Books
I only used the books for ACIT provided me for my studies. They are very applicable for lab preparations . The books were the dedicated Certification Guide for the R&S, and Routing TCP/IP volumes. All of these are exclusive only to ACIT students. I would consider these must have materials for any R&S hopeful. I mainly read these early in my studies to gain a good base of understanding of the bulk of the R&S core technologies. I also came back to them from time to time to review certain topics.
Videos
I found instructional videos helpful through the entirety of my studies.
The ACIT videos were great and I highly recommended them. They are presented by Rohit Pardasani . They are a great combination of teaching and showing. These videos are intended to teach students about the basic to intermediate levels of most of the technologies covered in the R&Slab. They come in high definition on an external hard drive and play very nicely.
The ACIT bootcamp Class was also excellent and are similar in content to the videos I watched.
Workbooks
I have books provided by ACIT. I went through the large majority of the ACIT workbooks, and highly recommend them. I felt that they were very smartly put together. I also felt that they gave a good progression in terms of starting with more basic content and moving towards more advanced tasks. There were no errors anywhere. They are tried and tested in the lab environment. And I think that they are really the only workbooks that you would ever need to pass the lab.
With ACIT’s workbooks, I did most all of the basic & advanced labs. These labs cover individual technologies. I only did a handful of some super labs (which were mock labs). I thought that the basic labs were awesome. Though I felt like they threw in too much obscure stuff. As a result, they seemed difficult but at the same time I also felt prepared for whatever may come
Mock Labs
I did do some of the mock labs created by ACIT as well as a number of their newer super Labs.
The Super labs get are very helpful. They are very difficult and grueling an once you start practicing it and once you get used to it psychologically your confidence starts building up and you get prepared for the Worst Case Scenario which is the best thing that happens. I think that these are useful labs to do every so often. The workbooks should be the core of your hands-on studies. But these are a nice change of pace every so often.
I did 2 of the mock labs from ACIT’s books. They were great. In retrospect, I didn’t feel like they didn’t help me in my studies too much . Infact they did as much as the other labs did. I also did pick up a good lesson on how I should be doing my redistribution to make sure I’m not losing points. It’s pretty much like doing a lab and having it graded and critiqued by a pro. Interestingly enough, even though the labs that I took were on the easier side, I actually didn’t do very well at all. I think I was in the 60s on both labs. Overall, they can be helpful.
Forums
I spent a good amount of time on the ACIT’s user forums, which I found very helpful. It’s a great free resource where you can get questions answered by fellow students as well as the instructors. All you need is a Facebook acount.
Cisco Documentation
Although this could probably remain unsaid, I spent a ton of time in the Cisco documentation. Every candidate needs to be really good at using the Cisco online documentation. It’s a great learning resource and it’s what you’ll have access to in the lab. Live it, learn it, love it!
Home Lab/Rack rentals
I did have a home lab that allowed me to do all of the ACIT’s labs on my own. This was very convenient. I would have to book it on ACIT’s website a day prior and you were on the fly the next day to practice the moment you get the rack till the time you done the speed of the rack and the availability I just great. You can use the lab 24*7 by booking it a day prior it. This thing is awesome. You get to use the labs from home and get remote access.
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