Hi. I'm a bit lost on how to do this.

I received a voucher from my college for CCNA and I need to complete it by March 28th. Its not totally hopeless, as I am not coming into this completely fresh.

I've taken 3 CCNA classes, and understand the basics of IOS/am comfortable with it

I passed my Net recently (2 weeks ago)

I think I have a good foundational understanding of the networking concepts that the CCNA is asking of me.

I am trying to figure out a direction that I can take to make my studying as efficient as possible. I understand people say to lab, and I can't afford an actual cisco router to practice on. I have packet tracer which from reading the exam objectives should do nicely to learn the practical aspects of the CCNA.

I have read the sidebar and the stickied posts, and I think the video series are good but I am worried they will take too much time rehashing info I already know.

The level of refreshers I am in the need for is along the lines of "STP and how the switches determine how to switch" and "Routing protocols, and how routers determine best hops." And troubleshooting. Definitely troubleshooting.

Also my command-memorization definitely could use some work. Ex. I understand that I need to configure IP helper, but I have a hard time remembering the series of commands needed to enable it.

TLDR: Need more a bit more of an advanced strategy to study in a short amount of time. Looking for the cheaper and more time-efficient ways to refresh my knowledge and get more practical experience.