Boson ExSim‑Max and Jeremy’s IT Lab are not competing products, and treating them as an either/or is the most common way people waste money on CCNA prep. Jeremy teaches you networking. Boson teaches you how Cisco asks about networking. Those are different skills, and the exam tests the second one.
If you only take one thing from this page: do Jeremy first, do Boson second, and do not buy Boson until you have finished the learning phase. Buying it early is the single most common way people burn a good product.
What Is the Difference Between Boson and Jeremy’s IT Lab?
One is a course and one is an exam engine. Jeremy’s IT Lab is a complete free CCNA video course on YouTube with Packet Tracer labs and Anki decks attached to every lecture. Boson ExSim‑Max is a paid practice exam product: five full‑length exams built on roughly 370 questions, each written to match or exceed the difficulty of the real thing.
| Jeremy’s IT Lab | Boson ExSim‑Max | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Full video course | Practice exam engine |
| Cost | Free | Around $99, or $149 bundled with NetSim |
| Labs | Packet Tracer lab per lecture, free | None in ExSim‑Max, NetSim is separate |
| Teaches the blueprint | Yes, in depth | No, it assumes you know it |
| Teaches Cisco’s question style | Not really | Yes, this is the whole product |
| Use it | Months one to three | Final four to six weeks |
Do You Need Both Boson and Jeremy’s IT Lab?
For most people, yes. Not because either is incomplete as a product, but because the CCNA 200‑301 exam does not test recall, and a video course is a recall‑shaped tool.
We have written before that Jeremy’s IT Lab is the best free CCNA resource available and better than most paid alternatives. That holds. The catch is also unchanged: teaching you the material is not the same as preparing you for how Cisco asks questions about the material. Cisco presents scenarios with several plausible answers and expects you to reason through why each one is wrong in this specific situation. People fail this exam knowing networking perfectly well. They fail because they have never practised thinking the way the question writers think.
That skill is built by getting questions wrong and reading a good explanation of why, over and over. Which is the thing Boson actually sells.
Is Jeremy’s IT Lab Enough to Pass the CCNA on Its Own?
It gets you closer than any other free resource and it still is not quite enough for most people. Some candidates do pass on Jeremy plus Packet Tracer plus the Anki decks alone. They tend to be people who already work in networking and are certifying something they do daily.
If you are coming from outside the field, the gap is not knowledge. It is exam behaviour: pacing roughly 100 questions across 120 minutes, committing to an answer you cannot revisit, and reading a question carefully enough to spot which of two defensible answers Cisco considers correct.
Is Boson Worth $99 If You Already Watched a Free Course?
This is the real question, and the honest answer is that $99 is small next to a $300 exam fee you might pay twice. The people who most need Boson are exactly the people who feel most ready without it, because a video course is very good at producing confidence and not very good at testing it.
What you are buying is not 370 questions. It is 370 explanations. Each wrong answer comes with a breakdown of why the right answer is right and why the plausible wrong one is wrong, and that breakdown is where the learning happens. Treated as a quiz, Boson is expensive. Treated as a study text you unlock by being wrong, it is cheap.
In What Order Should You Use Them?
Finish the course before you open the exam engine. The sequence that works looks like this:
- Work through Jeremy’s IT Lab end to end, doing the Packet Tracer lab attached to each lecture rather than saving them for later.
- Keep up with the Anki decks from week one. Spaced repetition is worth more spread thin over months than crammed into a weekend.
- Only when you have finished the blueprint, start Boson. Take exam A untimed, then read every explanation, including the ones you got right.
- Take exam B two weeks later in simulation mode, timed, no peeking.
- Repeat until you are scoring 85 percent or higher in simulation mode on an exam you have not seen before.
The mistake is buying Boson in month one and burning through the exams while you are still learning. You get a demoralising score, you learn the questions rather than the reasoning, and you have spent the material you needed for the final stretch.
What Score on Boson Means You Are Ready?
Aim for 85 percent or higher in simulation mode on a fresh exam. Simulation mode means timed, no explanations visible, no looking things up.
A low first score is not a warning sign. Most candidates land somewhere between 55 and 70 on a first untimed run even after finishing a full course, and Boson is harder than the real exam on purpose. What matters is the slope, not the first number. Exam A at 61 followed by exam B at 78 two weeks later is a candidate on track. Exam A at 61 followed by exam B at 63 means the explanations are not being read.
What Does This Combination Not Cover?
Hands‑on time on real or simulated gear, beyond what Packet Tracer gives you. Jeremy’s labs are good and Packet Tracer is genuinely sufficient for the blueprint, but if you want a closer feel for Cisco IOS behaviour, that is the argument for the NetSim bundle or for building a small home lab.
It also will not tell you what changes in February 2027. Cisco announced the 200‑301 v2.0 blueprint on May 20, 2026, with a first test date of February 3, 2027 and a last v1.1 date of February 2, 2027. If your exam date falls after the cutover, check the current Cisco exam topics against whatever course you are following, because free courses are usually re‑recorded some months after a blueprint changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you pass the CCNA with Jeremy’s IT Lab alone?
Some people do, usually people already working in networking. For candidates coming from outside the field, the failure point is not knowledge but exam technique, which a video course does not build.
Should I buy Boson before or after finishing a course?
After. Boson assumes you already know the blueprint. Using it during the learning phase wastes the exams and produces scores that discourage more than they teach.
Is the NetSim bundle worth the extra money?
Only if you want simulator time beyond Packet Tracer. ExSim‑Max on its own is the part that affects whether you pass. NetSim is a lab tool, not an exam tool.
How many Boson exams do you get?
Five full‑length practice exams built on roughly 370 questions in the current CCNA product. Boson expanded this from three exams, so older reviews quoting a smaller number are out of date.
Does Jeremy’s IT Lab cover the labs on the real exam?
It covers the configuration skills the lab questions test, through Packet Tracer. It does not replicate the exam interface. Cisco publishes exam tutorials that show you what the interface actually looks like, and they are worth ten minutes before test day.
What if I can only afford one?
Use Jeremy’s IT Lab, because it is free, and put the money you would have spent toward the exam fee. Then borrow or budget for practice exams before you schedule. Sitting a $300 exam without ever having practised under time is the expensive version of saving $99.
Is there a free alternative to Boson?
Free question banks exist and they have a place at the very beginning, when any exposure to question phrasing helps. They recycle shallow banks and rarely explain their answers, which is precisely the part that matters. Cisco also publishes the full 200‑301 v1.1 exam topics free, which is the only authoritative list of what can appear.
Network Engineer | CCNA | CCNP Enterprise
Regina Martinelli is a CCNP-certified network engineer who covers IT training programs, certification paths, and Cisco industry news. She started writing about the CCNA from the inside as a candidate, and that ground-level perspective still shapes how she evaluates training resources and helps others navigate the path she has already walked.
