Hello everyone,

I have been studying for the ccna for a while now, since 09/25.

First it was a part of a CCNA Introduction course i took that was sponsered by my workplace - thank you boss.

I was studying once a week for a period of 4 month for 3 hours , and had homework which i was working on during the week for approximately 8 hours each week .

after the course ended , i didn't feel ready at all so i kept on studying .

January - february i was off studying , Holiday time in thailand and vietnam.

When i got back from my trip i went back to studying . I study each day for 1-2 hours and i might miss some days , also i don't study at saturday .

I heard that the CCNA is going to change soon so i understand i have to pick up the pace .

I Feel pretty confident about the following topics :

- OSI Model

- Ethernet Frame Structure

- DHCP

- Basic Swtich/Router IOS Configurations

- VLANS

- Subnetting

- Static Routing

- SSH

- Cabling - UTP/Fiber

- DTP

- VTP

- Broadcast Domain

- Unicast/Broadcast

- ARP

- ICMP

- 8 Bit binary system ( I mean i already know the patterns)

- Switch Interfaces

- User Exec/ Privileged Exec / Global Config

That's everything i'm pretty confident about , the question is .. do i Over study ? should i try another method ? maybe get the Boson ExSim and just learn how to answer questions . i Feel like people are going for the CCNA in 3 months and im studying for so long and i didn't even cover half of the topics.

Note:

- I study now with the Jeremy's IT Lab and i do all of his labs and use his Flash Cards.

Thank you guys , any help will be appreciated .

Hi Everyone,

I'm Matt Saunders, Community Manager for the Learn with Cisco organization at Cisco. Today, our team has announced a major revision to the CCNA (the exams themselves will update in February of 2027 - this announcement is just an announcement of the new topics being published) aimed at helping you to ensure your job readiness, from day one.**

Please review the following blog announcement, and AMA. My colleagues will help answer as many questions as we can over the next few day.

The new CCNA refresh announcement blog.

Cisco Learning Network Podcast covering the new updates to the CCNA.

Watch a really great review video on the updates from Wendell Odom.

If you are studying right now, don't stop! These changes will be made to the live exams in February of 2027, so we are giving as early and advance notice to folks as possible. The blog has further information regarding the availability of training, and the scope of the updates.

AMA HTH - Best,

Matt

**Edited with a new link to an interview regarding the changes with the great Wendell Odom. Also moved the go-live date for the new exam of Feb 2027 higher in the post copy, as requested.

***Hi - I've stepped away from this AMA thread for now. My team and I will continue to keep an eye on the post and help to answer question the best we can still. I hope your studies are going well, and wish you the best of luck on your exams!

Hi all,
My question is regarding JITL's mega lab. I noticed there is a video for the lab, are people using the video as a step by step guide or are they completing it on their own?

I got a 93 percent completion without the video. But i'm going back and double checking my work to see what i missed or did wrong.

I'm just curious on how i can use this to help gauge if i am or am not ready for the CCNA exam. Thanks in advance.

Boy the exsim exam is hard. Some of the questions, I'm just scratching my head. I only took one of the 5. Scored 63.5%. Hopefully, I'm on the right track.

For those who have taken the exsim exam then took the actual CCNA exam, did you score about the same or higher? It seems like the majorty I have seen on here has passed the CCNA exam. I just need a huge confidence booster. I just feel like giving up right now. I've study so hard but I'm having a hard time retaining the information.

I've tried the flashcards from JITL but my anxiety is taking over. I read the questions then I locked up like I haven't learned anything.

Guys can somebody tell me how secure the network engineer job is? I know in the tech industry nobody’s really safe. We see thousands of layoffs every so often so it makes me wonder about the job security of network engineer jobs

Should I get the CCST first and then go for the CCNA. Or just go straight to the CCNA? Got the MCSE many years ago and do know the fundamentals of networking. Also picked up a couple of older 3850’s for some hands on experience.

So I came across the IPv4 header topic whilst studying, and it's probably been my greatest obstacle so far.

There's several fields that we had to be aware of; I can understand what each part does, but I *can't*, for the life of me, remember how many bits are in each field.

For example, I can understand and explain in full detail what the identification field or the flags field represent with no hassle, but if you ask me the length of each one, my mind blanks 😭

I'm not sure if this can legally be answered but is this something they expect you to remember in the exam??

The new CCNA focusing more on troubleshooting honestly feels overdue.Memorizing configs only gets people so far.

That’s pretty much why I started building troubleshooting labs in the first place for my interns. If anyone wants extra practice for that side of things, check out wittynetworks.net.

I’m going through the new blueprint now to see where I can gear my labs more toward the troubleshooting and practical side of things.

Fun times!

Hi Team. I have two 2x2960 switches that i got from a friend. Can i do anything with it for learning for CCNA?

Let me know. Anything i can practice:

So, I’ve been dilly-dallying on Cisco Networking Academy, and I see in the certification tab for networking there is a Cisco Certified Support Tech certification… Should I use this as a stepping stone to the CCNA? Should I just focus on the Net+ for now then move on to the CCNA? Am I over thinking this, and it really doesn’t matter?

Im 18 years old, I finished my a levels early and I’m looking for advice, I have uni starting in October, and ive been on a 4 month break for my mental health, but I’ve been doing other work in the backround, I finished in January. I want to create a good backup and life in the future and that’s why I’m going down networking and cybersecurity.

I got a B in computer science, and I’m currently going through a bunch of certs on coursera, like I’ve completed google ai and I’ll finish the Google cybersecurity soon.

i tried starting my CCNA about two months ago, but burnt out completely, and I’ve tried restarting using the book, initially I used to write my notes manually, but I’m trying to do 10 pages a day, and I’m using ai to write notes. I’m still finding it very hard to pick up everything that the book is saying and it seems very boring to grind unlike coursera. so I have two questions.

1. Can I get my test and study my CCNA within 5 months before my degree starts

2. is there a better alternative to use for studying, I heard the youtube course by Jeremy it lab is good, and also takes two months, should I ditch the book for the course, or should I use them both and study both?

What are some more light hearted but frustrating moments you had while studying?

One that came recently was as follows. I’m doing JITL and the routing labs. For some unknown reason I couldn’t get it to work despite following everything. Router interfaces were correct. Static routes were added to the routers. Computers were set. Still nothing. I then changed the routing to include default routes. Still nothing. I think I eventually gave up and watched the lab. It all made sense as it was what I’d done. I put it down to a fluke and moved on.

Now come the subnetting labs. Subnets were correct, I double checked that. All the routes and interfaces too, yet nothing. I checked simulation mode and there was some traffic but the pings just wouldn’t ping.

I hadn’t set the default gateways on the PCs. The lab said to set the router interface to the default gateway, but didn’t spell this out.

Lol. Could be worse honestly but it had me fooled for quite a few hours. I’m wondering if you have similar stories and can share them.

Context: I studied primarily with Neil Anderson's course and flashcards, and I did the Boson ExSim exams (first attempt scores A: 82, B: 77, C: 76, D: 89, E: 91). Based on my scores, I don't think I need to reschedule? But it would suck if I got cocky and got tested on the handful of niche details I happened to neglect. Idk if I should feel good and relax a bit or if I need to lock in big time for the final stretch

I didn't use Jeremy's course because I thought doing two courses at once was just dividing my time. It's only yesterday I started watching some of his videos on YT and realized they're actually quite helpful, so I wish I'd done JITL stuff sooner. With just a week to go, there's no way to do the whole thing. I can study about 4-6 hours a day.

So... what's the best use of my time rn? Any labs or resources from Jeremy in particular? Any topics I should really drill?

I almost finished JIT labs course and I want to show my eternal gratitude for every protocol or solution being like this :

1. Version 1 - retired / obsolete/ ancient / older than mammoth shit, don’t even think about using it
2. Version 2 - the most used one, no need to switch from it in our lifetime , we cool here
3. Version 3 - fresh, extremely new ( created in 1988), too unorthodox for us, no need to know much about it

This makes my life much easier, thank you

What courses do you recommend to help me pass the CCNA? Are the Jeremy IT CCNA books good? Or should I just go to school for it? Any positive feedback is recommended, Thank you.

I'm an extremely busy person

Working IT support from 9h to 5h

+ 2hr to commute back and forth each way And I work 7days a week

And bartender from 19h30 to 23hr

Been watching Jeremy IT labs and practicing exams question on some website mcq

But I've done and understand and confident

Network fundamentals: 90%

Network access : 65% confidence

Ip connectivity : not yet studied

Ip services : not yet

Security : not yet

Automation : completed and confident 90%

Any help how to revise and pass....at this point I just want to pass ..just pass !

If I take off I might get sacked as my jobs are contract

Thanks