CCNA cert

[arch3angel at gmail.com (Arch Angel)]

I almost forgot to say something about pass4sure or any real site that helps
you memorize the answers.  I do not believe in these sites as they teach you
nothing of the basics or concepts required to sustain knowledge.  Anyone who
has a good ability to memorize anything will do very well in this manor, but
when placed into the real world they struggle and cause a greater burden on
the company.

An example of this is a new guy at our work.  He went to a community college
and took the Cisco classes then studied for the CCNA and passed, but when he
got here many of us had to show him things like ping, ping with/without  a
packet of x size, trace route, or what is important about a trace route.  He
did not even understand the concept of local 127.0.0.1 or why it is
important.  He has been with us now for 2-3 months now and every person who
has worked with him on a shift has had to slow down and teach him basics,
and not basics of our industry basics of networking in general.  Now he has
made great steps forward but the burden is on us to teach him now slowing
our progress on tasks we need to accomplish.

I don't mind spending time teaching someone anything they want to know,
however I do think if a person has a certification such as CCNA they should
at least know basic networking and not require teaching on simple things
such as those mentioned above.  On that same note though, I can't blame him
for this failure either as he was doing what he was told to do by the
instructors.  It is the fault of these instructors who teach to a test and
not test what they teach.  Teaching to a test has been a wave that began
some time ago and unfortunately it has passed down into the high schools and
other levels of beginning education.

Best way to learn something is set up a lab for yourself and break it then
fix it.  Take what a book says should happen and then test it to see if it
really happens.  This type of training will get a person much further than a
few letters next to their name.

*** Sorry For The Rant ***
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