Exploring CCNA Exam Prep: Insights from Successful Test Takers
Introduction
Preparing for the CCNA exam can be difficult, especially if you are new to networking. We intend to help newbies develop their own study plans with practical advice and experience gained directly from those who have successfully completed the CCNA exam. We hope these experiences can provide you with useful advice and tips for your CCNA studies.
In addition, we used NLP (natural language processing) technology to perform a text analysis of the posts that were collected online. This comprehensive analytical technology enables us to derive objective and data-driven insights from a vast number of internet sources. Using NLP, we may find repeating patterns, trends, and statistically significant data about study materials, study times, and other important elements. This technique not only improves the objectivity of our findings but also assures that our advice is based on real-world data, resulting in a more robust and reliable CCNA exam prep guide.
Gathering Data
To gain valuable tips for CCNA exam preparation, we tried to find real-life experiences from people who have passed the exam, so we gathered posts across several websites, including Reddit and Facebook groups. In many posts, we found test takers who not only celebrated their CCNA exam success but also shared their strategies, experiences, and advice for achieving success. This first-hand information is exactly what we were looking for!
The NLP (natural language processing) technology can help us evaluate the gathered posts more efficiently. We used NLP algorithms to scan the text of each post to identify frequent keywords, phrases, and things related to CCNA exam prep. NLP also made it easier to extract quantitative data, such as study times. This strategy allowed us to obtain significant insights with minimal subjectivity and bias.
Exploring CCNA Prep
To explore CCNA resources, we first looked at the n-grams derived from the gathered posts. An n-gram represents a sequence of n consecutive words from a text document. We used NLP analysis to quantify the occurrence frequency of these n-grams in order to determine the most common and important words and phrases. The most frequently occurring Unigrams (n = 1) and Bigrams (n = 2) are listed below.
From the Unigrams Data, we can discover some useful words：
- The top three words: "lab", "boson", and "exam" may reflect practical lab work and Boson practice exam.
- The following names: "jeremy", "neil", "anderson", "david", and "bombal" may reflect well-known instructors or material producers in the CCNA community.
- The following words: "flashcard", "anki", "tracing", "packet", "flash", "netsim", "ocg", "official", and "pearson" may reflect a variety of learning methods or tools.
- The following words: "month", "day", "week", and "year" may reflect the duration of exam preparation.
From the Bigrams Data, study materials can be more precisely classified into the following categories and insights:
- Popular Materials and Instructors: Boson, Jeremy's IT Lab, OCG (Official Cert Guide)/Wendell Odom, Neil Anderson, Flash Card, David Bombal, CBT Nuggets, Keith Barker,etc.
- Practice Exams: Boson ExSim, OCG Practice Exam (Pearson), Jeremy Practice Exam.
- Lab Simulators: Cisco Packet Tracer, Boson NetSim, GNS3
- Study Time: Words like "Hour Day" and "Month Studying" offer insights into the study time spent by test takers during their exam preparation journey.
- Exam Attempts: Words like "first try" and "first attempt" indicate the number of attempts made by candidates. Based on these posts the candidates have passed the exam, which means that many people have succeeded in their first attempt.
- Specific Courses and Platforms: Pairings such as "udemy course", "youtube video", and "lab youtube" indicated a few people were learning CCNA courses on Udemy or the Youtube platform.
Popular Materials and Instructors
Materials and instructors are crucial for CCNA exam preparation, as they provide invaluable resources and guidance. Appropriate studying materials can improve your learning efficiency and reduce the frustration of learning, enhancing your learning experience and boosting your chances of exam success.
To find popular materials and instructors, we need to categorize relevant words, eliminate duplicates, count them, and then arrange them in descending order:
Well, Boson and Jeremy have dominated the study materials for CCNA. Wendell Odom's book: Official Cert Guide (OCG) and Neil Anderson's course are both popular options. Many people have recommended using Anki Flashcards for reviewing key concepts. Additionally, David Bombal, Keith Barker, CBT Nuggets, and Cisco Networking Academy are also popular choices, but to a lesser extent. Other materials are less popular but may still be suitable for individuals, you should have a look at them if needed.
Popular Practice Exams
Practice Exam is a very important part of CCNA preparation because they help you get ready for the real exam. These practice exams look like the real CCNA exams, so you can similarly take them. When you practice with these exams, you can find out what you need to study more and build your confidence for the real exam.
Apparently, Boson ExSim is the most popular practice exam, with a much higher frequency than the other examinations. The OCG Practice Exam, derived from the OCG book, also has a high frequency, which means the OCG book is definitely common study material as mentioned above. Jeremy's Practice Exam is less popular, but their CCNA course is more famous online.
Lab Simulators
Learning to solve lab problems is also an important part of the CCNA preparation process. The lab is not only a simulation of practical operations but also some difficult problems that will appear in the CCNA exam. Because most people do not have enough opportunities to operate on real devices, we usually use network simulators to simulate lab operations. The currently popular network simulators are shown in the following figure:
For CCNA Labs, most people believe that Cisco Packet Tracer is sufficient, and it was used in both OCG books and Jeremy's courses, as well as many other courses. There are a lot of free labs with Packet Tracer on YouTube. Boson NetSim is also a great way to learn lab if you don't want to install anything on your machine; it's an online simulator and easy to use. GNS3 is a powerful tool, but it may have fewer users due to its complex configuration process.
Study Time
The study time is different to different people, so you should arrange your study plan based on your past experience and daily free time. However, taking a look at the study time of others can also help you plan your own.
According to the data shown above, the average study time for most people is around half a year. When we consider more than half a year, we get around 43% of people who spent more than or equivalent to half a year. Although CCNA is an associate-level certification, many people are just starting and need to learn a lot of fundamentals, so you should still leave as much time as possible based on your background.
Conclusion
Based on the posts gathered from successful CCNA test takers, this guide offers some popular materials and useful insights by using NLP technology. Even though there is no learning material suitable for everyone, I have summarized the most common study materials now available:
- Courses: Jeremy's IT Lab CCNA course or Neil Anderson Udemy CCNA course
- Practice Exam: Boson ExSim-Max for Cisco 200-301 CCNA
- Official Book: CCNA 200-301 Official Cert Guide Library: Odom, Wendell
- Network Simulator: Cisco Packet Trace
Useful Links:
- Reddit r/CCNA Rules & Resources , Links to most of the study materials mentioned in this article, you should definitely take a look.
- Official learning resources:
Thank you for reading so far. Just like the study time mentioned earlier, starting as early as possible may be your first step. I wish you excellent results in the CCNA exam!