Polls about the new CCNA Routing and Switching

I plan to spread a few polls around the blog posts I’m writing about the new for 2016 CCNA Routing and Switching certification. This post collects all those polls in one place for anyone who is interested in seeing the data more easily. Enjoy!

FYI, I’ll circle back in a month or so to react to what the numbers look like from these polls.

Your Transition Plan for the New Exams

Every time Cisco changes the certification exams related to a certification, anyone studying for the certification needs to react. While there are fine differences in each approach, most people settle on one of three approaches:

Immediately Cut over to the New Exams: Stop studying for the old exams (ICND1 100-101, ICND2 200-101, and CCNA 200-120), and move on to study for the new exams.

Sprint to Finish the Old Exams: You have six months from announcement until the old exams go away. Your reaction? Sprint, now, to the finish with the old exams.

Keep Plugging Away: Continue working just as you have been. If the pass the old exams, that’s fine. If not, that’s fine. S’cool either way.

Your answer is probably affected by how far away you are from finishing. Just to give a little context, take a moment to consider how far along you are in your study towards CCNA R&S. If past half-way, answer one poll, and if not yet half-way, answer another.

Poll 1: > 50% Completed, What is Your Plan?

Poll 2:  <50% Completed, What is Your Plan?

The New ICND1 100-105 Exam Topics: Favorite Additions

From a content perspective, CCNA R&S = ICND1 + ICND2. For the ICND1 half of the new content, what are your favorite and least favorite additions to the ICND1 100-105 exam? Feel free to comment, but to get some data, I pose the question in two polls: one for least favorite, and one for most favorite.

Note that I included some topics that were not in CCNA R&S at all for the previous edition, and some that were moved from ICND2 to ICND1. Plus, I collected Cisco’s literal exam topics into a kind of general subject area in some cases, just to make the poll work a little better.

Poll 3: Most Favorite New ICND1 Subject

Poll 4: Least Favorite New ICND1 Subject

The New ICND2 200-105 Exam Topics: Favorite Additions

For the ICND2 100-105 half of the new content, what are your favorite and least favorite additions? Well, answering that for ICND2 200-105 in a poll poses a problem for the poll itself, because ICND2 has so many new topics. So I broke the discussion down by configure, verify, and troubleshoot (CVT) topics versus conceptual (describe) topics. Here are the most/least favorite polls for CVT topics:

Poll 5: Most Favorite New ICND2 CLI Subjects

Poll 6: Least Favorite New ICND2 CLI Subjects

Poll 7: Most Favorite New ICND2 Description Subjects

Poll 8: Least Favorite New ICND2 Description Subjects

Evolving Technologies Reach CCNA Level Certifications

Cisco has been adding some exam topics to the CCIE written exams about evolving technology, specifically about Cloud, Network Programmability, and Internet of Things (IoT). Check out this link for some more information about Cisco’s rationale for including these topics for the CCIE written exam.

Cisco just added exam topics on two of those same evolving technologies to the new CCNA R&S. They also added another large topic not ever pulled to the CCNA certification level, namely QoS. These three topic areas are three of the big additions to the new ICND2 and CCNA exams.

Figure 1: Three Big New Conceptual Areas for CCNA R&S 200-125

Now that you have seen the addition of these three topics, what is your reaction? Pro, con, or neutral? These topics are far enough away from the traditional CCNA subject areas to possibly cause some difficulties on the exam. However, these technologies are interesting and and all networking professionals should be tracking them and learning them over time. However, they do require more study and effort to pass CCNA.

So: Are you a fan?

Poll 9: Pro or Con on the new Cloud Topics in CCNA?

Poll 10: Pro or Con on the new Network Programmability Topics in CCNA?

Poll 11: Pro or Con on the new QoS Topics in CCNA?

You Long-Term Certification Plan: When to Stop, Slide, Keeping Rolling

Traditionally, you could spend your entire career building your skills related to topics within Cisco’s certifications, whether or not your happened to pursue the exams or not. There is a lot to know. At the same time, networkers need broad skills as well as deep skills. Additionally, many of the other branches of Cisco’s certification tree requires only CCENT as a prerequisite before moving on to the other area.

Given these facts, you have many choices about how deep to go in Cisco Routing and Switching certifications. It seems like a good time for a straw poll: What is your plan? I assume if you are reading this blog post you care about Cisco certifications and specifically CCENT and CCNA R&S to some degree. How far does your long range plan take you before you slide over to a new technology area, like security, wireless, or cloud?

Poll 12: How Far to Go in Routing and Switching Before Moving to a New Cert Track?

Poll 13: My Very First CCNA R&S Attempt was with: