Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Reviews are always a bit subjective, but probably even more so with certification material like this book. I feel that this was a very effective book in my case so thats a 5 * to me.
First of all the CCNA Exam Cram assumes that you are involved in networking and your interest in obtaining certification, therefor the concentrate on giving you the Cisco specific information you need to pass. The biggest thing to recommend this series is what they are not.
The most popular book in the CCNA prep field seems to be the Lammle book which is 1000 pages and is really a time waster for someone who has been involved in networking for a few years. For instance Todd Lammle would say "Pay attention because this is very important" and then launch into 7 pages on how basic IP networking works. The experienced reader is then obligated to read through all of that looking for new information since Todd said pay attention, but then there is nothing new for someone who is in the field. Lammle's approach is valuable for someone with little experience or someone coming over from server admin, but the sheer bulk of Lammle (and the two Cisco press books at 700 pages each) make it difficult for the experienced student to just pick out the material that will be relevant to them.
In contrast Exam Cram CCNA (not this questions book) flags particular material as "Exam Tips" in a boxed sections and indicates that some material is "Highly Testable". In my experience with the exam they were exactly right- the type of material they flagged was exactly what was on the exam.
Here is the biggest reason for my recommendation of Exam Cram- the questions are hard enough to be useful to the student. The biggest problem in passing the CCNA Exam is know at what level you should be preparing. On a scale of difficult from 1-10 (devious) the questions in Exam Cram are pitched at 6-8 level. The Lammel book's questions are at a 4. The Actual Cisco exam is a 5-7.5. So even though Exam Cram is probably a bit more difficult than the actual exam it will prepare you for the multiple correct answer questions which can be tricky and for the indirect way Cisco tests your knowledge of some of the skills. For instance, Lammle might ask what a "desirable" mode is in trunking and give you 4 definitions to pick from, while the cisco exam will give you a interface config and will ask you how the switch port will behave based on some settings for a neighboring port.
Exam Cram also covers the following areas better than Lammle- STP designated port process, Wireless BSS/ISS and channel overlap, Security, IPv6. If you just followed Lammle there will probably be questions on your exam that you could not answer. In particular I had about 4 questions on STP designated ports that could not have been answered based on Lammle's treatment.
A word about the exam engine- I could suggest several improvements. It lets you test several different ways including a pop up display of the correct answer and a reasonably good discussion of the incorrect answers. This is very useful to the student. However the the exam scoring does not break down your score by book chapter, so you'll have to do that for yourself. The simulator engine is, as others have noted, atrocious as a simulator- there is no defending it as that. However- the fact that it sucks as a simulator doesnt mean that it isnt useful.
The exam engine will give you a scenario to configure, just like on the CCNA exam- for instance add ip's to a serial link, configure the link for rip v2 and advertise connected networks. The way the simulator engine works is it will prompt you for what subtask you are on and will only accept commands for that subtask before allowing you to go on. There is no auto complete and you can't use ? to see available commands at all. And there are no abbreviations allowed by the parsing engine. You must type "enable" and "configure terminal", no "en", "conf t". Ok this obviously sucks as a simulator- but as something that prepares you for the exam it works. If you can confidently configure things in the Exam Cram engine you will have no problem getting it done during the Cisco exam. Sometimes people get a little too comfortable hitting tab and ? and never really memorize the commands- that can cost you when you are in a timed test.
Another advantage of Exam Cram Questions is that it is a slim book that you can easily keep on you to peruse if you are at a sub shop and have some time. You cant really do that with a fat book like Lammle.
Summary- If you have been in networking for several years and are comfortable with subnetting and routing concepts go with Exam Cram book. You may want to do some additional reading in IPv6 as well. If you are coming to networking with little background or as a server admin use Lammel and at the very least buy Exam Cram Questions. You also should probably use the Cisco Press books for their chapters on VTP, STP, Wireless and IPv6.
Good luck!
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