Critique my CCNA Study Plan!

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Just started preliminary research and reading into my CCNA (going for the 640-801 route) this morning, and would like your comments regarding my plan thus far, it consists of:

1) Primary Text: Sybex Todd Lammle 5th Edition-Deluxe including routersim/flash cards etc.
2) Reference/Supplemental: Cisco Press 640-801: Preparation Library (Self Study Series) Wendell Odom.
3) Hands on with Home lab: 2 Routers (2500/2600 series) and 1 switch (1900/2950) + Two workstations (Or maybe just mindtech?)
4) Maybe some cbt material if budget allows (prob. nuggets)
5) CCNA Practice Questions (500 w/cd-rom) + Transcender.

How does that seem? Obviously it's a big financial investment. Would appreciate any thoughts from you guys especially regarding hardware?? I'm scouring ebay but there doesn't seem to be too much choice at the moment.

Thanks!

 

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The only issue that I can see may be that you only want two routers.

Although you will be able to get by with two I have encountered quite a few labs when doing my cisco academy that used three routers.

Now this may just be my instructors over preparing us, but a third one could come in useful.

JMO.

 

Mindtech was fine for me, you can do all you need on up to 5 routers using the CCNP lab. The advantage of Mindtech I found was that there were ISDN and Frame-relay routers available. All the lab equipment you need is right there just a mouseclick away and it's all real equipment.

I used Boson questions which I found quite challenging.

Other good resources are Celtic Rover and The CCNA Prep Centre. Celtic Rover has really good tutorials and very very hard questions. The Prep centre is absolutely fantastic, there are video presentations you can watch, practice questions and a very very good switching lab among other labs all free.

Here are some other links I used for 'reading around the subjects':

http://www.networkingtutorials.net/

http://www.thebryantadvantage.com/Tutorials.htm

http://www.firewall.cx/index.php

http://www.subnettingquestions.com/

There are of course loads of others I have bookmarked from searching on specific topics, most of them being from the Cisco website

 

Thanks guys for your posts!

Simon > I think the problem is that i don't know what kind of labs are recommended because i haven't started reading yet. When i start getting through the sybex & cisco press books i'll be able to get my head around labs and therefore what equipment/access i'll need.

Pete > Thanks for those links! I've signed up at the cisco prep centre, looks good! I may also consider the Boson questions!