Over 80% of Cert Earners Said It Took Under 3 Months to Study for the JNCIA-Junos
by Ross Heintzkill | Published on August 31, 2023
Juniper Networks is a leading networking solutions provider that offers a wide range of products and services for networking and cybersecurity. They specialize in high-performance network infrastructure, including routers, switches, security devices, and software-defined networking solutions. For people who want a career in administering and managing the networks powered by Juniper, there are certifications for any stage of your career. But no matter where you are in your career, the road to a certification is long and challenging – how long will it take you to prepare for a certification like the JNCIA-Junos? What can you do to prepare for it?
CBT Nuggets conducted a poll to find out how long it takes to prepare for the JNCIA-Junos and what some of the best strategies for passing the test are. We found networking professionals on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram and asked them how long it took to study for the JNCIA. We've compiled their answers along with tips and tricks for studying for a certification exam below.
How long did most people need to study for the JNCIA-Junos?
In our poll of 156 Junos networking professionals, the overwhelming majority (80%) took less than 3 months to prepare for the JNCIA-Junos. Out of those, the number who needed less than 6 weeks and the number who needed between 6 weeks and 3 months was relatively close. 49% of all IT professionals who earned the JNCIA-Junos said they were ready in just 6 weeks, and 31% reported needing between 6 weeks and 3 months.
Our survey pretty clearly suggests that it's possible to prepare for the JNCIA-Junos in less than 3 months if you have a robust Juniper course and maintain good study habits. Reddit threads also show that more experience in networking leads to shorter prep time for the JNCIA-Junos. 20% of all IT professionals we surveyed needed more than 3 months to study for the JNCIA-Junos, but those are likely outliers who didn't want to commit to a training schedule or who scrounged the internet for whatever learning materials they could find.
How should you prepare ahead of taking JNCIA-Junos?
As you prepare for any certification exam, the first place to start is always to confirm that the certification is worth it for you and your career. Is the JNCIA-Junos worth it for you? Once you know the answer to that, a very important part of preparing for a certification is what sort of materials you use to learn. Ideally, you want a course that doesn't just teach how Juniper networks work, or explain network administration generally, you want one that also prepares you for the JNCIA exam itself. You need an online JNCIA-Junos course with all three factors.
The single most important element of preparing for the JNCIA-Junos is to stick to a routine. Choose how much time you'll spend studying every day, and always maintain that routine. A strong habit of study is the most important factor in how long it takes to prepare for the JNCIA-Junos – more than the quality of study materials or how well you study.
Tips to make sure you’re test-ready before JNCIA-Junos exam day:
The JNCIA-Junos is an early-career certification that covers networking fundamentals, Junos OS fundamentals, the basics of user interfaces, basics of configuration, routing fundamentals and more. There are multiple Juniper certifications to consider if that sounds too simple for your experience. Some of the exam is about networking concepts that would apply in any setting, but a lot of it is about how those networking concepts are applied in the Junos ecosystem specifically.
Make sure you find a way to balance both: if you're experienced and familiar with computer networking, make sure you don't ignore the details about Juniper network operations. But if you're brand new, don't get lost in the Junos OS – you might struggle with details if you don't understand the foundations first. The JNCIA-Junos exam will also feature practical questions that test your real-world familiarity with networking skills, so don't simply rely on theory – make sure you know how to put into practice what you're learning.
Use virtual labs
Network administration is mostly about interacting with software in the real world – so make sure you use virtual labs as you study. A virtual lab simulates a real network in every way, but it's not real. So you're free to experiment, make mistakes, push buttons and manage configurations in a true-to-life environment that teaches you how to do your real job better.
Test yourself using practice exams
One of the fastest ways to prepare for the JNCIA-Junos is with practice exams. Not that the practice exams do the teaching, but they reveal what areas of the course you can skip over (or stop repeating) and which areas you should revisit. Online courses for JNCIA-Junos that include practice exams are efficient ways to study, since you're not revisiting topics unnecessarily or skipping things you haven't mastered yet.
Learn from the experts
It sounds obvious, but learning from experts is key to preparing for the JNCIA-Junos. But you don't just want networking experts, and you don't just want Juniper experts – in addition to all that, you should find experts on the Juniper certifying exams. Kelvin Tran, the CBT Nuggets expert who created the JNCIA-Junos course is deeply familiar with networking, different networking OS like Juniper and Cisco, and has followed the evolution of Juniper certifying exams and has created a course that speaks directly to the learning objectives of the JNCIA exam.
With the right tools and the right course, you can be one of the people who prepares for the JNCIA-Junos in under 6 weeks. Left to your own devices, you could easily be one of the people who needs more than 3 months – or even more than 5. But it is possible to study for the JNCIA-Junos in less than 6 weeks, and the key is with a good online course that has practice exams to keep you efficient, virtual labs to hone your real-world skills and is taught by a veteran expert.
We think the CBT Nuggets JNCIA-Junos course is the right one. If you want to find out for yourself, you can watch the first video in the series for free. After that, you can also sign up for an unlimited free trial to CBT Nuggets. Earn your cert and get on with your career in a hurry!