I guess the coast is clear and I can safely say that this blog is now a CCNP blog. That’s kinda cool. But I can’t wait until this becomes a CCIE blog . But as you can see on the description just under my title heading, this will be a CCNA/CCNP blog, maybe for a long time to come.

I realized yesterday while studying for the EIGRP portion of the BSCI that I have been referencing my CCNA books just as much as my current study materials. So far the book I’m reading provides a lot of information building up on what I’ve learned on EIGRP. I wrote in the past that I had some trouble with EIGRP during my CCNA studies. But that might have been due to external circumstance rather than a reflection of the difficulty level of the material. In other words, I might have been having a bad week during the time I was studying EIGRP. But looking back, I find that the CCNA study materials are just as valuable to my current studies as much as my other other books. So I’m sure that a lot of what I am working on will still be relevant for CCNA and vice versa – as it should.

This past week has been pretty hectic. I’ve only read 20 pages of the study guide since I began the section on Monday. To put it in perspective, however, I’ve also reviewed the Odom book, researched a lot of resources from the Cisco DocCD, and googled other related topics. On top of that, I bought a new desk (a $90 desk that takes up almost half my room) and spent an equivalent of two study sessions putting it together. But despite only having read 20 of the 90 pages on the EIGRP section, I’ve already built up a huge study notes filled with juicy details on EIGRP. I found that the study guide tend to repeat materials that have already been covered a few pages earlier. Smart people might find it annoying or unnecessary but I personally think it’s a good thing because it helps hammer in the idea – good for people like us who have short attention span

Where the heck is the study schedule you promised to publish last week?

Patience grass-hoppa! It is on its way. I found it challenging to put together this time because of several reasons. One is that the new study guide has a different format and organization than I was used to when using Wendell Odom’s exam preparation guides. I had to acquaint myself to the whole organization of the book to make sure I’m setting an appropriate pace for my readings. That is, I I’m trying to avoid scheduling a 150-page reading assignment one week and the next week, I’m only reading a 50-page section.

Secondly, there’s another one involved. It gets complicated when there’s another one involved. Yeah, I also bought the lab portfolio book. Whereas before when I would make up my own CCNA lab based on the examples given on the same book I was reading, now I have a separate 500-page book just for labs. So figuring out where to squeeze it in the schedule is a bit challenging. Plus I didn’t realize there are detailed lab exercises on the study guide as well. So that has to be taken into account also.

Thirdly, I decided that I would try out the first few weeks of my schedule and see how it works out before I decide i need a complete overhaul. Because of the different scenarios I didn’t take into account, I might have to prolong my study schedule. Plus, I did not give myself any breathing room in terms of spacing out my schedule. For instance, I schedule this whole week, July 7-13, to study EIGRP. But I forgot that my wife scheduled a mini-vacation for us this weekend to San Diego. So that’s at least 8 to 10 hours of studying that is not going to happen. That means EIGRP might have to eat up some OSPF time. Meaning OSPF will have to eat up some other topic’s time. It’s a vicious world out there!