CISCO: How to Pass the CCNA Exam?

I have had my fair share of asking this question many times over before I started to embark on my journey for the exam.

Like others, I also did lots of google searches with the exact question "How to pass the CCNA exam".

You know what I found? Nothing that I did not already know. I knew the answer all along but I just had to see them written down by someone else to trick myself to believe that which I already know.

I reckoned from the beginning that the journey will include lots of hard work, time, focus and dedication, and I was just a fool not to let myself believe that it is indeed as such.

So...

I wandered about, searched a lot and wasted time on the internet looking for a possible loophole or magic trick to make this easy, but i found none.

In short, a few weeks later and still, I was going nowhere.

Fast forward a month and a half, I passed the first exam.

After another two months, I passed the second. If that is not a fast-paced journey for you, I don't know what is. 

I could not have passed the exams sooner.

How did I do it? Here's how.

1. I have a bit of an edge because I just then recently passed two exams and got Comptia A+ certified.

2. I downloaded and printed all the CCNA exam objectives

3. Each time I knew and got comfortable with an exam objective, I cross it out

4. The best part of my journey started when I watched video tutorials. I would advise that you watch first the videos from CBTNuggets' Jeremy Cioara. He's got the basics very much covered and very well explained. Just watch them and catch whatever you can.

5. After finishing Jeremy's tutorials, go and look for Kevin Wallace's CCNA videos. These are more than 300 videos but are just ranging from 1 to 8 minutes short.

6. Now, the techniques start here. For the videos with concepts that don't include configurations, you can watch these out over and over until you get the lesson, technology or concept.

7. For the videos on concepts that have configurations, this is my approach. 

Watch the video with the configuration on YouTube and take notes of the steps and commands, perform the configuration while using the YouTube video as your guide. Repeat the configuration without any guide.

For tutorials visit this link.
For first time in the Cisco Command Line this is very useful.
Learn SUBNETTING HERE

8. Move on to the next concepts and configurations.

9. Have a review of all the concepts and configurations on a weekly basis. Do the configurations from the oldest to the latest. Now your building up. You will notice that you now know more than you used to.

10. Get a hand on every practice test that you can.

11. Join Facebook groups. Be involved with the discussions and Q and As.

12. Practice subnetting as much as possible - this is the key. You should be able to answer any question in less that two minutes. Practice at https://subnettingpractice.com/

13. Do not overload yourself. The exam can be taken in two ways. One way is to take it in two exams ICND1 (100-105) & ICND2 (200-105). Or you can take the exam as a whole CCNA (200-125).

14. I used to practice the configurations with a headset and loud music on to avoid distractions. Find out what suits you.

15. On the day of the exam, write all that you can in the board that they will give you. Write your subnetting chart, your multiples or what not, it's totally up to you.

I could not give out any more tips or tricks, that's just it. Repetition, repetition, repetition.

It's hard. And hard is good, right? Remember, "If it was easy, everybody would do it".