICND1 book and taking that exam first is highly recommended. The 640-802 (CCNA) is much more comprehensive than only the ICND2 exam, and is unforgiving if you are not prepared.

In simple words, all you need to pass the exam is in the book. Very well explained with some advices about common problems and troubleshooting, includes an excellent exam simulator with explanation of the answers. Definitely, the best book you can buy if you're on the way to take the Cisco certification. =D

Saw this title at Barnes & Nobble at about $10 more expensive. This is excellent guide for CCNA ICND2 include everything you need for the test (lab, practice test, exercises) plus Odom was one of recognized author from Cisco press, a lot of my colleagues get passed with this guide!