Studying Techniques

Studying is tedious, it can be boring at times, hard to focus, etc. It's easy to get distracted by Instagram reels, TikTok's, YouTube, and more. I wanted to give out my study techniques I use that personally work for me and I hope they can be helpful for you as well.

I am currently studying for my CCNP ENSLD exam and my Palo Alto NGFW Engineer exam. Usually it's not a good idea to take two exams but a lot of the topics in ENSLD I already have experience with from previous exams. So how do I manage studying for all of this? There are a lot of things I do, and time management is crucial.

For studying resources I use a lot of things. Cisco white pages on topics is very helpful as they are made directly from Cisco and contain a lot of the extra details on certain technologies you may see on exams. I also like to make Anki flashcards which I have done for both ENSLD and my NGFW Engineer exam. I do these every day when I first wake up, it is a non-negotiable. I used to take notes but I stopped doing that and opted to just doing flashcards. With studying it is about finding what works for you.

I also like to read books on the topics, I use the OCG often with ENSLD and Palo Alto has a great free course online through Beacon which is great. Another thing I do to try and study is practice exams. I have used Boson exams, Udemy exams, and the Pearson exams also to help me, depending on what exam I am studying for. Lastly, I like to lab the material I learn. The best way to learn something is by actually doing it and seeing how it works in my opinion. I have a Dell computer which I run Cisco Modeling Labs on so I can lab any new network technologies I learn, this helps me build a greater understanding of topics.

As you can see, I have a lot of different ways I study material. It probably seems like a lot but it is important to manage your time. I am not studying every single waking hour of the day, that's crazy. I usually study a good 2/3 hours a day depending on what I am up to and I try to take breaks throughout the study session. I use the Pomodoro technique for this. I typically study for about 30 minutes then take a 5 minute break and repeat until I am done. This helps me stay productive but also gives me some time to relax.

When you finally pass that exam you have been working hard at I think it is a great time to reward yourself. Usually I like to buy myself new things or get some great food somewhere. My two exams coming up are on May 24th, I am really hoping I can pass both of them because I want to get into Cisco DevNet and learn some Python so I can start automating networking tasks!