So after two years as a Cisco NetAcad student, I finally passed my Cisco CCNA.
I’m definitely blessed, and I give God all the glory for my understanding of network engineering. I just want to share with you all the blueprint that I used as a NetAcad student that went through CCNA1, 2, and 3, but also the ways that you can self-study via free online materials.
How did I do it?
If you gain nothing else from this blog post, please know that Boson ExSim for CCNA 200-301 was the glue that kept all of my studies together in my mind for the exam and subsequent BPA national conference competition (blog post on this coming soon!). Please follow John Katende’s framework for studying.
I began my CCNA journey in fall of 2023, after enrolling at Cuyahoga Valley Career Center (where I currently work) in the Cisco Network Academy program. I spent the first entire school year on CCNA1, which gave me a great foundation in routing & switching, but I wasn’t satisfied with the pace. I branched out onto Linkedin and started this blog to learn exactly what this networking thing is all about. I fell in love with the community (shout out to Cleveland’s own Jason Gintert), home labbing, and the overall space of network engineering. If you don’t have the means to join a NetAcad, I HIGHLY reccommend enrolling into ccna.ninja for free!
Enough personal stuff; beginning in August of 2024 I began CCNA2, which hones in on VLANs, 802.1q, LAG protocols spanning-tree, etc. I enjoyed this material, but wanted to get to the cool routing and VRF stuff right away, resulting in me skimping out a bit on Layer 2, especially wireless (remember that). After a month long trip to see my family in Africa between December and January, and trying to reach my head into the OCGs, I finally began CCNA3, which saw me learning WAN, QoS, VPN technologies, and, most importantly, OSPF. I thoroughly enjoyed this material, and finished about a month early (late March).
This was when I learned about John Katende’s Youtube channel, and fell in love with his work/life balance as well as picturesque backdrop in Denmark. It helped me realize that there really is still a place for network engineers, and that we can still enjoy our lives outside of work. He posted a reddit thread and youtube video detailing the strategy that he followed for the Boson exams using only the subscription and a notepad. I ended up using an entire notepad and a half for all four Boson Exams.
The results speak for themselves:
You’ve read that correctly: from 685 to 933 in around just two weeks.
Most of this was me playing catchup with layer 2 after skimming some material, especially on layer 2 security, since I thought I know it all. I ended up making a lab blog post in order to solidify the concepts myself. Jeremy’s IT lab also played a big role in refining the aspects that I thought I knew but really didn’t (especially wireless).
From here, I took the CCNA on May 4th, passing with flying colors.
I also made it into Business Professionals of America Nationals this year for Network Engineering Using Cisco in Orlando, Florida.
By the grace of God, I took first place on May 10th, 2025. More about that in my next blog post.
Until next time, peace be upon you.
