hello guys welcome to my YouTube channel my name is Essa and in today's video I will be sharing
with you my experience with the CCNA I just passed this exam what I will do for you in this video
is that I will be answering the most asked questions it's questions that I
was hoping myself to find and answers for the questions that I will be covering in
this video will be including what is the CCNA is it worth it how much would the exam cost
how many exams in there what's the questions format how to pass the exam in six weeks how
difficult was the exam what is the required score to pass that exam what is the exam duration
most of these questions and even more will be covered in this video stay tuned
all right so let's start this video by answering the first question what is CCNA CCNA stands for
Cisco certified network associate it's provided by Cisco obtaining this certificate will prove
that you have the core knowledge and the hands-on experience to work as a network administrator what
is the CCNA prerequisites similar to many other certificates out there there are no
prerequisites to take the exam however Cisco recommends that you have one or more years of
experience implementing and working with Cisco solutions they also recommend that you have a
basic knowledge of IP addressing as well as you have a good understanding of network fundamentals
please please please don't let that discourage you there are many people out there including me went
for that exam without any previous experience in networking and pass that exam from the first
time I will definitely explain to you how to do that after answering the main questions first
so how many CCNA exams out there there is only one exam that you need to take which is CCNA
200-301 this is the only exam that you need to take if you pass this exam you will get your
CCNA certificate how much does the CCNA exam costs the exam will cost you only three hundred dollars
so how long is the exam and how many questions are there I will be answering these questions
according to Cisco as well as my experience when I took the exam the exam duration is 120 minutes two
hours and you would expect to get from 100 to 120 questions me personally I had 104 questions I know
that can be frightening at first sight because you will have around one minute per question
honestly I thought myself that I will run out of time before I even complete my exam however after
I started my exam and I saw the questions I realized that there was many questions
that will take you less than a minute honestly I completed my exam and I had 45 minutes
left so don't let that scare you there is another thing that you have to be aware of
Cisco exam is not like security plus and all the other exams out there you can go back to the
questions if you remember in my previous video my trick was that I would skip the questions that I
don't know and I would go back to it later after I answer all the questions that I know but in Cisco
exam you can't whenever you pass that question you can't get back to it again but also it is doable
if I did it myself and many others in there trust me you can do it so don't stress out what is the
questions format most of the questions that you will get will be a multiple choice questions and
drag and drop questions many questions from what I got was basically running a command they will
run a command for you for example let's say show ip route and they will ask you a question about
that and they will give you the options sometimes it's going to be a single answer sometimes it's
going to be multiple answers I will also include for you a tutorial from Cisco website it said two
short videos that it's two minutes each it's just gonna show you how the questions on the exam looks
like I honestly recommend you to go and see it just to know what are you getting into and don't
worry about the other type of questions that you will see there it's not going to be in your exam
that's mostly for another type of exams it's not for the CCNA so you will have the multiple choice
you will have that drag and drop you won't have fill the blank and any other question
what is the passing score Cisco will give each a different passing score however this score will be
from 800 to 850. it's not going to be higher than 850 and it's not going to be lower than
800. and the way Cisco grades you they will start you with 300 points right away before
you even start your exam and then you will be building from there another thing to mention
how would you know what the needed score for you to pass before you even start your exam
they will give you some instructions it will tell you what is your passing score me personally uh i
needed 85 percent to pass my exam I will also say it one more time uh don't let the passing score
uh stress you out or scare you away I honestly did not know what's the difference between a
switch and a hub six weeks before the exam and I passed the exam with a high score so don't let
this stress you out please you got this i believe in you believe in yourself okay does the CCNA
certificate expires yes unfortunately it does expire you need to renew it every three years now
to the important question is the CCNA worth it my answer would be yes this certificate is definitely
worth it why for many reasons first network is everywhere therefore having a basic foundation of
networking is a fundamental to a successful career in information technology and any other field the
second reason would be that this certificate will prove to your employer that you have what it takes
when it comes to networking you have the skills you have the knowledge to troubleshoot and to work
as a network engineer all right so now let's talk about the money how much would you expect when you
get your CCNA certificate and this is one of the things that tells you that yes this certificate is
worth it it's only one certificate but it's gonna open many doors for you according to Glassdoor
the average CCNA salary in the united states is 72 381 you can also look up your country
all you need to do is just write CCNA and after that choose your country and it will tell you
what's the average salary for CCNA in your country how difficult is the CCNA exam I
will be answering this question the exact same way I answered how difficult was security plus
you are the only one who can answer this question you are the only one who decides how difficult
this exam could be if you prepare the right way i promise you this exam won't be difficult at all
don't let anyone discourage you as i mentioned in my previous video there are many people out there
the first thing they will tell you is that this exam is so difficult and there is no way that
you're gonna get that certificate why not for anything sometimes they don't really mean to
discourage you but they want to feel accomplished by telling everyone how difficult it was and how
challenging it was and they finally made it don't let that stress you out i believe that everything
is possible in life it's just how many work you are willing to put into it and as i mentioned
before everyone is different i'll talk to you about my experience me personally when i start
asking everyone about the ccna because i came from a different background with no networking
experience i was told that this exam will take me three months of preparation i was told that there
was a high chance of me failing the first exam i was also told that i need to read the two books
uh volume 1 and volume 2 if i wanted to pass that exam and guess what happened i passed the
exam in six weeks i did not read both books why because i'm a visual learner and i found my own
way of passing the exam i would refer to the books when there's materials that i couldn't find out
so i use it as a reference but i did not read the whole book so this is for you guys who are
visual learner like me and wondering if it's a must to read both books no it's not and you can
definitely pass it and on top of that i passed with my first try and there was 45 minutes left
and i got a good score how to register for the ccna exam all you need to do is to go to pearson
and you're gonna create an account then after that you will look up ccna 200-301 when you find
the exam you're gonna add it to your card you're gonna buy the voucher for the exam which is 300
and after that you can schedule your exam me personally i scheduled my exam in the same day
uh when i felt that i am ready what resources you need to pass your ccna before i start giving
you the resources i wanted to mention that i'm a firm believer that education should be free
for everyone and you will realize on my previous videos on this video and in my upcoming videos
that i will always try to include a free resources that you can use if for whatever reason i could
not find a really good resource and you have to pay money i will make sure that i will get you the
least expensive and the most effective resources out there for the resources uh you need to buy
the ccna 200-301 official search guide volume one and volume two uh you can find them on amazon the
kindle version will cost you around twenty dollars if you want to go for the hardcover that's more
expensive you would pay around 37 for volume one and you would be around 34 for volume 2. if you
want to prepare the exact same way i prepared i do not think that this two books is enough
i needed more resources especially that i'm a visual learner so you will find me all over the
place looking for good materials good videos to learn from and i would definitely refer to
this books uh only when i search for something specific that i can't find out there or if i
wanted to see a different explanation other than videos so i would definitely get more
other resources there is also another source that i believe it will help you out so instead of you
go for example to udemy and buy course from there and buy this two books and after that you will end
up paying a lot of money so what i suggest you to do uh there is a website called o'reilly i don't
know if you are familiar with that website uh by the way this video is not sponsored by them i
just found it a really helpful way uh to study for this certificate and for many other certificates
riley they have a 10 days uh free trial right now so you can go uh sign up there and look for
the books you will find both books you can also have access to many other great books in there
and after the free trial that will cost you 49 a month i believe this is worth it because if you
count it that's gonna be equivalent to only two books that you're gonna purchase now and you're
not gonna use them after the certificate you're just gonna put them in your shelf and refer to
them whenever needed but when you have this access you have more resources to study from even for the
ccna there's great resources i will definitely put many links for you on the description so you
can go and check it out and i'm sure it's going to help you with your exit one of the great resources
on o'reilly that i found i really liked it so much especially that i'm a visual learner
it's called ccna 200 301 by kevin wallace i was recommended this course by my friend uh and i
really liked it so much it helped me a lot i loved the videos i loved the way he organized it it's
just straight to the point and he would really help you to understand what you need for the ccna
and as i mentioned before i will include this resource and i will also include every resource
gonna help you on the description now let's go to the last resource that you need to pass this exam
similar to security plus similar to many other certificates out there you need to be familiar
with the wording of the questions why because it doesn't matter how many knowledge you have on
the field they can trick you with some questions there are many questions that you think you know
the answer for but the way they work the question is gonna throw you off so i honestly recommend you
guys to go and look for practice questions for the ccna if you just google it there are many practice
questions out there for the ccna you can just write ccna 200 301 practice questions and look
how many questions you're going to find so if you wanted to step up your game a little bit and you
want to have high quality practice questions you can go for the resource which known as boson bozon
practice exam is really good the thing i loved about it is that they will give you their question
and after that they will show you the answer and why this is the correct answer so you will have
an explanation for every question and every answer that's a great thing however it's a little bit
of pricey it's 99 if you want to go with that resource with all mean go for it it's a great
resource if you feel that you can afford it just google there is many great practice questions
because what you need is just to see the wording of the questions and to assist yourself and answer
these questions and see how knowledgeable you are with their material so if you want to pass
your certificate within six weeks the exact same way that i did i just shared my resources with
you i would also encourage you to do your own research uh look for things that works for you
personally i also have to say that you have to be committed if you really want to make it within six
weeks or five weeks or even four weeks you have to be committed you have to study give yourself
a minimum of three hours every day not only that network should be everything in your life when you
are in your car you have to be listening for some uh networking podcast when you are at home and
instead of watching movies play any youtube videos about networking on your tv when you are eating
having your phone around just play any other video about networking so you have to really
go to the level where when you sleep you would be dreaming about networking and you will be
troubleshooting your dreams so you have to be you have to be committed you honestly can't do it guys
don't let anyone discourage you or talk you out of it you got this i promise you if i got it myself
you guys definitely can't do that everyone can do it so don't let anyone discourage you please to
help you out guys what i would do for you is that in my upcoming videos i'll do my best to do some
ccna videos uh it will be mostly with labs i'll be using the gn se3 because this is what i used
when i was practicing for the exam doing the labs will actually help you to see why this answer is
correct instead of just reading the answer so i love i love the hands-on i love the practice and
i will do my best to help you out in my upcoming videos i'll be doing lab that specifically target
the ccna i will try to make the videos straightforward if you guys have any other
questions that i forgot to cover in this video please feel free to write it down in the comments
and i would definitely answer your questions i hope that this video helped you and encourage
you to go for your ccna and as i always say don't let anyone discourage you don't let anyone make
you feel that it's difficult and you can't do it if i did it myself and if the person who's trying
to discourage you he did it himself trust me you can you can definitely do it i believe in you
you have to believe in yourself and i can't wait to read the great news in the comments so I will
be waiting for you guys tell me whenever you pass your exam if you are scheduling your exam soon
please say it in the comment we all support you we are all rooting for you you got this
i believe in you believe in yourself and see you in my upcoming videos thank you everyone