One exam or two ???

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I'm about 2/3 of the way through my Open Uni CCNA course, and starting to think about the final certification exams.

I was wondering what people thoughts were on the pros and cons of doing the 1 or the 2 exam route to CCNA ???

Mat

 

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I recommend the two-exam route for the CCNA. Here's why:

- Each ICND exam is half the price of the single CCNA exam, so you don't risk anything financially. In fact, if you fail a single ICND exam, you're only risking half as much than if you were to fail the single CCNA exam.
- Passing ICND1 will get you the CCENT certification, which you do NOT get if you pass the single CCNA exam.
- You can study for each section individually instead of cramming everything in all at once.

I used to recommend the one-exam route for the CCNA. But that was before Cisco adjusted their exams and prices. Here's why I used to recommend the one-exam route:
- Paying for INTRO + ICND was more expensive than paying for the single-exam CCNA.
- You didn't used to get another certification; now you get the CCENT.
- INTRO (which later became ICND1) was a **LOT** easier than ICND (which later became ICND2). All the harder concepts were on ICND. So people would start studying, blaze through INTRO, and hit a wall with ICND. If you were weak on one of the ICND subject matter areas, there weren't any "easy sections" to help boost your score. The single-exam CCNA combined everything together, which helped to mask any weaknesses that you might have had with the harder concepts. Now, with ICND1 and ICND2, Cisco has reshuffled the objectives around to make the exams a lot more balanced - one is not obviously much harder than the other, so you no longer have that to fear.

So... in my opinion, there are no longer any CONS to the two-exam route... only PROS remain.

 

Thanks for that, I was leaning towards to two exam route myself too, mainly as a fail on one or the other part would be a little less expensive

Mat

 

I too doing the OU CCNA! I was thinking of doing the one exam route due to travelling etc...

However I may do the two exam route now! decisons decisons!

 

My nearest test location is only around 20 mins drive, so the travel is not that much of an issue for me.

How are you finding the OU course? especially the days schools? they seem a bit of a waste of time to me, in the two day schools so far I've only had about an hour actually using real kit, the rest of the time I've been usenig packet tracer or doing subnetting excersises on paper!

Mat

 

I go to the Kingston day school - I find it useful for the hands on experience although to be fair I do the same in packet tracer!

I mainly use the first half revising for the exam in the afternoon!

The course however... nightmare! Everything is crammed in... I have slipt behind and find myself doing a chapter a day to catch up! (my fault)

I sometimes wonder if the course team know what they're doing (I was the muppet complaining about the inconsistency of the word limit on TMA1!!)

Whilist i would like to do this self study - I don't think I would have the right motivation - this course gives you a kick up the ass