Me a Blogger? Okay - First. Thanks Wendell

I want to thank Wendell and give a big thumbs-up to his books published by Cisco Press. I studied another author in 2000 and passed the old CCNA. I spent the next 4 years working Windows/Novell projects and didn't touch a router or switch so my cert expired. I decided about 3 months ago to re-certify (is that a word?) and quickly realized that the new CCNA exam is much different than the old one - much more in-depth and added content. Aside from the OSI model and basic CLI commands, I felt completely lost. So I asked around regarding what texts were best and Wendell's were highly recommended. I ended up buying his CCNA Pack (ICND1 and ICND2 texts) and I bought a "combo" book written by the author I used back in 2000. I read the first 50 pages of Wendell's ICND1 and the combo book by "AuthorX". It didn't take long for me to see that Wendell's books are written to actually teach - to explain - the material as opposed to other authors whose goal appears to be limited to getting you past the exam.

I put the book written by AuthorX on a shelf in my library and dug into Wendell's ICND1 text. I followed Wendell's recommended study plan and practiced subnetting to the point that I dreamed about it - No Joke! There were a few nights that I dreamed my boss wrote subnetting questions on the marker board in my office and stood there demanding that I answer them quickly - "... and do it in your head - now!" Wild dreams! Thank goodness those dreams have stopped! - And thank goodness for the subnetting practice included on the books's CD!

Wendell says in the book that if you practice enough you'll get to the point where you can subnet quickly in your head. HE'S RIGHT! Do not doubt it! I had no problems the exam's subnetting questions - direct or indirect. I missed none - thanks to Wendell - and a lot of studying on my part. In fact, I missed very few questions on the exam. And those that I did miss were in the area that I felt completely comfortable with going in for the exam. (My guess is that I was so comfortable with those questions that I didn't follow Wendell's recommendations about carefully reading, re-reading, and understanding the questions.)

Well I've gone on and on and on. Time to put a stop to this.

Here's my message Guys and Gals -

If I can learn what I have learned and understand what I now understand, ANYONE CAN - including YOU!

And - duh - I didn't know I could bring my cert current by passing only the ICND2 exam - until after I took the ICND1 and began studying for ICND2. But, I know SO MUCH MORE now (after studying ICND1) than I did before. ICND2 is next in about a month. Next is CCNP.

GIARI!

John