Hi all,
My name is Robin, currently i live in Holland and i’m studying for my CCNA 200-301.
I’ve been enjoying the content a ton at the moment, however i have a question regarding packet tracer labs labs.
Whats you best take on practicing the different subjects?
For example: Etherchannel section, is it best to mimic the scenario and get used to the commands, or build the lab from scratch and figure it out on yourself?
Would love to hear some useful tips, thanks!
Hello Robin and welcome!
It’s great to have you with us. We hope you find the content and the forum helpful for your studying and your endeavour to achieve your certification.
As for study tactics, if you’re first starting off, it won’t hurt to start building labs from scratch. This will give you the opportunity to get familiar with the initial configuration parameters you’ll need to get your network up and running. After a while however, when you’ve mastered these initial steps, you’ll want to focus more on the specific concept within each lesson. In this case, you can quickly skip the initial setup (copy and paste initial configs instead of manually applying them) so you can concentrate on the concept at hand.
When you will actually decide to transition between doing a manual setup or just copying and pasting is up to you. You should evaluate when you think you don’t need any more experience in initial setup so you can “skip” those steps.
Remember that the most important part of studying is labs, labs, and more labs. You can know the theory inside out, but if you don’t apply it you will never truly know it. The labs will give you many “aha” moments where the light goes on in your head and you can say “now I understand why!” And that’s such an important part of learning, and gaining real in-depth understanding, which is something necessary for passing the exams…
If you have any other questions or need any help along the way, you know where to find us. Looking forward to seeing you in the forum!
Laz
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Hello Robin,
Welcome! There’s not much I can add to what @lagapidis mentioned.
When something is new to you, it’s probably easier to follow the examples and re-create a lab to see it for yourself. When you are reviewing things, it might be nicer to set some goals for yourself and see if you can figure it out. For example, for Etherchannel that could be:
- Connect SW1 and SW2 using PaGP
- Connect SW2 and SW3 using LaCP
- Connect SW3 and SW4 using static Etherchannel
Another example is OSPF. You could take a topology like this:
And set the goal for yourself to “configure multi-area OSPF”. When you get stuck, you can use our examples to figure out how to do it. Setting a goal and then trying to figure out how to do it is (in my experience) more fun than the “cookbook” approach where just follow the steps and copy the examples.
I wish you good luck studying and if you have any other questions, let us know ok?
Rene
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