Eric Rivard
1 Cisco CCNA Exam #640-607 Flash Card Practice Kit
This book is full of errors.
2 Not what I expected
Not really Flash Cards. It has a few pages in the back that has the condensed information. But the writing is small to use as flash cards. Lots of questions and answers instead. Not as helpful as flash cards would have been.
Michelle
3 helpful on reviewing basic stuff
i would say this book helps you to review basic stuff and get clear on similar things, like protocols and OSI layers......I use this book to test myself before 640-607 test. however, the extra software for Palm, i can't make it to work on my N760 and TG50.
4 Junk...waste of money and time....
This is a terrible product.
There are so many errors that it started making me doubt myself - for God's sake!!
Plus, when I did take the 607 CCNA exam, this wasn't even CLOSE to what I saw on the exam.
PLEASE! I want my money back..
5 Good for last minutes before examination
It is a good book for preparing examination. You can use it as an exercise book. Finish one chapter with Sybex and then do the same chapter in this book. Your knowledge can be strength. I think you cannot use one book for examination.
6 Flunk Card Practice Kit
This kit looks as if it was developed in a third world country.
Their use of the English language is atrocious. Misspelled words
and incorrect grammar litter the test and study sections.
For example, a test question will ask for multiple input by checking boxes. The test format only accepts one input as
circles are displayed. Guess what, if you know the answers,
you get it wrong. If this happened just once it wouldn't be so bad, however, in a 72 question test it happens 4 or 5 times.
Also, when you ask the system to "show the answer" it occasionally gives answers not even related to the question topic.
This product is poor. It should never have gone out the door.
7 Great learning tool.
First thing I would like to point out is the Palm Pilot version of this book is just great. It helped me out tremendously in my studies. Flash cards are clear and concise and relate to the exam. The author is knowledgeable and clear in all subjects and does a excellent job in explaining everything. Overall, if you want a serious study tool for the CCNA Exam, this is the best money that you will spend.
8 Review for CCNA 640-507 Flash Card Kit from Eric Rivard
I'm using this flash card set to help me get solid on using Cisco internetworking devices and so far they're great.
It's a spiral-bound book so it lays flat, which is nice when you are doing other things while you study.
The content is pretty well structured and laid out by topic so you can focus on your weak areas.
The CD is nice and comes with software for palm and palmtop device computers for studying. I have yet to install it on my Windows CE.
People may denounce these cards as incomplete but no single method for studying is complete. From hands-on exposure and practice to books to online study these make up a good portion of my preparation for the CCNA and enterprise work with interconnecting cisco networking devices.
I would recommend also the #640-607 (ISBN 1-58720-055-4)CCNA exam preparation book by Wendell Odom and the ICND book (interconnecting cisco networking devices by Steve McQuerry.
(ISBN 1-57870-111-2 or newer ICND book)
These two books along with these flash cards will get me certified.
9 Save your money!
Here are the problems I have with the kit:
1.) These are not "flash cards" but short essays on various network topics. This is great if Cisco exams were held in a manner similar to a physician's state oral exam, or a college thesis.
2.) The 500+ question exam is the worst practice exam I have taken to date. There are incorrect answers to questions, misspellings and incomplete sentences, bad programming in terms of the GUI... specifically the radio buttons (some of these should be checkboxes, because they require more than one answer), and non-functional aspects of the network lab. You can find better practice exams on the web; just do a search on Google for "CCNA practice exams".
3.) Much of the information in the "flash cards" and study sheets are paraphrased from Cisco's web site; Cisco Press does the reader a favor by compiling this into the form of a "Flash Card Practice Kit".
4.) Any time an editor, author, or publisher of a book has to jump on to a review board like this and give high praises to their own work, the buyer should beware. This is not only pretentious but also raises some ethical questions. If you don't know to what I am referring, continue reading these reviews and you'll find it.
If you want flash cards, compile the end of chapter review questions from a study manual or textbook and write them down on index cards. If you are handy with programming, you can create a very simple program (VB, Perl, C++, etc.) that uses a random function and simple output statements to create electronic flash cards. Keep your flash cards short, they should not read like an article in a newspaper.
In summary, use the resources of study guides and Cisco's web site to prepare for this exam. You can check out practice tests and routing simulators on the net as well. You should have at least 1 to 2 years of field experience with network equipment before you take the exam, or you're not going to know how this stuff works in an enterprise.
10 Help my friend and me pass the CCNA
My neighbor and I split the cost of this "book" to help us pass the CCNA exam. Even though the "flashcards" where on spiral bound paper, I found them pretty good. I thought the palm pilot version was the best part of it. What my neighbor and I did was we went over every question until we had them memorized, two days before I took my test I went over the sheets in the back, which were really good. I passed the exam with a 851 and my neighbor scored in the 900's. I saw some questions on the exam that were very close to what are on the flash cards, but this book mainly helped me memorize the info to pass the test. Even though I had many diff questions on the CCNA exam I knew the info from memorizing this.
I was kind of bugged by the other reader saying it only helps with 10% of the exam, do you want every question on the exam written for you? Plus what are you doing talking the CCNA when I looked at your reviews you marked great points for all of Todd Lammel books and bad for Cisco and the books you marked where for the CCNP exams?!
Any way for others it is a good buy for the money, it help my neigbor and I pass! Now on to the CCNP!
11 This book is a NO!
The unacceptable number of errors/answers found on those 500+ questions will definitely confuse you. The reference link provided for each question does not contain adequate info. The "flash cards" aren't nothing but two questions on each page. It's still a book, not cards. These show the lack of responsibility of the authors. Don't trust this book. The money is better off used on other books.
12 Excellent value and good preparation for exam
I experienced problems with the test engine for CD version 1.0. With version 1.1, many of the problems with the exam questions were corrected. The flash cards were easy to take anywhere for quick reviews. I found the exam questions and study sheets more useful than the flash cards. The exam sims were the closest simulators I had found(without going to any fancy bootcamps and downloading free stuff from the internet). The actual exam was a bit more difficult but the test engine questions accurately represented the real exam. I passed on my first attempt of the new version (607) of the exam. If networking is in your heart, study hard and use this material and I believe you will be successful. Thank you Cisco Press. Greg, CNE, CCNA, A+, 4yr MIS degree.
13 Excellent Study Guide!
I have taken and failed the CCNA test in the past after taking a CCNA boot camp and also by using the Sybex book for the previous exam.
This "book" has many questions that are VERY similar to the actual questions on the exam. I haven't used the CD yet, as I'm really satisfied with the printed material.
To the guy who is whining about how the exam is multiple choice, that's just plain wrong. The exam has fill-in-the-blank questions as well.
This guide over-does it in some areas, but the extra knowledge will only help in the future. I highly recommend this study guide. The only information that it leaves out is how to subnet and also how to do wildcard masking.
Good Luck!!
14 Good for the Money
This book has some problems regarding the test engine as some readers have indicated. This is perhaps the greatest weakness of the book, on top of the fact that some information is misleading if you do not double-check.
I found the actual exam harder than most of the practice tests I had done. Still, many practice tests develop your mental alertness to tackle Cisco Exams because from my CCNA Exam, I got the impression that it is not difficult to fail a Cisco Exam.
A Great Buy, in my opinion, especially because the last 54 pages - the notes - are nicely condensed (sp).
Good Luck...
15 Good but BROKEN
A good tool to help in the questions it asks.
The test engine is broken however. It has multiple choice buttons where you clearly need to select more than one answer, yet can only choose one. Some questions are totally wrong, so verify each wrong answer you get from the test engine before you count it or commit it to memory for the CCNA.
It is good in helping you understand the type of questions you will encounter, from CLI, to move boxes around, to type out the answers. (Spelling does count and I have been told it does on the CCNA as well.) The fact that if you type "router" and it wants "routers" is just wrong and messed up. Many questions have been missed because I typed "Spanning-tree" and it wanted "Spanning-tree protocol". Note it will not take STP either. IMHO: A serious flaw in Cisco's testing and this flash card kit. One note I recommend. Hand Write all your flash cards. Don't rely on the print outs. You will have better retention.
For the money, it is worth a buy. It is helpful in orienting you to the new 607 test format. If nothing else, it forces you to double check your wrong answers. Just don't count on it to be totally accurate and don't let it's flawed low test scores discourage you.
16 These aren't Flash Cards
If you are looking for "Flash Cards" then you might be mislead by this the title of this book. These aren't "cards" in the normal sense of the word. Instead it is a spiral bound book with each page broken up into 2 sections. Each section has a question. On the back of each section is the answer to the question. This is what they authors call "flash cards".
Also, the answers to the questions are not in a multiple choice format, the format that is used in the CCNA tests. It is just the answer to the question.
I also had a problem with the type of many of the questions asked on the "Flash Cards". For example: What is a routing protocol? How do distant vector routing protocols function? How do you configure IPX on a Cisco Router? These are conceptual questions that you would not see on the CCNA exam. The majority of the questions on the CCNA exam are formated for, and presented in a multiple choice type format. The authors should have stuck to this format in their book to more closely represent what is on the CCNA exam.
On the plus side, all of the topics are covered that you will see on the CCNA exam, and the charts at the back of the book are helpful.
In summary... if you want actual Flash Cards, don't buy this book. If you happy with a book covering topics that might be found on the CCNA exam, then this book does that.
17 Worth the money
The information on the flash cards is excellent and the format increases learning retention. Unfortunately, the test engine on the cd has several errors which doesn't leave you with a good feeling. But I bought the book on promotion, and other than the cd, it is well worth the money.
18 Having help edit the book I think it is a winner.
One of the techniques I used to learn the CCNA material which helped me pass the exam was I created flash cards to cover the objectives. When I was asked to become a technical reviewer for this book I was more than willing and what you have is a very good product and study tool.
There are over 400 flash cards in the book and they tackle each and every objective. The cd included has over 500 more questions to give over 900 questions for the new exam. The book also has over 50 pages of quick reference material covering the major points.
Add this to the Cisco Press collection of Practical Studies and the new Exam Guide and you most certainly have an unbeatable set of study material. Also on the cd you can customize the ecards for the exam or for an objective and the cards can be stored on a Palm device.
Overall the author has a technically accurate and up to date set of questions to work with and you have a quick and handy reference manual.
