I’m in the process of getting my Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification. There are two routes you can take for the exam: one test with everything on it, or breaking it up into two smaller tests that contain the same information. Assuming the two-test option would be easier, I very lazily spent the last year reading and studying the first book. I finished it several months ago and never bothered to take the test.
Then, I found out that the test is changing at the beginning of next month–this would mean that my $100 study materials would be useless and need to be re-purchased, and that I’d have to re-read the intro book.
So, after studying a bit, I took the CCNA Intro exam on Friday and passed. (Whoo!) A small part of me was hoping I wouldn’t… I figured that if I failed the first exam, there would be no point in trying to pass the second within this time frame.
I now have to read and memorize a 500-page Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices (ICND) textbook before the end of the month, then pass a test on it. Two of my coworkers have taken the full test, and both made at least two attempts before actually passing. It’s not an easy exam.
There are only 13 chapters, so I’m going to read a chapter a day. Really, this isn’t much different than what I did at the end of every semester in college… I’d typically slack off for most the semester, then realize with horror I had an entire program/case study/semester-long project due. I’d spend the next two weeks barely sleeping and working 18 hours a day, pausing only to sleep and eat.
It’s a good system.