The bulk of the test is based on IOS functionality. In addition, there are simulations on the exam that account for a large percentage of your final score. In order to study effectively, you must get your hands into an Actual Network.

Whether youare studying for CCNA, setting up a EIGRP Routing Network; or the CCVP, trunking SIP VOIP Trunks to your Cisco Call Manager Express PBX; you can not simulate or study for real life problems that you might encounter. Its during this discovery that you will learn the most as well as make yourself functional to an employer.

In real-life, networks connections are not lines on a paper and programming code can vary from IOS to IOS. In order to learn properly what Cisco wants you to know, on Genuine Cisco devices, you must practice as many scenarios as possible and deal with them them as you would in the field.

In addition, it is a great advantage to tell employers and prospective employers that you have an in home lab and can rack up potential network scenarios before deploying them in a live network environment.  For example, if you are interviewing for a CCNA position with a System Integrator, you can now let them know that you have the ability to test and troubleshoot different network topologies and technologies before installing them on a customer site.  This gives you one-up on your competition!

Last updated on September 10, 2010 by NetCertLabs