Cisco CCNA in 60 Days

Use this book as it is intended to be used, and it will be an excellent guide in helping you achieve your CCNA certification. A friend recommended this book after they used it to help them pass their CCNA certification. I'll pass on the same advice they gave to me, and that the book itself recommends: put in the recommended 2+ hours per day, utilize the resource material, and there is no reason why you should not be prepared to take your CCNA exam in 60 days. Obviously the less time you put it, the less likely you will be ready to take the exam in 60 days. Even if you do not have the 2+ hours per day for 60 days to put it, this is still an excellent book in helping you achieve your CCNA. Simply extend out your days. Like the book itself says, it will be helpful (but not necessary) if you are already familiar with CompTIA Network+ material. Being familiar with the Network+ material will simply help one expedite through the foundational networking concepts that are discussed throughout this book. If you are not familiar with the Network+ material, do not worry about it. Having studied for the Network+, and having read multiple books on Network+ material, I can assure you that this book does as good of job as any other book in explaining the essential networking foundations. Obviously this book goes beyond the basics of networking and is specifically designed to make you proficient with Cisco networking—hence Cisco Certified Network Associate. I give this book a five star review precisely because it accomplishes what it claims to accomplish: it prepares a person to take, and pass, the CCNA in 60 days. This should go without saying, but this doesn't mean that everyone who reads this book will achieve their CCNA. Like any subject or topic, you have to have the aptitude to be able to comprehend the material. So if you have the aptitude to understand networking concepts, this book is excellent in guiding you towards your CCNA certification.

I've used Paul's books, guides, and websites in the past, have been a member of howtonetwork.net, and currently joined his CCNA in 60days site. His passion for IT and helping others shines through in everything he does, the incredible value he packs into his sites and books is incredible! I remember when I first decided to study for the CCNA and was stupefied at the cost of some of these weekend boot camps and other CCNA courses. I just couldn't afford it and was immediately discouraged, until I came across Paul's howtonetwork.net site and discovered his book CCNA Simplified, which were both amazing! The information was easy to read and straight forward, and what you were getting for the cost was unmatched! I have been using the Cisco CCNA in 60 Days book along with the site and it's been extremely helpful in furthering my knowledge and preparing me for the exam. I particularly love the tips and Real world notes in each chapter, as well as the questions/quizzes at the end of the chapters. For me, the combination really helps solidify the information in my mind. I have tried to read the Cisco books and for me it's a painful experience. CCNA in 60 Days is enjoyable and easy to read. I would highly recommend this book to anyone serious about passing the CCNA. I still look around from time to time, but there simply are no other resources as good and value packed as Paul's. Thanks Paul for devoting yourself to helping others to achieve great things in their lives. Cheers!

I must say this book is great! It is clear and concise. Paul Browning explains the material in enough detail where it makes sense and easy to understand the first time around. He doesn't give TOO MUCH detail to where you will get confused as some other books tend to do. As i continue reading this book, i gain more confidence everyday as the time gets closer for me to take the exam. He is clear that you HAVE to put in the work if you are going to be successful. His method of learning through repetition and constant practice is very good. He recommends 2 hours a day of study time... however, personally i dedicate 3-4 hours a day because i like to review my notes, the study guide and re-do the labs over and over again. There are other resources that are made available to you for free and other very reasonably priced resources that will help you prepare for the exam. I would strongly recommend this book as one of you main study guides for the CCNA.

Finally I am out of this rut. I have been striving for CCNA certification for a few years now and it has been 2 years since I passed my CCENT exam (the old version). I have covered the material 6 ways to Sunday but this book finally gave me a plan to get the job done. I am very happy with the book and the online component as well. I finally feel like passing the test is within my grasp. I would like to see a more polished book with more in-depth labs, but this books breaks it down into bit-sized chunks. Even if you need more than 60 days, this book should be your study prep outline. You can still continue to use other resources, but I would suggest you stick to the breakdown of topics per day as the book lays out and branch out to other resources if needed on the the specific topic of the given day. There is somuch cert prep material available that we all have access to now, but this book gives you an actual plan to pass instead of jumping all over the place without a clear plan in mind. The cram sheets, especially for ICDN1 are very good and the book encourages you to add your own notes as your go along and to read you cram sheet(s) each day. By the time the test comes, you should have the stuff you need to memorize that you would never really memorize in real life as you would keep a reference, but Cisco insists you memorize little details that most real world engineers don't even know by memory and they refer to their various references. But, Cisco is making the test ridiculously hard to pass because of these tiny details and also the insane way they ask questions purposely designed to confuse you not to really prepare you for the real work. I have been in telecom and working with Cisco gear at entry level for about 20 years (yes this is embarrassing). These tests are crazy hard and you need all the help you can get and this book gives you a plan of attack. That is the purpose of the book and it succeeds and the author himself is available whenever you need help/clarification.

Overall the book is really good and I would recommend it for people, who decided to take CCNA exam. Pros: 1) The book is well organized by days, its easy to navigate 2) Questions with answers and labs are really helpful 3) Is a really good option for people, who don't have any kind of IT background Cons: 1) Not really the disadvantage when you understand that passing CCNA exam needs a lot lot lot effort and not a couple hours per day if you really want to finish the preparation in 2 months.The book is divided to 60 chapters (days) , but it fact some chapters are really big that you can't get them in one day. I just finished the 1st chapter and did the review - it took me 3 days to do that (15 h + 2h for review). So in fact 2h is not enough for me to learn 1 chapter, the average of 5h per day seem to be more accurate amount of time. However some chapters, also review chapters aren't that large. So think that its still possible to prepare for exam in 60 days with this book if you are ready to work hard.

After a lot of search and after purchasing additional CCNA resources, I have to say that this book really amazed me for the method of study. I have to renew the CCNA so my comments are not those of a beginner. I have to admit that I was already familiar with some of the topics, but a lot of them where completely new to me! I had so much material that I did not know where to start and most books contain all the information, but organised in a way for which you need to make your own study plan and verify by yourself how confident you are. The good thing about this book is that it not only gives you all you need to know, but the topics are organised in a way that enables you to remember and recall all the information you learned. Labs and exercises as well as review chapters are really helpful and help in giving you enough confidence to book your exam. Highly recommended and well worth the money!

This book is excellent...it's a tad better than the other ccna book that he has put out. This one (which I downloaded via my kindle app for my iPad) is awesome. I've been plugging along and it's great for the new CCNA version. I've matched this up to other cisco courses and Paul Browning's course has a lot of great information to take the ccna in 60 days. I've only had this downloaded book for two weeks but I've already read almost 1/4 of the book and I'm also catching up on labs. The labs are phenomenal whether you have your own lab or you've joined Paul's www.60days.com site or his www.howtonetwork.com site (which I am a member of). This book offers step by step study guides and some crams that will help you prepare for the exam. Heck...I'm even getting better at IPV6 and ospfv3 while reading his book. I would like to take the entire exam in one month as long as I go step by step with Paul's daily learning projects. I study 4 hours a day so I'm sure I will be ready....I highly recommend this book and I can't wait so I can start my ccnp and ccie studies while using his books and study material...it's a win/win.....

I'm really enjoying the book so far. It has taught a lot about switching and routing that I didn't know. They information in the book is laid out in an easier to read fashion. It gets progressively more complex each day, however Paul formats the information in a way that is gradual. Another thing that I really love is the abundance of resources Paul gives you access to. Though the book can be a stand-a-lone guide, he has videos, exam preps, simulations, and even a live Cisco rack available through his other websites mentioned in the book. Combining all these things together really gives me the confidence to tackle the CCNA. I'm on day 4, and I've already scheduled my CCENT. I've been learning about the CCNA for the past 6 years, but have never had the confidence to schedule the exam. I'll try and update this review once I PASS my CCENT in late May.