Customer Reviews

CCNP Support Study Guide Exam 640-506 (With CD-ROM)

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4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This has got to be the hardest exam in the CCNP series. I was sweating bullets. I am thankful for this book, as it did prepare me, but you really have to study hard to pass this exam. If it wasn't for this book, I would have failed for sure, but I did get a 890, which is awesome for this exam. This exam hits hard on ISDN troublshooting. Read the ISDN chapter in this book at least twice before taking the exam. You'll pass, but you have to do some work too! Good luck

This book is a poor to fair study tool for those of you preparing for the CCNP Support examination. Although I have a good amount of experience with Cisco routers I have very limited experience with Cisco switches and RAS solutions. Depending on the amount of the experience you have this book may or may not be enough to prepare you for the exam. I normally expect study guides such as this one to assist me in overcoming the areas I am weak in, but this study guide does not do that.

In general the text is technically correct; however, it does not explore several important topics, such as Cisco NMS and support options, in sufficient detail and it is poorly organized. There were several topic areas on the exam, Token Ring is the best example, that I was totally unprepared for. The text does provide an overview of Token Ring operation and offers two examples of Token Ring network troubleshooting but does absolutely nothing to prepare you with the knowledge you will need to correctly answer the Token Ring questions on the test.

Overall my satisfaction level with the Sybex series of study guides for the CCNP exams is fairly low. For the next Cisco exam I take I plan on purchasing one of the Cisco texts.

PJZ

This is a good book with a lot of relevant information; I definitely recommend it to others. However, it does have a few errors and the sample questions are not as difficult at the actual exam. I found that the exam itself was poorly worded and confusing. It seems weird to fault the book for having better grammar and logic in their sample questions then the actual test...but, whoever said life was fair.

I used this book and my own experience to study for the CCNP Support test. I did not use any hands-on time to study and passed the exam with a 896 (692 required to pass). So, based on the fact I passed the test, I have to say the book helped me to pass.

Keep in mind that the CCNP: Support exam is really nothing more than a review of the stuff you SHOULD have learned when you studied for the CCNP: Remote access, Switching and Routing exams, with a small emphasis on basic troubleshooting methodology thrown in. Because of that fact, I found this book really only re-stated things that were in the previous books. The only exception is the first chapter where they talk about basic troubleshooting methodology. (Hint: There were at least 5 questions on the test from this chapter).

The chapter review tests, along with the assessment test, practice test and 'bonus' test on the CD-Rom were very useful in focusing my study away from areas that I knew well and onto the areas where I needed to brush-up. This fact alone makes the book worth its price.

Brilliant book, I passed CCNA exam yesterday with a 924 score first time, tried other books but Todds was the most readable as if he was actually talking to you, and the best explanation ever on subnetting, even though I read it over a few times, but I felt comfortable during the exam. I liked Todds sense of humour. The test questions at the end of each chapter, plus the test exam were realistic to the real exam, 2 CCNP books already on order by Todd of course!

This is a great written book and it really helped my understand the ISDN troublshooting technique that is so difficult on this exam. To pass the Cisco CCNP Support exam, you MUST know your troubleshooting techiques for ISDN and Frame Relay realy, really well. Everything on the exam was in this book. I recommend this book for the exam and for a desk reference as well. It is the largest Cisco book I have bought from Sybex, so be prepared to read and read some more. Also, having routers and switches is the key to sucess on this exam.

I'm not going to lie. The Support 2.0 exam is very hard! If you have hopes in passing the exam the first time, I recommend you to study this book cover to cover. On top of that, this is the only resource I used to prepare. If you do not have access to a router, you can follow the excellent examples in the book by writing down the commands and their results a few times to jog your memory. Bottom line, this may be the easiest way to prepare for such a hard exam.

Book is great with many sample tests. But hands-on experience will help. One book alone will not pass the test. This is a difficult test. Not a bad deal to have this book, alone with the exam cram.

The current test is 640-606 which came out in the first of 2002. This book is only been out sense September 20, 2002. Only one review is of the current edition. The old editions are very poor study guides. However, the current editions of the books are more in line with the test. As for the two new exams that I have taken, I found the Sybex as good as if not better than the Cisco.

The best options for the CCNP tests are to get both Sybex and the Cisco. Note however, that the Cisco books for this test (Support) and Remote Access and are for the old exams! Also Cisco books are poorly written and are full of errors and the Sybex will compliment the poor Cisco books

This book has excellent coverage of every topic on the CIT exam. There is just one problem with this book, it prepares you for everything but the Cisco questions themselves. The review questions in this book did not represent the focus of the exam questions. Getting 100% right on the practice exams in this book does not mean you will have the same results with the real thing. For an acurate representation of test questions, purchase the Boson practice exams. Also, there are a few diagrams and explanations that are in the Cisco CIT book that are not in this book, but covered on the test. If you are planning on purchasing another book along with this one, get the Cisco book and read that one after you've read this one. The exam cram book is useless.