how do you study for the CCNA?

kurabii,

I had the same problem. Read the books, did lab work, took notes, did study sessions, and only managed to score around 68% on most of the tests; in fact, the other three students followed similar routines and had the same problem. However, we slowly adapted to the difficulty of the questions on the test. For CCNA 1, I recommend studying the information until you get sick of it, then try to make sense of it. When you're lying in bed trying to sleep, or when you’re walking around school, think about the information that you studied, mentally go over the information, if you can't remember the small details, then you didn't memorize (study) enough.

But hey, if you’re on the verge of failing the class...accept it and learn from it. At least when you retake the class you’ll have an idea of the tests’ difficulty.

I think there's been some very good advice here. I took a very long time to get through the course material due to having kids part way through and working full-time. What I found I lacked in the early part of the course was experience and a context into which to put the learning. CCNA 1 and 2 felt a bit abstract, as I wasn't able to base it on real experiences. As it built up and my foundation of knowledge grew it all slotted into place much easier. What was very helpful was printing parts of the curriculum that I found difficult, such as getting to grips with subnetting, and doing ten minutes here and there while waiting for a bus or getting coffee. A little and often really helped as I could digest what I had read for a while before moving on.

Also, don't worry about getting max points for everything. Pass it and move on. Later on you'll be able to go back and fill in any details much more easily with a wider knowledge, and it's what you know that matters, no-one will know the score except you in the end.

Good luck!

I am still studying for my CCNA as I have been for months now. It's slow going with work and kids.

I realised early in my study that CCNA is the foundation for all the other Cisco certifications that I wish to do in future and that it would be more worthwhile taking my time to actually understand the syllabus instead of just knowing the answers to common questions.

Take the osi protocol for example. Actually understanding what is happening at each layer as it goes in and out of the device and what encapsulation is actually appended/removed from the data stream at each stage.

I feel that really understanding to that level will help me far more in the future. Sure it's slower going but that's the way I choose to do it. Running through practice tests after that, it becomes obvious what the answer is as you know it inside and out.