Re: Way Off Topic, kinda! -- CCNA, CCNP

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

Stephen D. Reindl <sreindl@apci.net>
> Yes indeed. It is the afore mentioned Cisco Certification. By this
> time next year I should have all 4 of the CCNP exams behind me. I had
> a gentleman in my TCP/IP class that had 6 years experience as a
> network admin. He told me he was taking the course to brush up so he
> could take the CCNA exam. I asked hime if he had taken any of the CCNA
> prep courses and he said he didn't need them, that he new the
> material.  
> He scored a 544 on the exam. I believe he was humbled considerably.
> For those of you who don't know, it takes 849 or better to pass.

I took the older 640-607 version, as well as the older 640-600 series
for the CCNP.  I always scored in the 900s on all my tests.  The key is
to rigorously study the Cisco site and have real-world experience.  Most
of the study guides are crap as misfocused.  And because it _is_ still a
vendor-centric exam, you _must_ know _all_ the Cisco-centric details. 
Knowing only Linux-based routing will net you a sub-500 score!

The only exception where I scored below a 900 was the BSCI (640-901).  I
actually scored under 800, just above passing.   The reason was that I
forgot I had scheduled the exam until the morning of.  I also forgot to
run a "no shut" to bring up my interface up on the simulation (I
realized when looking at the 33% on the OSPF section and then finally
realized the _extremely_simple_step_ I had forgotten).

Right now I'm waiting to take the CIT (642-831) exam to complete my
CCNP.  There are virtually no good study guides and content reviews.  It
has changed about 60% from the previous Troubleshooting (640-606) exam,
and lots of _experienced_ Cisco admins are coming out saying they were
asked questions they've never seen before.  Even Cisco's own study
guides suck.

I also finished of the CCDP, but because I relocated from Florida to
Illinois, some of my test dates were cancelled (by Prometric) and I had
to reschedule (which was after the cut-off).  As such, Cisco considered
my DESIGN exam to be "too old" and said I had to take the new 642-871
version.  Nice, because there are _still_ *0* study guides for it some
*1* year after introduction.  I'm going to try to "wing it" this summer
by studying different information.  The CCDP has changed _radically_
(like over 80%) and focuses on Cisco's AVVID model with I have *0*
experience with.

> While I'm at it, thanks to everyone who sent congrats. This is the
> first step back from the abyss. Anyone need an entry level network 
> admin? 

Join the club.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. -- b.j.smith@ieee.org



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