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CCNP BSCI Exam Certification Guide (CCNP Self-Study, 642-801), Third Edition
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Author: Clare Gough
List Price: $49.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 1587200856
Publisher: Cisco Press (13 November, 2003)
Edition: Hardcover
Sales Rank: 4,121
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 4 out of 5
Good book for BCSI
I picked this book because I wanted to see how the BCSI exam had changed. Some things I liked about this book and other I think could have been improved. I didn't like the way things were mentioned, and described in later chapters. I liked how the terms were defined at the beginning of the chapters. This made it easier to understand the material presented, and server as a reference if you needed more clarification. I found it hard to get into the book at first, but after about the 3rd chapter, reading went smoothly. I like the "Do I already know?" quizzes at the beginning of the chapters. These let you know where you need to concentrate to fill in the blanks of your knowledge. I found the scenarios helpful. They bring a real world example to an otherwise complex book. Over all I think this is a very good book. I felt VLSM, CIDR and summarization were covered well. The title describes the book very well. I feel intermediate to advanced users will find this helpful. This book could also be used as a great reference to routing and newer information. This serves as a guide to updated BCSI concepts. As the industry changes you need study guides such as this to stay current on the latest information. I really liked all of the diagrams in the book; they helped relate the information in pictures that made the concepts easier to understand. I would read other books by Clare Gough. I think this author is knowledgeable, and knows how to pass on their knowledge. I found the enclosed CD very helpful as well. I like the quiz questions, that allow you test your understanding of the covered subjects. Some of the topics in the book were hard to follow, and seemed cumbersome to read. The author seems to expect the reader to know concepts that she later explains in later chapters. I guess if you recently took the CCNA, and jumped right into the BCSI test, you would be better prepared for this book. I found myself look ahead to see what she was talking about. I also liked the charts comparing the different protocols. I think this make comparing one against another easier when you can see them side by side. I found myself reading a chapter and going on to the next as I found information very interesting. Although at times hard to follow, I thought the information to be accurate and concise. I found this book covered all the relevant topics for the 642-801 BCSI exam. I also liked how each chapter was summarized. The repetition of information in the charts was helpful in helping you remember the information. I would rate this book a 4 out of 5. I believe the book does what it was written to do, which is prepare you for the 642-811 exam. If you read this book you should be ready to take the exam. You may have to read certain chapters a few times to get the concepts down.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Decent but could be better
The "CCNP BSCI Exam Certification Guide, Third Edition" (ISBN 1-58720-085-6; Clare Gough; Cisco Press; 931 pages) is the official study guide for the "Building Cisco Scalable Internetworks" exam (BSCI 642-801). The Forward states that the guide is "a complete study tool" for the CCNP BSCI exam. The book is organized into major sections covering IP routing fundamentals, OSPF, IS-IS, EIGRP, BGP and redistribution and policy-based routing, closely following the exam topics outlined at www.cisco.com/certifcations. Many chapters include scenario exercises and the final chapter is devoted to a dozen scenarios to help you prepare for the exam. Numerous tables, figures and examples are included to illustrate concepts. A handy glossary is also included at the back of the book.The book provides several suggested study strategies and useful tips for taking the real exam. "Do I Know This Already?" questions at the start of each chapter allow readers with different levels of experience to focus on the specific areas they need to improve. At the end of each chapter is a "Foundation Summary" that reinforces important concepts and which can be used for review a day or two prior to taking the real exam. Also following each chapter is a "Q&A" section with questions that are more difficult than the ones on the real exam. These questions probe your understanding of a topic and don't depend on the multiple-choice format that encourages guessing at answers. All questions and answers are grouped into an appendix that makes another good review tool to use before the real exam. Although the book seems to contain all the right ingredients and the author obviously is knowledgeable, it does make for some difficult reading. There are several reasons for this. Many times I found myself rereading unclear sentences or portions of text. At other times abrupt change in topics from one paragraph to the next often led me to wonder if a paragraph had been inadvertently misplaced. And the dry writing style can leave one looking with anticipation to see how many pages remain in a chapter. The general approach used to introduce each major topic is to first provide a lengthy table of all the relevant terminology. Most of these terms may not be referred to again for many pages, at which time only an acronym appears. I found myself flipping back and forth repeatedly while reading. A better approach would be to introduce terminology closer to the time it is actually used and explained. Some of the provided figures seem contrived, as though they were created as an afterthought. In a typical example, only a brief statement mentioning the need to send high-priority traffic over a dedicated path accompanies a half-page figure consisting of two autonomous system clouds and six routers. One omission becomes evident when using this guide to prepare for the BCSI exam: although router configuration for NAT is clearly identified as an exam topic both at www.cisco.com and in the Introduction section of the book this topic is inexplicably omitted from the text. You'll find only a brief introduction to NAT and not a single NAT configuration statement. The companion CD-ROM contains practice questions and the full text of the book in Adobe Acrobat format. A total of 355 test questions are available including 255 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 lab simulations, although useful, are fairly simple, typically requiring basic configuration of a routing protocol. More advanced features like creation of route maps aren't covered. And 15 of the 20 simulations are exactly the same as those found on the Cisco Press CCNP Flash Cards Exam Preparation CD-ROM. It's disappointing to find parts of one product you've purchased simply repackaged and sold as another. I, for one, expect better from Cisco Press. Though it's based on a recent version of the Boson test engine the test simulator does contain a few annoying quirks. For example, rather than displaying an explanation when you select an incorrect answer you are instead referred to a page number in the PDF - but these page numbers don't correspond to the ones in the printed text. There's a button on the question window to display the relevant PDF section but the button oddly isn't available when you get an answer wrong. And the flash-card style screen saver mode only works correctly on multiple-choice questions. Thankfully, as with other titles in the CCNP Exam Certification series, nothing prevents one from using the CD-ROM on more than one computer. So would I buy another book from this author? Well, yes, simply because she is knowledgeable about the topics. But as is the case with other Cisco Press publications a more diligent editing process could help a lot to improve the overall product quality. Overall the guide represents a decent value. On a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest rating, this guide rates a 3.
Rating: 4 out of 5
CCNP Self-Study Guide by Clare Gough
The reason that I picked this book to read is because I am getting ready to re-certify as a CCNP and CCDP. I have several Cisco Press books on the subject, but I felt that I needed the latest offered. I was not disappointed in the subject matter. In fact, this reader commends the author on the depth and breadth of the huge undertaking of teaching this information. It's obvious that she has the experience required to take on this task and the teaching skills and writing skills necessary to impart this to her students. Though I don't give the book the maximum possible rating, I do give it a 4 out of a maximum of 5. Why not the maximum? Because this book is extremely difficult to read and it took several re-reads of several sections in order to understand what the author was trying to teach.
I found many of the subjects explained in an unnecessarily complex manner. The author often doesn't make smooth transitions from one subject to another as she switches paragraphs. This leaves the reader sitting there wondering, "Did I miss something?" -- Thus, the re-reads. It also appears that the author didn't always write the post-chapter questions, as this reader found questions at the end of chapters that weren't even addressed till the next, or even 2 or 3 chapters later. The author appears to assume too much of the reader's background; she often uses terminology or references concepts that aren't explained or requires the reader to have other resources available. Fortunately for this reader, I had the ACRC book, edited by Laura Chappell (1999) and the Cisco website available for downloads of IS-IS. These other sources were used often when I was trying to discern what the author was trying to impart. As I stated, I have already passed the CCNP and am reading this book to re-certify. I can't imagine trying to depend on only reading this book (for routing) as a graduating CCNA on my way to CCNP.
At times, I found that the author did not use common terminology found in most books. If those cases, she should have defined her terminology. For example, she uses the word "subnet" where other books use the word "subnetwork". Though this seems insignificant, this reader found the inconsistent terminology often distracting. The author should refer to the terminology in use on the Cisco exams and be consistent with that use. If one of the goals "for this book is not only to help you pass the exam...", then it would benefit the prospective exam candidate to be exposed to the same terminology in the self-study books as that will appear on the exams.
Most of the figures and examples are accurate, but at times, the errors in them make it difficult to follow the intended concepts - the correction of these errors is especially critical to new students (CCNA graduates).
If I've been so critical in the above couple of paragraphs, then why do I still give the book a rating of 4 and not a lower score? I give the book this rating due to the breadth and completeness of the covered subject matter. Most every author out there that would undertake such an enormous task would be bound to have the same number of difficult passages and inconsistencies. Those errors that this reader found cannot necessarily be attributed to the author but that of the editor(s). Perhaps each editor was too technical of an editor and in that case, each understood immediately what the author was trying to impart to the reader. Or perhaps even the editors can't catch every inconsistency or difficult passage. But for the CCNP candidate that will buy the book and is learning the content for the first time (and doesn't have access to a previously-written book on the subject matter), this book can be difficult to read. If this were a book of fiction, this reader would have set it aside after the first chapter because it "doesn't read well."
Some of the things that I would especially like to commend the author on are her coverage of VLSM, CIDR, and route summarization. Her coverage on these subjects is one of the best, if not, the best explanation in all the books that I've read. Additionally, this reader appreciates the author's scenario questions at the end of the chapters. They are invaluable for really understanding the material. This reader feels that for the CCNP candidate, the book is well worth the struggle.
Would I buy another book by this author? The answer is "yes" due to the fact that she knows her material, has the experience in the subject matter, and goes to great lengths to teach it.
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