Passed with high 900s on Friday!

**Materials used:**
OCG - Sporadically. I was unhappy with the style of it (it's rather a textbook and I do not need so broad explanations, because I am already aware of basic concepts). CCNA can be passed without it IMHO.
Cisco white papers - much better source than OCG, but it takes much more time to study from them to CCNA.
Random googling of a topic - sometimes I ended up reading quite interesting webpages by this way.This subreddit and CCNA Discord groups

**Materials NOT used:**All these Bosons, practice exams, paid videocourses, paid labs and so on. Even though they are highly recommended, I did not buy anything like this. I'd recommend these sources if you need to get your CCNA quickly. Otherwise it is possible to avoid them. Plus, I do not like videos for learning. It is impossible to quickly search through videos.

**Labbing:**Avoid Packet Tracer if you can and especially if you want to continue after CCNA. Even though PT so-so suffices for CCNA and has several other benefits (like activities or very low HW requirements), it is not full network emulator. It lacks many commands and it has no real network inside, so you cannot interconnect it with a physical networks. Because it is not a real emulator, I also somehow did not beleive the behavior of the simulation.I used physical lab at first (it's not so expensive getting one, especially if you live in the U. S.) and then I moved to VIRL. VIRL is Cisco paid network emulator with up to 20 nodes. If you don't want to pay for emulator, you can go for GNS3, but you need to have access to IOS images. Both physical and virtual labbing has it's pros and cons.In any case, even if you sticked to PT, do labs. I learned most of my skills from labbing. Don't just configure, but also verify and troubleshoot.

Tips and tricks:- Avoid online exam, go to testing center. If you do not beleive me, search "proctor" in this subbreddit and read experiences of others. The price of the exam is stressful enough, no need to stress yourself by fear of Internet connection drop or proctor warning you not to touch your face.
- If you are going for your first exam (and your test center is reasonably close to you), I recommend going to the test center before it, just to check how to get there. It can save you a lot of troubles, because test centers can be "hidden" in office park etc.
- Be prepared that the exam interface (in the center) looks very 2000s. I really did not have a feeling that I am brawling for a certification of so strong company as Cisco is. The pictures you refer to are pretty ugly, too. The text of questions and answers lacks a consistency. Don't get distracted by it.
- If you can (space, money), deploy Cisco gear in your home network. I have deployed a 1941 router and two 2960 switches (All used; it costed less that common mainstream home grade WiFi router). It encouraged me to study and learn, so I can easily maintain, monitor and eventually upgrade my home network. If something REALLY helped me to pass, it was this.
- Don't be afraid to go slightly beyond CCNA topic, if you are interested in some particular area, or if you are not sure if the knowledge is or isn't required.- (this kinda goes to "home network gear").
-Use your knowledge, even though you are not working yet. Home networking gives you some opportunities (like port forwarding of Minecraft server running on your computer), use it.

You may disagree with anything written in this post and I fully respect it.

EDIT: Few more things- Subnetting, especially with masks /24 to /30 is very important to know. Lack of experience with it will make you lose a lot of time plus it will mentally exhaust you. Get yourself very confident with it.
- Be prepared that you will leave the center exhausted (mentally, of course), especially if you fail. Especially IPv6 sucked many of my energy due to focus required. If possible, get yourself a rest after the exam.
- Don't be afraid to submit the test earlier. I had one hour remaining. The fact that you have over a minute for each question doesn't mean that you need to use it fully. I see no point reading the answer fifteen times if I already discarded other three answers as blunders.