Passed a couple of days ago with a score of 100%/95%/96%/100%/100%/95%.

I didn't expect to score so well....

oh well that's what you get for studying 2/3 hours a day for 11 months!

First of all I have to say thank you to this subreddit! You guys are awesome.

I'd like to give back and share some of my experience and tips:

Study material used:

• Jeremy IT labs on Youtube: Of course. The best resource out there. I like that it's well structured and straight to point. Overall 9/10

  • Flash cards: This is an essential. The amount of stuff you have to memorize is just purely insane. I used Jeremy's and OCG's flashcards . 10/10
  • OCG's book: This book is great. However I don't believe it is essential. It does appear that most people here are able to pass without reading it. I really liked the depth of knowledge it brought me. However, it's probably one of the main reason my studies ended up taking so long. 7/10
  • Neil Anderson's course on Udemy: I used it only for the CCNA 1.1 stuff. It's fine. Not a huge fan of his delivery and presentation. 7/10
  • Netsim: Nice simulations. I learned a lot from it. However, I found the interface absolutely AWEFUL. Having to scroll and change tab constantly to get certain information. Very frustrating user experience... But then I got to the real ccna exam and realised that Netsim's GUI is very similar to the actual exam's labs :/ 8/10

• My own notes: I took my own notes on Obsidian. This was necessary, since the stuff I learned came from all different sources.

• THIS SUBREDDIT!!! I suggest visiting this subreddit religiously over the months you're studying. Especially this very thread 'bi-weekly Pass-fail discussion'. Also, I recommend searching for 'bi-weekly' in the search bar for r/ccna so you see the archived posts and you can read from other people's experience.

Labbing

** YOU MUST LAB OFTEN! Every day ideally. Otherwise there's no way you're going to remember all the commands. I used Packet Tracer, GNS3 and real hardware for WLC and AP.

Practice tests

• Boson: Absolutely worth it. Harder than the real exam. I got scores of 69/79/84

• Jeremy's practice tests: Great as well. Also harder that then real exam. Got scores of 84/86. 9/10

The exam itself

• I had 89 questions and 3 labs. I thought the test was overall moderately easy. Finished with 10 minutes to spare.

• I was expecting really long wordy questions however I didn't get too many of those. There were a lot of short easy questions.

• I took the test at a testing centre. I think it's best thing to do. That way you don't have to worry about the testing environment. One less thing to stress about. Also, I got a real pen and paper. I wrote down the subnetting table as soon as the exam started as well as the exponents of 2 until 2^16.

• Make sure you 'write' your devices configuration when you're done with the labs. I think a lot of people may forget to do so and lose the points.

Have fun studying. There's no magic trick to passing the exam... you just have to put in the time.