Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) 200–301
Recently, I passed the CCNA 200–301 provided by Cisco on my first attempt and I have decided to create this short article to share my experience with acquiring this certification, in the hope that it may help anyone who is considering on studying for the exam. I have provided a link to the Cisco website below where you can learn more about the CCNA 200–301 certification if you are interested.
Cisco Training Material
There is a wide variety of training resources available for the CCNA 200–301 certificate. I personally used the following as my study material but this is not a definitive list and you may find other resources that work better for you:
- David Bombal’s Cisco CCNA 200–301 Udemy Course
- CCNA Certification Study Guide, Volume 2: Exam 200–301
- Boson ExSim Practice Exams for Cisco 200–301 CCNA
David Bombal’s Cisco CCNA 200–301 Udemy Course
I used this Udemy course as my core study material. The course is delivered through a combination of video lectures and prepared packet tracer labs. The video lectures are very thorough and cover all the CCNA 200–301 exam topics in depth, while the prepared packet tracer labs allow you to implement what you have learnt from the videos and become familiar with the Cisco IOS command-line interface (CLI).
https://www.udemy.com/course/cisco-ccent-icnd1-100-105-complete-course-sims-and-gns3/
CCNA Certification Study Guide, Volume 2: Exam 200–301
I used this book by Todd Lammle to supplement my core study material and read up on any topics that required additional attention. I chose not to use the Volume 1 book, since it is mainly a primer for the basics of networking and I already had some prior knowledge around networking fundamentals.
Boson Practice Exams
For practice questions, I used the Boson ExSim Practice Exams for Cisco 200–301 CCNA. This provided three practice exams with a pool of 312 questions, which could be taken in either study mode or simulation mode. Each question also came with a detailed explanation of why one option was correct and the other options were wrong. These questions really helped me to become familiar with the style of questions used in the CCNA exam and were a good investment.
CCNA Study Guide
To keep track of my progress and ensure I was not missing any of the key topics included in the CCNA 200–301 exam, I used the following PDF study guide created by the Github user sy1492.
Exam Preparation
Over the course of several months, I focused primarily on the training material listed above and prepared by:
- Taking detailed notes based on the video lectures from David’s Udemy course and Todd Lammle’s book.
- Working through the Packet Tracer labs provided by the Udemy course to practice the concepts learnt during the lecture videos and become more familiar with the Cisco IOS CLI.
- Focusing on areas that I was struggling with and revisiting video lectures or book chapters that were related to those areas.
- Working through the Boson practice exams in simulation mode and reviewing the detailed descriptions for the correct answers, as well as understanding why the other answers were wrong. After each attempt, I would spend several days revising areas I performed poorly in and then make another attempt. My Boson Practice exam scores can be seen below:
Exam Advice
The duration of the CCNA 200–301 exam was 120 minutes and you can expect about 100–120 questions. Obviously, I cannot mention any details about the exam itself due to NDA but I would provide the following advice to anyone who is preparing to sit the exam:
- Subnetting Methodology: find a subnetting methodology that you understand and can do quickly. It is an essential part of the CCNA 200–301 curriculum that will feed into a lot of other areas, so it is important that you are confident with subnetting for the exam.
- Packet Tracer Labs: completing the packet tracer labs provided in David’s Udemy course really helped to build my confidence around the topics he discussed in his video lectures and helped me to better understand Cisco IOS CLI command syntax, interpret command output, troubleshoot connectivity issues, etc. These are important skills to develop when preparing for the exam.
- Practice Questions: the Boson practice exams really helped me to become comfortable with the style of questions that will appear on the CCNA exam. I found the Boson practice exams to be quite similar in difficulty to the actual exam, so they were definitely worth the investment for me.
- Time Management: it is important to manage your time carefully during the exam. If you are stuck on a question, then make an educated guess and move on.
The CCNA 200–301 is a challenging exam, that encompasses a wide range of topics and requires a lot of preparation to pass. While preparing for the certification is a lot of work, I hope this article has helped a little for anyone considering the CCNA 200–301 certification. Thanks for reading till the end and good luck with your CCNA 200–301 certification preparations!
