Cisco announced Version 1.1 of the CCNA 200-301 blueprint on April 22, 2024. They also announced an exam cutover date of August 20, 2024. If you happen to be studying for CCNA in those months, you need a plan! This post (and the embedded video that discusses the same topic) will hopefully help calm your fears, help you choose, and get you focused again on your studies. Learn about the details below! Read this Post, or Watch this Video I launched the YouTube channel Network Upskill in April 2024. You can watch a video about the same topics in this blog post or keep reading – your choice! C ..read more

Cisco just announced (April 2024) a new version of the CCNA 200-301 blueprint. It’s a minor change. But with almost five years of time since the last blueprint announcement, there’s much more to do in the books. We’ll have new editions out in the June-to-August timeframe, with much more than blueprint updates. Learn about the details below! Read this Post, or Watch this Video I launched the YouTube channel Network Upskill in April 2024. You can watch a video about the same topics in this blog post or keep reading – your choice! Cisco Reveals CCNA 200-301 Version 1.1 (April 2024) New CC ..read more

For the first time in almost five years, Cisco today announced a new CCNA exam blueprint: The CCNA 200-301 Version 1.1 blueprint. Dramatic, right? Let’s look at the changes together in this post – or watch the video linked inside for the scoop. Read this Post, or Watch this Video I launched the YouTube channel Network Upskill in April 2024. You can watch a video about the same topics in this blog post or keep reading – your choice! Cisco Reveals CCNA 200-301 Version 1.1 (April 2024) The CCNA 200-301 Version 1.1 Blueprint Update! Big Picture: CCNA 200-301 Version 1.0 to Version 1.1 Firs ..read more

I’ve written and taught a lot during my career, but I’ve never made a concerted effort to use YouTube. Well, it’s time. The channel name is Network Upskill, and the URL is www.youtube.com/@networkupskill. You can go straight to the channel and watch the channel intro video—or read this short post for a few words about the channel! Just Watch! Channel Intro You could just go to the channel and watch the channel intro video – it’s embedded here. But I wrote a few words as well for easy reference. Your choice!     Three Guiding Principles – so Far! I’ve invested a fair bit of time lear ..read more

We’ve updated the blog site! Driven by a need to change to a new WordPress theme, I invested more time updating some of the styling, content, and features to make the site more usable for anyone studying for CCNA. I hope you like the changes! The rest of this post describes what changed here in late 2023. Note: If you see any issues on a post, use the comment feature at the bottom of the page to let me know! Improved Experience for New Users This blog has a wide variety and large volume of CCNA study content. However, the old site made new users work to find the purpose and content of the site ..read more

The last several editions of the CCNA Official Cert Guides include an appendix titled “Exam Updates.” It exists as a simple way to deliver small amounts of new content to you, the people who own the book. Books are great, and most people still prefer a paper book – but that does not allow for easy distribution of updates. The Exam Updates appendix in each book serves that role. In June 2023, we released a new version of the Exam Updates appendices for the current CCNA Official Cert Guides. You can download both using the instructions in the Exam Updates appendix (Appendix B) at the back of the ..read more

I like to use what I call terminology heat maps when studying, so much so that I also recommend them to students when teaching classes at O’Reilly (learning.oreilly.com). I describe what a terminology heat map is in class – but its time to give some support to the idea here at the blog. This page will serve as a long-term reference page to introduce the basics and to provide some seed terms for anyone studying for CCNA. Term Heat Maps and Seed Terms During the latter stages of studying for an IT exam, your study and review activities need to change. The activities need to exercise your bra ..read more

Back in 2023, Cisco announced an annual cycle during which they consider making changes in each certification track. Cisco just announced their plans for this year’s cycle for the CCNA certification, and the big news: No CCNA blueprint changes! I didn’t bury the lead, but if you want more about how that might impact your CCNA plans, look at the rest of the post. Reviewing the Cisco Certification Roadmap In 2022, Cisco announced a new transparent annual process. Check here for a more detailed explanation, but I’ll hit the highlights here to review. For CCNA, Cisco internally reviews CCNA during ..read more

Cisco just released web pages and has begun discussing a new initiative called Cisco Certification Roadmaps. The short version: Cisco tells us the timing of potential updates to their exams. Yep. It’s a whole new approach, and Cisco is being quite transparent about it. Let’s take a look. A Brief Look Backwards In the past, Cisco would plan changes entire certification path’s exams as one large project, on average every 3-4 years. The public could only guess when Cisco was doing that work and for which technology tracks. Then Cisco would get mostly ready to release new exams and related learnin ..read more

The most recent CCNA and CCNP exam release (February 2022) had a minor side effect that left many wondering: Was Cisco continuing to use the Sim and Simlet question types? A Cisco blog post in early July 2022 clarified that question, not with a backward look at Sim/Simlet, but with exciting news about a new question type that works like an upgraded Sim question type. You need to be ready for these new questions now, for both CCNA and CCNP! Read on to find more information. A Quick Look Back: Sim and Simlet First, historically, Cisco used two question types that made use of a simulator within t ..read more