How to pass the CCNA without being good in English?

I regularly receive the question how to pass the CCNA without being good in English? In this article, I share with you some tips to pass the CCNA or even the CCNP without being good in English.

At the time of writing this article, Cisco certification exams including CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE are only available in English and Japanese. This is an obstacle for us native French speakers!

It should be noted that to progress in the IT profession, it is essential to learn English. Because all the good documents or online resources are in English.

But if you’re not yet good in English, there are a few tricks you can use to advance in the business while improving your English.

Tips to pass the CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, without being good in English

The tips discussed in this article are used by most people in the IT business.

– Review the same course in French and English

Let’s say you are studying for the CCNA and you bought a French course on Udemy, find another CCNA course, but this time in English.

Each time you finish a part of the course in French, go and review the same part in the English version of the course.

For example, you just finished the OSPF dynamic routing part of the French course, go to the English version and find the same part and review it again.

It will take you a little longer, but it is the best way to move forward safely.

This method not only helps you to master the course, but also to improve your English by mastering technical terms.

– Install a translator extension on your browser

The translator extension on your Firefox or Chrome browser allows you to automatically translate content from one language to another.

Personally, I always do my research in English to get the best results possible.

Always try to do the research in English and read the results in English. Once you get stuck on words or phrases, you can use the translator.

I remind you that you will not be allowed to use a translator during the exam.

Get a taste for reading courses in English to improve your technical English.

– Practice questions in English

The formats of the CCNA exam questions are often almost the same.

After preparing for the exam, you should probably take some time to practice before the big day. So don’t practice with French questions. Always look for questions in English.

If you don’t understand a question, translate it and try to identify the words in English that you don’t understand. Then learn these words and continue your training cycle as normal.

This tip helps you to master the syntax or format of the questions. This way, you won’t have difficulties in the exam.

– Take the exam at a test center

It is possible to take the CCNA or CCNP exam online from your home or office.

However, the online supervisors only speak English or Japanese. So if you don’t understand the instructions they give you, you will surely have problems.

The best way is to take the exam at a testing center. In the test center, you will at least have people explaining the instructions in French.

Ask to be registered at the test center as a non-native English speaker living in a non-English speaking country.

Often, the exam lasts 120 minutes, but for the native French speaker, you will have 30 minutes more, which makes a total of 150 minutes.

The downside with testing centers is that you will have to pay a small additional fee.

Conclusion

In short, if you put English into your preparation, you will have a chance to pass your exam on the first try.

Here are the tips to pass the CCNA without being good in English:

  1. Review the same course in French and English;
  2. Install a translator extension on your browser;
  3. Practice questions in English;
  4. Take the exam at a test center.

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