Book Review - ExamCram CCNA Voice

Pearson was kind enough to send me a copy of ExamCram CCNA Voice 640-460 to review. I have to honestly say that this was my first time ever reading an ExamCram book so I was very curious to see what they are all about.

First off, I’m extremely glad to see some expansion in the associate Cisco certifications. I think this will make it a lot easier to get more exposure to the Voice, Security and Wireless tracks. Seeing that they now have voice offerings is a great thing for both employers and their employees. Man, I look forward to being able to teach CCNA again!

Summary

This book covers the CCNA Voice 640-460 exam blueprint below ::
https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/community/certifications/voice_ccna/iiuc?view=overview

The first part of this book covers the traditional IP telephony elements such as analog and digital circuits. It then dives into the VoIP world of connecting your voice GW to the PSTN and configuring the network to support VoIP. The second half of the book covers Call Manager and Unity Express along with Unified communication 500 series devices.

What worked

I was extremely impressed with this book. If you are at all familiar with a Cisco Press exam cert. guide, you will be in good hands with this book. This book is not one filled with small excerpts that you need to know to pass the exam. I feel very confident saying that someone who has some basic router experience can read this book from front to back and be able to implement a VoIP network with a decent feature set. It really cuts out a lot of the fat (theory) and provides enough to lay a good foundation for examples and explanations. If you want a book you can use as a config guide with configuration examples and detailed walk-throughs, then this is a great book for you. If you want to setup your own VoIP network at home, this is a good book to start with as well –pending you have entry-level experience. It covers all the topics detailed on the exam blueprint and does it in a way so you can get some hands-on practice if you had your own equipment. At the end of each chapter is a set of exam questions for the topics in that chapter. There are also another 50 or so pages at the end of the book that would cover all chapters. Don’t forget the accompanying CDROM with more exams and a electronic copy of the book. You will also find a cram sheet in the front of the book that you can tear out for last minute studying.

Target Audience

I found the material in the book good for a number of different areas. Personally, I’m working on the CCIE Voice and found this to be a great reference guide for CME and CUE. I actually found some information in this book that I didn’t read in the CCVP Cisco Press books. There is no question if the CCNA voice is your goal, than this is a great book to read during your preparation. If you have some entry level experience, you will get even more out of this book. If you’re trying to setup a basic VoIP network at home with CME and CUE, than this book would be a great walk-through! The good thing is the CCNA is a prerequisite to sit this exam, so anyone looking in this direction should be fine.

What didn’t work

I really don’t have any major gripes with this book. My only complaint would be the QoS was a bit rushed. While the theory around the need for QoS was fine, the configuration examples was mainly around AutoQoS. While it probably isn’t heavily tested on, a few config examples would have been great for those not relying on AutoQoS. Also, the appendix info seemed better suited for an earlier chapter.

Ratings

Presentation (8/10)- This book is a smaller footprint than your typical certification guides and is also paperback. All pictures and text are in black and white. While being a smaller footprint, text is very easy to read. There was no shortage of diagrams and configuration outputs used during the walk-throughs.

Content (8/10)- The content in this book aligns well with the exam blueprint for the CCNA exam. The purpose of this book is clearly defined around the exam blueprint. The information is up to date with the latest exam objectives and feels very fresh. Most of the exam objectives are covered in great detail (don’t forget about the appendix!). One of the few books that talks about the Unified Communication 500 series as well as using the Cisco configuration assistant. The accompanying CDROM and exam questions make it a complete package.

Practicality (9/10)- Probably the books strongest point. Without providing a method for hands-on possibilities, a certification guide would fail. This book excels in this area. Great for a A-Z walk-through to get a basic VoIP network up and running. It covers a lot of real world uses of Call Manager Express which was really helpful.

Shelf Appeal (3/5)- It’s usually hard to keep exam guides built for tests around once passing the test (30% of the package is probably exam questions). This book deserves its space on your bookshelf at home for a while (depending on other books on same subjects). This book is a great reference for getting CME and CUE up and running with basic functionality. So once you pass the exam, keep it around if you need a reference for getting CME and CUE setup.

Value (4/5)- The included CDROM and exam questions in the book should provide enough questions so you don’t have to use other test engines. The price at $40 dollars US is typical with exam guides out there (although Amazon has it for much cheaper!). With all the included exam questions, it makes it a pretty fair price.

Overall (Great 8/10) - Great first impression of ExamCram with this book. The hands-on examples and walk-throughs is going to help make you successful in passing. Overall, this book is a must have for anyone going for this certification or trying to gain some basic experience setting up smaller VoIP networks with CME and CUE. The prices on Amazon recently make it an even better value for your money!

Ted
CCIE No. 21785

This entry was posted on February 18, 2009 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Book Reviews, Cisco. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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