Cisco CCNA certifications: overview

Certification: Cisco CCNA - Cisco Certified Network Associate

Certification overview

Cisco certification programmes offer a vast variety of courses for IT specialists and those aiming to become specialist in a certain IT field. The Cisco academy has centers in more than 160 countries. There are more than million trainees in the world who have successfully got the certificate. Courses are available for beginners, entry-level professionals or specialists seeking education, experience, training and certificate in fields related to data center network administration, service providers industry, Service Provider Operations technicians, fields related to securing networks, establishing and installing networks, risk assessment technicians, troubleshooting of networks, LAN wireless related field technicians and many more.

Among a variety of available courses, the most wanted and popular ones are:

- Cisco Certified Network Associate Wireless

- CCNA voice

- CCNA Security

- CCNA Service Provider Operations

- CCNA service provider

- CCNA routing and switching

- CCNA Data Center.

Before taking the CCNA test, applicant is advised to prepare himself / herself in a proper manner. The best way is to take one of the recognized and valid Cisco trainings. However, there are applicants who, due to different reasons, may not be available for such kind of training. The good thing is that there are many other ways of preparing for the Cisco CCNA test. You can take CCNA practice tests available on their CCNA test online page section, where you can find many potential CCNA test questions, from different fields of expertise. For example, some CCNA test questions for the area of CCNA routing and switching are from fields such as Operation of IP data networks, LAN switching technologies, IP addressing, IP routing technologies, IP services, Network device security, Troubleshooting, WAN technologies. There are CCNA sample tests for all levels, starting with entry level, from associate, professional, expert, to architect and specialist, in the end, and for different courses.

Additionally, taking CCNA test online has different options to chose between, such as time-set test, which helps you organize your time and understand whether you are ready for real-time exam or not yet; study mode, in order to cover all possible topics that may come on your exam, revision, etc. Furthermore, CCNA test prep process can be scheduled to your tempo. You can choose from 30 to 90 day programmes in order to fit your preparation and revision into your exam schedule. In this period, the number of repetitions and choosing between the offered mode of the CCNA online tests is unlimited. The goal in Cisco is to get you well-prepared for the exam and provide you with their certificate if you are the candidate who, with its skills and knowledge, deserves such a title.

Benefits of taking CCNA test prior to the exam are numerous. examinee becomes familiar with the type of questions, matter, time to answer the questions and number of possible questions from certain fields. Therefore, it is easy to concentrate to more important topics. The number of questions in CCNA test is organized according to the importance of the topics within a field. For example, in the CCNA switching and routing, Operation of IP data networks section in the CCNA test accounts for 28 questions, while Troubleshooting section is the widest and covers 76 questions.

Today, there are many people who prefer self-studying to the traditional, in-class studying. Cisco respects different studying styles and abilities of participants. Therefore, they provide CCNA test prep called On Demand E-learning, which is very convenient for employed examinees, since they can study when, where and how they want. Additionally, it is very convenient, since it is possible to track your progress at any time. Every trainee can also get a printed certificate that he / she completed the online preparation for CCNA test.

The benefit of taking this certification are numerous. More than 160 countries recognize and accept this certificate.

Required Exams

In order to take these exams from Cisco, there are no official prerequisites, but having the following valid Cisco certification is recommended:

-CCENT,

- CCNA Routing and Switching or

-Cisco CCIE certifications

However, some courses, e.g. CCNA Voice do require such prerequisite.

Required Courses

For the above mentioned Cisco courses, it is not obligatory to take the in-class Cisco training, but before taking the exam it is advisable to take one of the variety of training types, e.g. CCNA IINS training that can be online.

Study Material

There are different kinds of study materials available for Cisco trainees. Those can be printed books, presentations, or CCNA tutorials, pdf manuals or videos explaining the matter. It is recommended to use all the mentioned types, depending on what you prefer, since some explain certain matters better than others, e.g. videos can at times be more precise than pdf manuals etc. Study material can be found and used on the official Cisco webpage.