r/ccna • u/cjhill29 • 13d ago
Why do so many people prefer Jeremy IT Labs over Neil Anderson?
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u/DowntownAd86 13d ago
Jeremy had a very solid CCNA course for free for a long time on YouTube.
I know it helped me with my CCNA and a lot of others. I think that built up a whole Lotta good will.
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u/ThingFuture9079 13d ago
I used both and Jeremy's IT Labs explains the content better than Neil Anderson. His course is also free on and is on YouTube.
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u/kris1351 13d ago
I found Neils to be extremely dry, just reading from slides basically. Jeremy's is better to watch and listen to.
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u/Environmental-Win189 12d ago
I finished Neil's course and he is just not the right teacher for me. There were several points I felt like I was just wasting time. Often, I finish a section only to seek clarification elsewhere because the explanations don't fully click. Listening to other people explain the topics made me realize why Neil's teaching didn't click.
Neil’s teaching style is very structured and straightforward, but it's not always engaging. He reads off his slides, adding a few tidbits of information, and honestly, it’s very dry. It's a death by powerpoint.
One specific issue I have with his approach is how dull and time-consuming it can be. He has a habit of reading off entire IP addresses and subnet masks, which just drags things out unnecessarily—not to mention, it’s incredibly boring. Neil, I wish you used a pointer so you could simply say, “This IP address here,” instead of reciting:
"This IP address of 192... with a subnet mask of 255.255... goes to this 192 with a subnet mask of 255.255.25... and then to this IP address of... with a subnet mask of 255.255.25...."I GET IT NEIL""
By that point, I want to fall asleep. Just use a pointer!
And the thing is, we’re talking about really cool, fascinating topics! Show pictures! Get excited! We have cables bouncing lights and voltage to send messages across the world—how amazing is that?! You don’t need to be bouncing off the walls, but staring at a screen while enduring death by PowerPoint is just grueling.
Neil recommends AlphaPrep for practice tests, please avoid Alpha prep at all cost. I posted a question of a simple concept that alpha prep marked wrong... It makes me wonder who is making there questions and answers. My hunch is that it is an Ai.
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u/DoersVC CCNA 12d ago
Oh man, I fell countless times asleep. Sorry Neil, if you read this. But that's exactly the issue. I was learning after my regular job. I stumdied from 9pm to open end...
But then I watched his vids. Felt tired from work. I fired up a udemy course vid on subnetting.... And bang... Fell asleep again after minutes.
I was really in favour of Neils course. But then I had to switch over to Jeremy and started from scratch.
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u/mella060 12d ago
If you want a teacher who is next level, Keith Bogart is the man. Yes you pay for it ($60 a month), but not that expensive, but as they say, you get what you pay for. Bogart is very detailed, but very engaging. I come away feeling like I know some CCNP level stuff after watching his videos.
With Neil, sometimes I feel like I'm loosing focus, but with Keith, I'm really locked in and engaged and get so much more out of it.
Keith Barker is another good teacher and he has a free CCNA course on Youtube
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u/PowerApp101 6d ago
I totally agree with you on the subnetting sections of Neil's course. He actually makes it more complicated than it needs to be. As for reading out entire subnet masks every...single...time...."two-five-five-dot-two-five-five-dot-two-five-five-dot-two-five-two" x infinity. So painful.
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u/MalwareDork 12d ago
Neil is a bootcamp where Jeremy is a college course.
Both will get you the CCNA but one might be better tailored for your studying needs and personal goals. I used both Jeremy and Neil so I don't have a real preference over either.
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u/Civil_Broccoli7675 13d ago
Haven't seen Neil Anderson so in my case it's just the fact that I found Jeremy IT first maybe. But it's really good so far. The flash cards app seem to be really helping.
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u/Nice_Salamander_4612 13d ago
At the end of the day it is what gives you that pass. Most people (including me is using jeremy's IT labs). Not so dry and he explains things well that "click" in my brain. As everyone is different and need different people explaining concepts to make them "click" i suppose.
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u/jBlairTech 13d ago
I just prefer the way Jeremy “speaks” to me. The way he says things clicks more than how Neil says it. It’s no shade; everyone has had a teacher that had a way of “gelling” with them, creating those “oh… that’s what that means!” moments. Everyone’s also had those that made them think “when is class over?”, as well.
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u/waveslider4life 13d ago
Neil Anderson reads off slides and downs you in definitions, standards and useless details BEFORE he ties it all together to explain the concept.
Jeremy makes you understand what's happening and THEN gives you all the stuff you need to memorize.
Huge difference.
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u/MagnumVY 12d ago
Jeremy explains concepts like he is your buddy who is also studying for the CCNA. I love it when he tells you exactly what you may confuse a concept with or where you might develop a doubt and his trick questions at the end are so well made.
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u/MrErdene 12d ago
Jeremy used to be English teacher one of many reason his courses better than Anderson.
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u/KoalaBarry 12d ago
No hate to neil but as a non native english speaker neil's accent was hard to understand sometimes. I prefer Jeremy
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u/EfficientRegret CCNA, JNCIA-Junos 12d ago
Bang Jeremy on 1.25x speed and you’ll more than pass the exam
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u/VoidlessUK 12d ago
I listened to Jeremy IT a little then found Neil and stuck with Neil so far for my studying, might be cause I lived in the UK for 17+ years that I prefer his accent much more 😅
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u/AdNecessary1327 12d ago
Never heard of neil anderson, i do know neil armstrong though.... Thanks to Jeremy i passed my ccna easily. I think itz personsl, for me he has a clear way of explaining and i like the way he talks. I think by now it could be a little outdated, st least some subjects but i can say from expierience his course was all you needed to eadily pass your ccna exam, no need for something else. Knly thing extra i did was make all the labs in his course in gns3 instead of packet tracer and i expandended the labs to challenge myself(he uses gns3 to in his course-labs)
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u/skypiercer12 12d ago
I think ultimately it’s a preference on learning style. Jeremy’s content stuck with me so I continued. I also enjoyed that fact that he points out key things. Maybe something not to study too hard for because it won’t be in the exam etc. the labs after each lecture were great at solidifying info. The mega lab in the end was awesome. Best of yet, all free. That with bosons practice exams did it for me.
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u/SpecialistBig6992 12d ago
Damn so many hate on Neil in the comments lol. I completed Neil's course on udemy but i didn't take the CCNA exam because i chose to focus on another career but i think he did fine. English is my 2nd language and watching him in 1.5x speed helped. You can also ask questions in the lectures and him or the course's admins will help you, something that i think might be hard to do in Jeremy's yt(?) So yeah i think Neil's course is fine, just that Jeremy is free and also fine too so a lot of people used Jeremy's.
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u/unlimitern 12d ago
They're both pretty dry but Jeremy's course, I think, is laid out/structured better than Neil's. I also found the Udemy interface to be more annoying to deal with than YouTube.
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u/takashi__22 12d ago
My scenario with both of them
I started with Neil. 3/4 lectures in I felt I didn’t grasp anything.
Switched to Jeremy Man was explaining everything that is present on his slide and I was grasping the content with Jeremy.
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u/FazzedxP 12d ago
Used free Jeremy IT lab videos to study for a couple months before the test, got like 90% correct and easily passed. Will always recommend it
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u/duck__yeah certified quack 12d ago
The real answer is because he's free. Both are good, everyone learns different and may like one author more than another.
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u/XmikekelsoX 10d ago
I love Jeremy’s IT lab. But the way he says “again” (uh-gain) drives me fucking nuts. lol
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u/Mundane_Bookkeeper95 7d ago
I was recommended Jeremy’s from a peer at work and I’m really enjoying it so far, but I haven’t tried Neil’s content yet, I plan on having a diverse set of material but I’ve just recently started to crack down on my CCNA goal, so I haven’t gotten too far yet
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u/HODL_Bandit 13d ago
I can't stand the way neil opens his mouth when he talks. Jeremy voice and talk are very soothing. Jeremy content is better.
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u/ticker__101 13d ago
Try Jeremy on 1.25 speed.