Rating: 
Summary: CCNP CIT Exam Certification Guide, Second Edition
Review: At only 309 pages the "CCNP CIT Exam Certification Guide, Second Edition" seems like a lightweight compared to some of the other Cisco Press tomes. It does cause one initially to wonder how it can possibly cover all the technical information that might be needed in order to properly prepare for the exam. But the author explains in the introduction that the new CIT course (v5.0) and exam are oriented toward troubleshooting methodology and leave a lot of technology-specific material to the other CCNP courses and exams. And the book tackles each of the topics in the "Cisco Internetwork Troubleshooting" exam (CIT 642-831) described at www.cisco.com. These topics include documenting the network, determining an effective troubleshooting strategy, and correcting problems at the physical, data link, network, transport and application layers of the OSI protocol stack. The book is clearly written with many well-done figures and examples to help explain concepts. The table of contents and index sections are useful and a glossary of terms also is provided. The text is gratifyingly devoid of misspellings and typographical errors. Several suggested study strategies and useful tips for taking the real exam are discussed in the introduction. To help save the time of more experienced users each chapter begins with a set of "Do I Know This Already?" questions. These questions allow readers with different experience levels to quickly focus on the specific parts of a chapter where they may be weak. At the end of each chapter is a "Foundation Summary" that summarizes and reinforces the key concepts and commands. These sections make good exam notes and are a great way to review a day prior to taking the real exam. Also following each chapter is a "Q&A" section. The questions found here are more difficult than the ones on the exam. They probe your understanding of a topic and don't depend on the multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank formats that encourage guessing at answers. All questions and their answers are grouped into an appendix that makes another good review tool. The scenarios presented in the final chapter are a little different from those found in some of the other Cisco Press guides. Rather than presenting scenarios as problem exercises to be worked out by the reader these scenarios are recounts of how a real problem was solved. I tend to prefer the problem exercises because they require one to think more than does reading a recount. The companion CD-ROM contains practice questions and the full text in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. A total of 225 test questions are available including 125 questions taken directly from the text and 20 lab simulations. The practice tests contain multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank and list-in-order style questions. The practice questions contain some obvious errors, evidently a result of publishing deadlines taking precedence over sufficient editorial review. And a few idiosyncrasies exist - for example, each test question has a button that displays the relevant section of the PDF. But when a wrong answer is entered this button is disabled, forcing one to first advance to the next test question and then hit the Back button before the reference can be displayed. The lab simulations are simplistic, most requiring only that a single show command be entered. And 15 of the 20 simulations are exactly the same as those found on the Cisco Press CCNP Flash Cards Exam Preparation CD-ROM. This could be a bit disappointing for those that purchase both the flash cards and the CIT exam guide.
On the upside, nothing prevents one from installing the practice test on a second computer. This is great for those that want to install the product on a laptop for use when traveling in addition to installing on a desktop computer. The single-computer, single-user license enforced by some other publishers precludes this legitimate use. Let's hope that Cisco Press continues to allow products to be registered and used on more than just one computer. Overall the author presents a sound and practical approach to building an essential base of network documentation along with using structured problem solving strategies. Anyone involved in supporting and troubleshooting a network should benefit from employing the methodologies described in this guide. On a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest rating, this guide rates a 4.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent coverage on exam topics.
Review: Enough to pass the exam. Go get it and pass the exam. Cisco other CIT book has more detail. I will have that instead of support book as a reference book. Happy Reading
Rating:
Summary: Excellent study reference for the CCNP Support Exam
Review: Excellent study reference for the CCNP Support Exam. I passed on the first try using only this book as a reference and just 10 days of studying. Keep in mind that this book is the official study guide for the CCNP Support Exam #640-506. It is only about 400 pages long compared to Lammle's appproximatelly 800 page book for the same test. Good job Ranjibar! Thank you, after passing this exam I am now a CCNP.
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Summary: Invaluable real-world experience plus an exam focus
Review: Highlights the important, combines the real-world insights and experience of a master engineer with the concise, logical and focussed approach of a professional educator. Amir, thanks for sharing your enthusiasm and experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Previous reviews are not for THIS book!!
Review: How can this book get such high reviews (from years 2001 and 2002) when it was published in November 2003? People are saying it is a good book for the 640-60x series exam! Wasn't this book written for the 642-831 exam? If the 642-831 exam covers troubleshooting for frame-relay, ISDN, switching, and routing, then this is NOT the book to buy to prepare for the exam because it doesn't describe how to troubleshoot these technologies!
Rating:
Summary: Previous reviews are not for THIS book!!
Review: How can this book get such high reviews (from years 2001 and 2002) when it was published in November 2003? People are saying it is a good book for the 640-60x series exam! Wasn't this book written for the 642-831 exam? If the 642-831 exam covers troubleshooting for frame-relay, ISDN, switching, and routing, then this is NOT the book to buy to prepare for the exam because it doesn't describe how to troubleshoot these technologies!
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Summary: Great book for the Support exam!
Review: I agree with Patrick Since's review. This book is a great resource for you to prepare the exam. Compare with CIT preperation guide from Cisco Press,by Laura Chappell, this one has much less errors. It is simple but very clear on all the concepts you need for the exam. I use it for the exam and my score is over 900. I think it is due to this book is published recently plus the Auther really knows what students need for the exam. One thing I like is this book not only prints out a command's output like Laura Chappell's book, it also prints out the options of the command which is missing in the other book. For exapmle: show ip ?, listed all the options from that command. It is very handy for those who have no routers by hand when they prepare for the exam. Once again, thank Cisco Press for publishing this book!
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Summary: Don't use only this book !!
Review: I agree with what others are saying. I should have read the reviews prior to even purchasing this book. Anyways, I just took the exam and failed after studying this book from cover to cover several times. I was blown away by some of the questions on the test. There was no information whatsoever in the book to prepare you. The practice exams are so easy, practically all the answers are show ip route. Plus, some of the answers are wrong (someone else already mentioned that)! Any suggestions for another book to study with? NOTE TO AMAZON: Would you please NOT include reviews for past versions of the book that have nothing to do with the current exam?
Rating:
Summary: Look somewhere else
Review: I am a CCNP as well as a Cisco Academy Instructor. I've taken 7 Cisco tests and this is the worst preparation book I've encountered so far. My gripes with this book are: (1)After properly studying this book you CAN NOT walk in to the exam with the absolute confidence that you will pass. You may pass, you may not. In my opinion this is unacceptable for an "Exam Certification Guide". (2) Several items on the exam were not covered even briefly in the book. Aka, you will be blindsided by topics on the exam that the book doesn't mention. (3) The included quiz CD-ROM has several defective questions. ie. the answer that is right in the book is wrong on the CD-ROM, the question asks you to view exhibit 1 where there isn't any, etc... Did no one at Cisco Press proofread each question at least once before finalizing the CD? (4) The quiz CD-ROM supposedly contains 225 unique questions. In taking the 50 question practice exam 10+ times, I encountered only about 100 unique questions. It seems the same questions get asked again and again, making your answers more reflex than knowledge. (5) The questions in the book and on the CD-ROM are much much simpler than those on the exam. They don't provide any indicator at all of if you are ready for the exam. Please note that most of the reviews here contain the disclaimer, "This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title". The Exams and books do change drastically between versions, not always for the better.
Rating:
Summary: Not good preparation for the exam
Review: I am a CCNP as well as a Cisco Academy Instructor. I've taken 7 Cisco tests and this is the worst preparation book I've encountered so far. My gripes with this book are: (1)After properly studying this book you CAN NOT walk in to the exam with the absolute confidence that you will pass. You may pass, you may not. In my opinion this is unacceptable for an "Exam Certification Guide". (2) Several items on the exam were not covered even briefly in the book. Aka, you will be blindsided by topics on the exam that the book doesn't mention. (3) The included quiz CD-ROM has several defective questions. ie. the answer that is right in the book is wrong on the CD-ROM, the question asks you to view exhibit 1 where there isn't any, etc... Did no one at Cisco Press proofread each question at least once before finalizing the CD? (4) The quiz CD-ROM supposedly contains 225 unique questions. In taking the 50 question practice exam 10+ times, I encountered only about 100 unique questions. It seems the same questions get asked again and again, making your answers more reflex than knowledge. (5) The questions in the book and on the CD-ROM are much much simpler than those on the exam. They don't provide any indicator at all of if you are ready for the exam. Please note that most of the reviews here contain the disclaimer, "This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title". The Exams and books do change drastically between versions, not always for the better.
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