Written down – Cisco 360 study beginning
So, for the 3rd time in just over 5 years, I completed the 350-001 CCIE Routing and Switching Written Exam this week. As usual, lots of study and practice filled the two week period leading up to the test, and feelings of releif followed.
The CCIE Written is an odd duck. While it does renew my CCNA and CCDP certifications (which I need currently, in lieu of my CCIE), its hard to really get excited about passing it. Naturally, my wife and coworkers were all excited and congratulatory, but personally I felt like the $350 and month of time logged studying, served only to confirm that I belong at the CCIE level of study. Relief isn’t happiness; I am not turning cartwheels and giving high-fives, I just feel like I had to justify myself to Cisco – something I don’t feel that I should have to do after passing the written twice already, and sitting the lab three times.
Concerning the exam itself, I feel Cisco has improved it greatly. My first written had topics such as Cat5000/CatOS, IPX, Token Ring – despite none of those topics being on lab exam at that time. The second time I took the written, I had several questions relating to Wireless networking and MPLS – again, not topics that were on the lab exam at that time. This time around, I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve always thought of the written exam as a device used to gauge whether or not a particular candidate was deemed fit to pursue the lab exam. The initial two writtens I passed seemed only to support that notion halfway. The other was was more of what I would consider “Professional” level certification questions. In my opinion, a CCIE candidate should focus more on topics like mutual route redistribution, than Wireless standard statistics.
This time around, Cisco did good. I was happy to find a handful of typical CCIE lab equivalent questions – like how summaries can lose more specific prefixes in auto-summary environments, route redistribution, and more command syntax and comprehension questions. All in all, I’m content and feel like this written has more value than the previous ones.
So, I’m off to begin the Cisco 360 CCIE track, back to CCIE lab studies nearly seven years after I started down this path. I’m more confident than ever, and I can’t wait to get in there and get my number, even if I’m six years late.
-The IP Savant-