Passing the CCNA exam: Tips and tricks from an instructor

Chris Sienko: 0:00

Infosec and Cyberwork Hex wants you to pass the Cisco CCNA exam. To help you do that, infosec CCNA Bootcamp instructor, wilfredo Lance, gives you his top tips and tricks for taking the CCNA exam. Wilfredo will give you some advice for narrowing down the right answer by limiting the obviously wrong ones, common mistakes people make while taking the exam and what to do if, for some reason, you don't pass on your first try. Most importantly, why you need to take the practice exams before the test and then take them again and again and again. You don't have to go this alone, but you do need to listen to Wilfredo. On the CCNA edition of Cyberwork Hex. Hello and welcome to a new episode of Cyberwork Hex. The purpose of this spin-off of our popular Cyberwork podcast is to take a single fundamental question and give you a quick, clear and actionable solution or a new insight into how to utilize Infosec products and training to achieve your work and career goals. So today I am very happy to welcome Wilfredo Lance, who is a Bootcamp instructor for our Cisco certification, including today's topic, the Cisco Certified Network Associate, or CCNA certification. Ccna is the first step on your journey to IT and network mastery, and Wilfredo is going to talk to us about his favorite tips and tricks for taking that exam, and I'm really looking forward to that. So, wilfredo, thank you for joining me today on Cyberwork, hex.

Wilfredo Lanz: 1:27

My pleasure. Thank you, Chris.

Chris Sienko: 1:30

Thank you. So, wilfredo, the CCNA, or the Cisco Certified Network Associate certification, is a strong first showing for network professionals who want to demonstrate their understanding and competence to potential employees. So can we just break down what does the CCNA cover and what skills do you come out of it learning?

Wilfredo Lanz: 1:50

So the CCNA certification covers all the network fundamentals. Actually there are six domains for the whole program. The first domain is network fundamentals. It's an introduction to network services protocols, addressing, kind of an entry point for the rest of the program. Once you do the network fundamentals, then there is a network access domain that is more specific to the use of Cisco equipment and devices to manage and configure networks. That's the network access domain number two. The third domain is the IP connectivity. This is the most important domain for the exam. It includes the configuration and the understanding of routing protocols and services, how to configure Cisco routers and how to combine that with Cisco switches on a network. So those first three domains are very important for the program. Then domain number four is IP services. In that domain that covers the most important network services in use in networking today, right, things like DNS, dhcp services, snmp, network time protocol. So very fundamental, important network services are included on domain number four. Domain number five is the security fundamentals. There is an introduction to the implementation of security in network devices. So we go over routers and switch security, we go over the configuration of access list, authentication, authorization services. It's a very interesting domain given the environment that we live today right In IT. And then the last domain, which is only 10% of the exam, was introduced in the last update for the program, and it includes automation and programmability is how to use scripting and automation tools to deploy and maintain network devices.

Chris Sienko: 4:37

Good to know. Okay, so that that late that sixth domain is is new. So people who have been studying for a while, we'll need to make sure that they know that, that this is part of it as well.

Wilfredo Lanz: 4:47

Correct, okay.

Chris Sienko: 4:49

So, wilfredo, you've been steeped in the CCNA exam and and all of its changes, as you said, it's gone through for a long time now. Could you tell our listeners some of your tips and tricks for taking the CCNA exam?

Wilfredo Lanz: 5:01

So, especially when we do the boot camp right, I would say that this is a lab driven training. The preparation includes doing loss of labs right to understand the inside of the Cisco Internet World Co-operating System with those devices, but also doing loss of practice questions. So the the combination is there at hands-on labs understanding the execution of the commands, reading those outputs like we saw on the Questions on the other podcast right, and then doing plenty of practice questions to understand the Worlding, to get testing skills. That's very important.

Chris Sienko: 5:50

Yeah, now, based on feedback You've received as a boot camp instructor from your your students, what are some of the most common mistakes people make with the CCNA, whether it's leading up to the exam or on test day itself?

Wilfredo Lanz: 6:03

So what was the most common mistakes, I would say, is that people may feel overwhelmed by the amount of Content that you have to go through right, and If you try to memorize everything and learn everything in detail, then that that would be a challenge. You may end up failing the exam. Because it's just you are, you know, like you would be Overwhelmed by the amount of content that you need to go through in. You know just a few days. So you have to concentrate on the topics that are Most relevant to the exam. There is a lot of content that is good to know, good information that you may use in your job or work, but concentrate on the topics and that's something we highlight a lot right the topics that are critical to pass exam. That. That would be the most important part.

Chris Sienko: 7:06

Yeah, focus it in you can. You can read the rest of the book for fun later. I'm but make sure you know it. Yeah, and sure it if you want to do your job Well. So obviously no one likes to talk about this, but what is your advice? If you finish the exam and find out you didn't pass, what would you do to pick yourself back up and start climbing that mountain a second time?

Wilfredo Lanz: 7:26

So if you failed exam, they will give you highlight in the areas where you were very deficient, where you did not just call that one. Okay, they won't let you know what you didn't answer correctly, or at least some sections, yeah based on those domains, based on the six domains that we mentioned, they will tell you okay, the IP connectivity domain, you did very poorly. I see Less than 40%. That would be the starting point. You will get a sense when you take the exam of those areas where you were confused, not clear, couldn't find the right answer. That would be the starting point to get back. But typically failing the exam means that you either did not do a lot of labs and practice questions right or you did not concentrate in the critical areas that you needed to pass the exam.

Chris Sienko: 8:24

Yeah, Well, that's good to know that you don't have to start from page one of your study guide again and just start over. Just focus on the areas that clearly didn't stick the first time, and they'll probably make a lot more sense when you come back to them and then, as you said, take a lot more practice exams. So to wrap things up for this episode, Wilfrida, what is your best piece of advice for exam day?

Wilfredo Lanz: 8:46

I would say remain cool, be confident. I mean, one of the things that really is important as people start preparing for this is to gain confidence that you can do this right. If you go to the date of the exam and you are a little shaky, you are not sure you are all over the place. No, you do the labs, you do the practice questions. The date of the exam, just relax. You start taking the exam. There will be some questions there that you may not know the answer, a few of them just Cisco. You cannot go back to review your answers. You have to answer every question and go to the next one. So do your best with every question and try to remain cool as you take the exam. Most people, most people that go to the boot camp, do pass this exam, so we got a very high successful rate.

Chris Sienko: 9:49

For sure, All right. Well, that's great. Wilfrida Lance, thank you for giving our listeners a leg up in preparing for the CCNA. That was very helpful.

Wilfredo Lanz: 9:58

Thank you, Chris.

Chris Sienko: 10:00

And thank you all for watching today's episode of Cyborg Hacks. If you enjoyed this video and felt it helped you, please share it with your colleagues and your forums and on your preferred social media accounts and let other people know that this is really helping you in your own CCNA studies, and definitely subscribe to our podcast feed and our YouTube page. You can just type in Cyborg InfoSec into any of them and you're on your way. There's plenty more to come, and if you have any other topics that you want us to cover, drop them in the comments below. We will read them and until then, we will see you next time, and I just want to say happy learning.