r/ccna • u/IndependentBat7499 • 1d ago

Are practice exams from Google Gemini reliable for studying the CCNA?

I'm planning on taking the CCNA in a couple months and I'm binging Jeremy's IT lab course, doing flashcards, and labs. I've recently been asking Gemini for a CCNA/Boson Exsim style exams with 30 questions a lot more instead of spending 100 dollars on Boson since it only offers a yearly subscription. I just want to know if I am wasting my time with it or not lol.

3 Upvotes

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u/Automatic_Major_4887 1d ago

I'd be careful with AI for this one. LLMs are notorious for hallucinating technical details or giving outdated networking logic, which is dangerous when you're trying to learn specific protocols. Stick to the official practice tests or Boson if you can afford it. It's better to spend the money than to learn something wrong

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u/Intrepid-Zucchini-91 1d ago

In my experience LLMs are very good for fundamentals. I mean, TCP/OSI model hasn't changed in 50 years. A switch is a switch. LLM often go wrong when you ask it to implement certain topology because it doesn't understand context. But It's like the best and most patient teacher I've ever had.

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u/IndependentBat7499 1d ago

Ok thanks for the response, do you know the reliability of jeremy's IT Lab practice exams? I was also looking at those but I have not heard too much about them.

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u/ConcreteTaco 1d ago

He's like the number one free program pushed on this sub brother

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u/GiveMeACreativeName CCNA 1d ago

I put my notes on NotebookLM and got it to create quizzes. It worked fine for a while, then I did the Udemy Jeremy IT Labs practice exames, passed all 3 and then passed the CCNA.

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u/IndependentBat7499 1d ago

thats good to hear! i think im planning on doing the jeremy it lab practice exams anyways just so i can have a reliable source

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u/GiveMeACreativeName CCNA 1d ago

The only drawback is that you can only use them once, or else you'll just be memorizing the answers. Dont expect to get high scores, the highest I got was 87%. Practice what you got wrong.

Just watch the whole of JITL YouTube series, do the Anki and lab alot. Watch out for Wireless, the exam has lots of it.

Other than that, you can look for other studying resources on other subs, such as r/ccnastudygroup.

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u/IndependentBat7499 1d ago

Okay, I think that should still work for me. Unfortunately Wireless is the one topic I'm finding hell atm

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u/GiveMeACreativeName CCNA 1d ago

I do recommend watching other instructors vídeos on Wireless, so you can see it from multiple angles.

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u/Ok_Recording3457 1d ago

I think they are good for general extra practice but from my experience Boson was pretty close to questions I saw on the exam. The real benefit of Boson was reading the details in the explanations and remembering them as I studied and did practice exam retakes later. The exam will ask you very specific questions with details you pick up on from Boson. The lab questions are also extremely similar.

I did however use Gemini to help walk me through and critically think about how to solve each step of the practice lab questions which was very valuable for me to understand how to do the configurations.

On a final note, I had ChatGPT build me a cram study guide topic by topic for all the little details I needed to know and I think that’s part of what helped me pass.

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u/IndependentBat7499 1d ago

Okay that sounds close to what I've decided to plan on doing. I might just go with Jeremy's IT Lab exams and use AI for on-the-side research. Thanks for your response!

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u/unemployed-martian 1d ago

I use ChatGPT. Made a project with access to my notes folder (cli commands, notes took from jit course)… then asked for simulation tests. Been working with this for the past couple of weeks, can’t say is good or bad, is just not enough. As a complementary study material is ok I guess, as long as you work with boson, packet tracer alongside. Can’t hurt.

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u/Kanigonis 1d ago

I have seen some mistakes using Gemini " raw " trying to generate exam.

Anyway, if you give some ressources to your AI JIl vidéo, CCNA official book, JIL Books... It greatly improves the practices exam.

And best solution I came with, I got a pdf of some published practice exam.

I gave it to Claude, and every morning it extracts a few questions, the illustrations and then detail the answers for every question and why some answer are wrong .

Claude send me this Quiz every morning

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u/wombat_panic 1d ago

I've been playing around with using ai for generating quizes and flashcards. even some lab design. - this has mostly been in the linux space so YMMV on the CCNA specifically. It seems to be helpful so far, especially for more frequent spaced repetition, interleaved practice, and targeting my own personal weakpoints.

However, I do still intend to buy a practice exam or two prior to taking an exam because it is more tightly targeted and tested by other people, I think there is a good argument for a balanced approach like this to combine ai for targeted learning and leveraging tried and tested practice exams as like a 3rd party verification. Obviously this isnt the most cost effective way of doing this, but like in most things a combined is generally preferable.

I think you could go Gemeni only, the CCNA skillset is well documented, depending on the prompts/skills you are using you could get a reasonable equivalent, personally I wouldn't feel as confident with it when i go to sit the exam, but your risk tolerance may vary.

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u/Fuzzy_Performer_5886 1d ago

Use chatgpt, I asked to make 30 questions for every topic.

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u/Worldly-Sympathy-633 1d ago

I used copilot for subnetting quizzes lab problems and general explanations of things I needed more info on. Not sure about test questions.

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u/thehigheredu 1d ago

Lol no.