Clare Gough | David Hucaby | Tim Boyles | Cisco Systems
The
Cisco CCNP Certification Library is a set of four technically-correct books written as course materials. They all have the same strengths and weaknesses: they're technologically accurate and make passing the exam a no-brainer, but the dense, no-frills nature of the writing means that every sentence must be read thoroughly and completely to guarantee your CCNP.
First of all, the good points: By and large, these books are highly accurate and reasonably error-free, which is not at all surprising, since these are official course guides straight from Cisco's mouth. They get their facts across directly and succinctly, and are unlike most other certification books in that they're all deeply concerned with teaching you how to do your job properly. They're packed with on-the-job examples, and the experience shines through when it comes to teaching you the important bits, for not only do they show you the "how" and the "why," but quite often they also show you the "where"--how each technology and protocol fits into the larger picture.
The writing, unfortunately, is much the same from book to book--they're all extremely textbooky, as if each book was written by Joe Friday from Dragnet. There isn't a wasted sentence to be found here; every word counts, making the information-to-text ratio higher than almost any other certification book you're likely to find on the market. Skim a page of a topic that you think you already know, and you may miss two or three important smaller points that become quite important in later chapters. If you're used to chattier books like Sybex or Macmillan, the lack of handholding can be abrupt and startling.
The information density and real-world experience comes at a cost: Although the end goal of every test-taker is ultimately to put that experience to work on a live system, every CCNP wannabe has to get over the hurdle of taking the exam--and none of the books are true exam practice. Admittedly, each of them gives you tons of useful knowledge, but there are a lot of meanderings where they go into detail on something that never gets tested. Furthermore, they don't tell you that these are rarely-tested topics, so you may spend a lot of time struggling with some abstract concept that never comes up on the exam, and ignoring a subject that almost always is on the exam.
Moreover, the questions at the end of each chapter are essay-style, not multiple-choice. Cisco has made it quite clear what their teaching objectives are: If you know the material well enough, says Cisco, you don't need us to tell you what's on the exam--you'll know. As such, each book has to be read and thoroughly understood in its entirety in order to guarantee a passing score. This means that if you're willing to devote the time and effort, you'll pass without a hitch--exam slackers can look elsewhere.
The books themselves are remarkably consistent, and pleasantly free from the "two good books and a crappy one" syndrome so common in large, expensive boxed sets. Each book pulls its own weight, although the CCNP Routing Guide--even though it's the thickest and deals with some of the toughest concepts--is probably the weakest in the set, since some of the writing is obtuse even by Cisco's standards and may confuse those not intimately familiar with routing concepts. On the other hand, the CCNP Support guide is sterling by anyone's standards and is even a useful read for non-CCNP candidates, as it hands out real-world troubleshooting advice by the barrelful.
In short, this set isn't an easy read--not even close. It isn't for those who barely passed their CCNA or people who don't routinely work with networks. But it is astoundingly comprehensive and error-free by certification guide standards, and the effort you put into grinding through here will be richly rewarded by a high passing score and a good foundation of CCNP concepts that will set you up for an excellent job--and perhaps even your CCIE. Highly recommended. --William Steinmetz
1 Well... I've passed 'em all first time so far...
just one left...
You can go at Cisco Exams from a totally braindump mindset or you can go for the "just know everything so you'll be prepared" mindset.
The latter approach is the one these books take. They will require some dedication, rereading, and scrounging on Cisco.com but if you diligently apply yourself, the exams are passable. This is the harder path, but ultimately this way the knowledge will be more useful.
The books were inconsistent in their quality. The routing book was awful and full of glaring errors -- way too many. That's what's bringing the average down. Yes, the information was all there, but I'd rather use a book that didn't make me waste so much time parsing tortured grammar and figuring out what the examples really SHOULD be.
The other three books were adequate.
I found it odd that the switching book covered LANE but it was not on my exam.
The support book was sadly lacking in scenarios -- a book like this screams for them, but I'll give it passing marks because it had very few errors, and I believe it tells you pretty much what you need to know.
The practise exam CD's included with each book were useful. If they had about twice the number of questions each and got rid of the misconfigured questions, they'd be more useful.
The previous reviewer is wrong about these books being outdated. With the exception of ISIS being added to the BSCI exam (and you can download it free) the material covered hasn't changed: Cisco has just updated their question banks and is constantly adding more sim-type questions, while weeding out the loser questions and getting away from the "memorize till your brain hurts" mentality...
2 Regarding the New Test
I'm about to start studying and plan on purchasing this set of books as well as the CCNP preperation library. Cisco changed some of the format on one of the tests around and gave it a slightly different title. An additional chapter for each of the two relevant books can be downloaded from Cisco Press for free. Here's what Cisco Press says on their web page.
September 2002: Cisco changes CCNP Routing Exam
On September 13, Cisco Systems introduced a new version to its professional level Routing exam, known as Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI). BSCI has an additional section on the IS-IS protocol not previously covered in the BSCN course or exam. This exam, already in existence as part of the CCIP certification program, replaces Building Scalable Cisco Networks (BSCN), one of the four exams required for both the CCNP and CCDP certifications.
Free Chapters from Cisco Press!
Cisco Press published two titles originally created for BSCN preparation, Building Scalable Cisco Networks and CCNP Routing Exam Certification Guide. These titles are still excellent self-study tools in your overall preparation strategy for pursuit of CCNP or CCDP certifications. To assist candidates, Cisco Press is providing supplemental chapters on IS-IS. The BSCN and Routing Exam Certification Guide supplemental material can be downloaded by clicking the links below.
3 Product outdated
This book does not cover the new exams that have been revised as of September, 2002. Don't bother, wait for the next release.
4 Planned obsolescence
Copyrighted in 2001, the Cisco CCNP library has already been rendered obsolete by Cisco themselves. Not only exam revisions, but a fundamental structural change to the CCNP examination series has taken place in the short time since these books were put on the market. Unfortunately, I can see no other benefit to these books beyond providing a revenue stream to Cisco. There are better books available if one is looking for truly educational technical books rather than exam-specific guides.
5 With help you pass the exams, needs a few fixes.
One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how often certification exams change, by this you have to update your certification and with that you have to find study material that covers the new exams. Cisco Press has put together four book that not only exceed the newest CCNP exams they also help you for the CCDP exams as well.
Covering the Routing, Switching, Remote Access and Troubleshooting exams, this set of book can be used in the classroom but seems more for the self study. With over 100 hand-on labs, scenarios, which seem to be taken from real life situations, plus over 200 practice questions in each book you have a healthy assortment of test information right at your fingertips.
Each book comes with a cdrom totaling over 800 questions to practice with plus practice exams and complete e-books. Written by CCIE's, whose knowledge of the subject matter is evident gives the reader detailed explanations that should give you a very good chance of passing the exam first time around.
One thing I like about Cisco Press is that fact the books are more than just study guides they are also handy reference manuals for anyone working with Cisco equipment. Take this set of 4 and couple them with the 4 set of books in the Preparation library and you may just have an unbeatable combination.
Overall Cisco Press has put together one of the, if not, the best set of manuals on the market today. Do not let the price sway your decision as the information and material presented more than make up for the cost.
6 Excellent Set, A great value
So far using these books I've passed my Switching and Routing exams with ease. I especially like the Switching book as it covers Layer 3 switching and Multicasting in depth (which the test hit really hard by the way). I also like these books as they aren't so huge and they contain the info you need to pass the tests...period. I would buy this set first if you're going for the CCNP.
7 is it claire or clare?
i can't even begin to tell you how many mistakes ive found. on one page 109 i found over 12 mistakes (serious!). what i really have trouble with is her use of generalisations in explaining concepts. in describing LSAs being sent from router A to B she refers to router a and b as a router to the receiving router, well which is a and which is b. its funny that she can talk so technical but expects you to know what shes talking about by refering to a specific router in the diagram as the router. at least for the purpose of visulations she should state which router she's talking about, she does that constantly. i was lost in chapter 5 because she refered to a broadcast domain as a segment, the appropriate term should be broadcast domain. segment, although correct, is too general of a term, and not once does she explain that there are multiple levels of DRs and BRs within an area. her only concept is that of one DR and one BR, which confused me for a while. i doubt she has any teaching experience, because she speaks in theory and without good example. many of the scenarios are loaded with typos and very general depictions. take scenario 5-1 for example, it's very confusing because the summarization is backwards for that kind of a structure. she is showing addresses getting more general down the heirarchy and more specific towards to frame cloud, which contradits chapter 3 completely and IS INCORRECT. take page 239 as another example, lots and lots of typos. she has prefixes of 20 for two of the addresses but the router printout above shows a mask of 255.255.255.240 for all, which equals a prefix of 28. a prefix of 20 would be 255.255.240.0. just plain sloppy. i love these other books in the set, but this routing book is something i would read without doing her scenarios (half are wrong) and go by the sybex book as a finisher, or what im doing and that is to buy the more comprehensive books for OSPF and EIGRP, i hear their very good. I just can't beleive that books from CISCO PRESS are this polluted with typos and contradicitons. Shame on you Cisco. its quite evident how bad their editing is, i mean on the cover it's claire gough, but everywhere else it's spelled clare. i want my money back for all the time i spent writing and scratching in this book while pulling my hair out.
8 Good Enough to Pass the CCNP Exam.
I purchased this set last year and so far I have taken only Routing and Remote Access Exams, I'll be taking the Switching exam this coming Wednesday. These books are the only ones you need if you want to pass the difficult exams. Though you cannot expect that everything in the exam will be discussed here, you need a bit of common sense and work experience to get past through all of them. I passed the two exams in one try using these books as my sole study guide. These books cover more details of the exam topics than the Sybex one I think. I agree with the description above saying that Routing is the weakest among the books. Though Gough tried really hard to present the topics, something was still missing. I suggest you read the books cover to cover, answer all the test questions in the book and in the CDROM and if you could, get a BOSON software as well. That will surely help. Good luck!~
9 One Stop Shop for CCNP Study!
This box set is really the only thing you need to purchase for CCNP certification. I'd read these books over Sybex's every day of the week and twice on Sunday. **Note: I really DID read these books all week, and then would read straight through twice on Sunday!!** Yes, this book has errors, they all do. Check the publisher's site for errata. Although at times they can be very dry, technical, and perhaps convey more information then needed on certain topics, more is certainly preferable to less. I really like the essay questions at the beginning and end of the chapter, they make sure you *know* the material covered and the exam objectives. If nothing else, purchase this set for the 200+ question quiz engine contained in each of the 4 books. Unlike Sybex's, these AREN'T the questions in the book. If you score well on the multiple choice flashcard program, it's exam time.
Jayson Tobias
CCNP CCDP
10 good enough to pass..but many errors
while i agree wholeheartedly with the other reviews on the number of errors in the books (specially the routing one), i must say they were good enough for my to study and pass all 4 tests. but as always, a second sourse of info is always good to have. the web (...)is a great place to confirm any piece of info you might think is wrong in the book.
11 Too many errors , and no effort to correct them
I think this is the first book I've ever seen where the author's name is misspelled on the cover - the Routing book spells it "Claire" Gough, but all the other references are to "Clare". That's not really substantive, but it's indicative of the kind of problems in the text. I just passed the routing exam today, but I spent more study time than I wanted to trying to figure out how things really worked, and which parts of the book were right and which were in error. I've written to Cisco Press twice, and another reviewer has written several times starting several months ago; there's a section for errata on [...], but nothing for this book as of today. I don't know whether that means that there are so many errors they've just given up, or maybe they've cut back on staffing. In any case, I got the third printing - I'll be curious to see if they correct the author's name on the cover in future printings.
12 Good books but ....
I bought this set of books to refresh my memory, compare it against my experience and to see in which area I have to study to be able to pass the tests for CCNP. Overall I would normaly rate them higher, but all 4 books need extensive editing. I found many errors, even in areas I didn't have that much experience. More then once I would read something on one page and then on the next page it would opposite of what was just said. Very often the examples are wrong too. In the Routing book for example it talks about static routes and using passive-interface on a BRI interface, yet the example shows in the top BRI as physical interface, but the bottom of the example and the text after the example talks about Serial 0.
The same goes for the included test software with study mode and test exam. There are many questions for which you should select more then one answer, but they set the answers to only one selectable. Or in one case at least the question had two possible answer choices, but none was marked as the right answer.
I sent several times feedback to Cisco Press and checked their website if they have maybe an update for the books or software, but nothing so far. Nor has any of my feedbacks being answered.
All in all the books did help me to prepare myself for the tests and pass all successfull on the first try, but I credit much to my general knowledge about networking and parallel reading other documentation...
13 Good books.
Yes. There are normal study guides. I find quite a few mistakes in commands syntax. But it's not edge if you use cisco equipment to exam prepare.. I pass Routing exam without any problems (grade 908). And now prepare to Switching Exam.
Don't forget read careful exam topics (from Cisco site) - These books contain superfluity of information (ex. EIGRP for IPX,Appletalk) - not necessary to pass exam.
Sorry for my english. Good like.
14 Must have...Highly recomended
Clare Gough did a great job. I highly recommend this study guide to any "would be" CCNP. The layout is well thought out...Plenty of explanation on test subject coincides with "Case Study" that can increase your understanding of the subject. Also, CD contains Many extras such as a robust test engine, a complete e-book, and many more...
