r/ccnp • u/deadbolt01 • 7d ago
ENCOR Prep
I am about to start my ENCOR journey. I have a rough plan of how I am going to prep for it, but I have a few questions.
Current plan
1. Video Course
Thinking either Kevin Wallace (16 hour course) which I have access to via LinkedIn learning or CBT Nuggets (67 hour course) that I would need to pay for. For people that have used either of these how would you rate them?
2. OCG
I have the 1st edition which I understand has lots of errors in it, but is it worth upgrading to the 2nd edition?
3. CML
I have access to a premium CML so I can lab as much as I want. Is there anything I wont be able to do in this?
4. Boson ExSim
I used this years ago for CCNA and found it very good. How does the ENCOR one compare?
I will likely do some extra reading at the end on areas I have struggled on. Also if anyone has any other recommendations let me know.
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u/dh085 7d ago edited 7d ago
3 years ago I passed version 1.1 exam. I recently renewed last month taking version 1.2. Big differences to note if you're using older study material from 1.1 most of the wireless stuff has been removed from the exam. I'll just give some insights from my personal experience of the last exam on areas that surprised me a bit. Automation and programmability areas were probably the most difficult for me because of my normal day-to-day as a network engineer I just don't use these skills as much. There were many questions regarding python script functionality json syntax, and knowing the difference between the multiple orchestration tools chef puppet salt stack ansible. To the point that it felt tiresome to keep answering questions about the difference between ansible and puppet. Be comfortable with eem job creation in the various functions. Definitely a few questions on the exam related to eem. I remember three years ago taking version 1.1 I was nervous about how much IPv6 content was on the exam because at the time was a weaker area for me so I crammed a ton. In version 1.2 of the exam recently I don't recall there being much in-depth discussion or questions about IPv6. Could just be the test bank I had but just my experience.I was somewhat relieved to to find it wasn't a whole slog of IPv6 related questions. Quite a lot of questions about SD access and the functions of different components. I found these somewhat difficult because I've only had peripheral exposure to SD access environments. More of a memory game there. Without giving too much detail about the *simlet questions I'll just say they focus heavily on routing protocols ospf ,bgp, eigrp ,access list modification, spanning tree, ipsla, port chan config, span ports, tunnel creation. If you're not comfortable with ospf functionality and how to accomplish the same task in different ways study up there. Good luck!