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CCNA and CCNP candidates hear it all the time: “you've to get some hands-on experience to proceed the exams”.

Candidates tend to consider that's only so they could solve the simulator issues, yet that's only the more obvious reason.

First, I wish to make it clear that I am not bashing coming to know from books you've to comprehend theory before you could actually understand what is going on in the first place. The key is that to truly understand routing and switching processes, you have got to have that hands-on experience.

So if the simulator inquiries are the more obvious reason to get hands-on experience, what're the less obvious reasons?

Glad you inquired!

You view what take places when things do not go according to the script. One of the biggest issues with comprehending your skills on software applications like “router simulators” is that with simulators, things go essentially as planned.

I've news for you: that does not invariably take place in the real world. Whlist Cisco routers and switches are highly reliable devices, each after in a whlist you are going to receive an unexpected consequence from a command. Mightbe it did not work after you typed it in mightbe it has an effect on your prior configuration that you did not expect. Mightbe you do not understand what taken place – you merely typed in that command and the router went nuts!

Sooner or later, that's going to take place to you in the real world. And as I inform my students, it is really a fine thing to have take place to you in a lab.

You do not come to understand to troubleshoot or fine-tune a configuration when everything works perfectly. You do not comprehend much at all when things go perfectly. And you are practicing to comprehend!

I often say that good chefs do not comprehend to cook on cooking simulators they come to understand in the kitchen, and they burn a great deal of meals on the way to goodness. You need to screw up some configs on the way to goodness, and you can not do that on a computer program. You've to be on the real thing.

You construct confidence by working with real Cisco routers and switches. Would you desire the Super Bowl to be the first football game you ever truly played in? Of course not. Then why would you take router configuration exams and be nervous about having to make a VLAN, or troubleshoot an OSPF configuration?

You can't walk into the evaluating room a nervous wreck. You have to have the attitude that you are already a CCNA or CCNP, and you are merely there to make it official. I could tell you from firsthand experience with many students that the way you develop than confidence is to work with the real deal.

You can not purchase that confidence, and you can not simulate your way to it. You have got to work with real Cisco routers and switches. By working with the real equipment, you develop the real skills and real confidence you need to proceed the CCNA and CCNP exams.

About The Author

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Profit. The Bryant Profit sells the world is best CCNA Study Guide in PDF format for only $14and is the ONLY business specializing in CCNA and CCNP rack rentals, permitting candidates for these certifications to gain vital hands-on experience with full racks of Cisco routers and switches with labs and prices constructed merely for them. There are also plenty of FREE CCNA and CCNP tutorials! Visit his website at www.thebryantsuperiority.com today!

chris@thebryantsuperiority.