WOW! New CCNP/CCDP tests are very hard

[spidey07]

Never been big on certs, but needed to renew by NP/DP status. Had them for 6 years.

All I had to do was pass a single 642 exam. Choose what looked like the easiest - BCMSN - building cisco mulitlayer switched networks...something like that. Got a book, studied for a good 40 hours. Seemed I had it down pretty well, scoring 95-98% on Boson practice tests.

WOW! This test is TOUGH. Most every question was a "do you really, truly understand the underlying concepts and can you use the tools given to you?" It was similar to the CCIE written I took years ago. And it covers everything the exam topics says it does.

I was truly humbled. Was sure I failed. Passed with 814 over the required 804. What was so surpising is I scored so lowly with spanning-tree and port security, two of my specialties.

Maybe it's because I'm not in the gear a lot. Eitherway.....I'm impressed with how they stepped up the difficulty. Most questions reminded me of the CCIE written, they were all "do you really comprehend?"

 

[kevnich2]

Honestly, this post scares me. I know how well in depth you know your networking and if it's hard for YOU, man, I don't know what to say. In your opinion, was this certificate an accurate measurement of a person's knowledge or was it the same as other certifications I know of that only says a person is book smart on the topic but doesn't really know what the concepts?

 

[jlazzaro]

Interesting spidey. From what I can remember of the old CCNP exams it was more of a "can you remember this" than "can you apply this". If what you say is true, I'm glad they stepped them up.

It's probobly still very possible for someone to pass with straight book knowledge, but at least it isnt easy as it used to be! I remember countless CCNP's that could talk out the wazoo, but when it came down to the nitty gritty they were stumped. You can't learn troubleshooting skills from a book...

Then again, maybe you're just getting rusty in your old age

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
Honestly, this post scares me. I know how well in depth you know your networking and if it's hard for YOU, man, I don't know what to say. In your opinion, was this certificate an accurate measurement of a person's knowledge or was it the same as other certifications I know of that only says a person is book smart on the topic but doesn't really know what the concepts?

It was pretty accurate. I know spanning-tree like the back of my hand and these questions were HARD. You really had to understand what was going on. A ton of simulations and "here's a one line command output, what does this tell you about switches 4 hops away?" Many questions had 2-3 "right" answers where technically they were correct.

They just changed the exams at the first of this year I think. Trying to crack down and stiffen up the cert I think.

When I first got my NP/DP the tests were much, much, much easier.

 

[kevnich2]

That's the problem I see with these tests. Having a test that has 2 or 3 technically correct answers with one REALLY correct answer but yet at the same time, you could argue the fact that the others are correct also, I don't see how that accurately measures a persons ability to correctly perform that specific duty. Why can't they just give you a bunch of simulations and say for each question, here's the situation and here's the end goal, give us the most efficient way of accomplishing this. In IT or networking, there are usually multiple ways of accomplishing a goal but usually only one efficient, simple way of accomplishing it and the only real way to figure that out is through trial & error of doing it yourself, not by just reading a book.

 

[spidey07]

It keeps people from "elminating" 3 answers that aren't true. So they could get the correct answer, but still not understand what was being asked.

 

[jlazzaro]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
Why can't they just give you a bunch of simulations and say for each question, here's the situation and here's the end goal, give us the most efficient way of accomplishing this.

that why theres a ccie lab

 

[LightninTrip]

has anyone taken the ccvp program...just curious as to what to expect...

 

[TC10284]

Crap! Looks like I better pay really close attention to my CCNP courses at ECU. :Q

 

[cmetz]

spidey07, it's counterintuitive, but often times cert tests are easier if you DON'T really understand. If you understand the material well, you'll sit there thinking about the answers, and realize that there are often multiple "right" answers available, or there's a lot more to the problem than the test is really asking for. If you just memorize the test materials, it's more just gaming the test.

I know a bunch of people who passed the CCNP by simply memorizing the practice test questions. To this day they don't know a thing about how to actually do anything with real routers.

 

[spidey07]

I guess that's what I'm trying to say. A good half of the questions couldn't be memorized. Things like sample debugging output with very little information and then asking difficult questions about the output.

The simulations were rather easy though if you're familiar with it.

The CCNP/CCDP programs got revamped at the start of this year I think.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I guess that's what I'm trying to say. A good half of the questions couldn't be memorized.

In my opinion, Microsoft has done a pretty good job at that lately, too. I found Microsoft's ISA Server 2004 exam, of which I took both the Beta and the final version, REALLY difficult, with lots of questions that required pretty decent understanding of the software.

 

[azev]

I am sure, recent complains about paper mcse/ccnp made most vendors realized that they have to do something with their curriculum.

btw spidey, was there alo of wireless question on the test??

 

[spidey07]

It covered security, wireless, voice and a ton of spanning-tree (all flavors of it and features)

 

[Boscoh]

I finished up taking all the new CCNP/CCDP tests at the end of January. I'm in the Associate Systems Engineer training program at Cisco and they mandated that we all take the new exams. I'd never taken the old ones, so I had nothing to benchmark them against. I took the BSCI/BCMSN composite exam and thought that was seriously hard, although I got a 997 on it. ONT was *tough*, I think I scored 890 on that. ISCW was easy for me because of my security background, and now that I'm doing CCSP I have found that ISCW is essentially the SND and SNRS courses condensed and slightly simplified.

I also retook the CCNA exam in August 2006 to recert myself (I'd take it 3 years earlier) and the new exam was seriously harder than the previous one I had taken.

For the person who was asking about the CCVP, we have quite a few people in the program going down that track and they are having a hell of a time with it. Especially the GWGK and QOS exams. I know a few Voice CCIE's that have said the CCVP is excellent prep for the CCIE Voice, although I don't know anyone who has passed the voice lab on the first attempt.

I'm all about making the tests harder, but we need to get better about cracking down on the exam-cram/cheat programs that are out there and figure out a way to deal with the cheaters.

 

[Celeron]

The CCIE voice lab is tough, but it is do-able on the first attempt, passed it myself in November. Gatekeeper is key. If you don't know gatekeeper like the back of your hand there's no reason to even bother taking the exam. The CCVP is a good exam, however I skipped it and went straight from the CCNA to the Voice CCIE.

 

[spyordie007]

Yup I need to work on my CCNP and have been prepping for BSCI. Just going through the new Cisco book it looks harder than it did last time I started (but never finished) this process.

We'll see how hard my work pushes me to take the exams, there are a lot of other things I've got on my plate right now...

Erik

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Never been big on certs, but needed to renew by NP/DP status. Had them for 6 years.

All I had to do was pass a single 642 exam. Choose what looked like the easiest - BCMSN - building cisco mulitlayer switched networks...something like that. Got a book, studied for a good 40 hours. Seemed I had it down pretty well, scoring 95-98% on Boson practice tests.

WOW! This test is TOUGH. Most every question was a "do you really, truly understand the underlying concepts and can you use the tools given to you?" It was similar to the CCIE written I took years ago. And it covers everything the exam topics says it does.

I was truly humbled. Was sure I failed. Passed with 814 over the required 804. What was so surpising is I scored so lowly with spanning-tree and port security, two of my specialties.

Maybe it's because I'm not in the gear a lot. Eitherway.....I'm impressed with how they stepped up the difficulty. Most questions reminded me of the CCIE written, they were all "do you really comprehend?"

I passed the BCMSN about a year and a half ago, and it was seriously hard then. My boss got his CCNP six or so years ago and said that the material I was studying was WAY more in depth than he was required to know. Like you said, you have to figure STP topology from some output, plus know MST, RSTP, PVST+, and all the features associated. And know them well. Not to mention that STP is only like 25% of the test... everything else you have to know that well too.

I passed the BSCI and the BCRAN at the end of last year before they revamped everything, and as soon as there's Cisco Press material for the ONT I'll take that to finish my NP.

Basically what I'm getting at is that this stuff has been getting a LOT harder over the last 5 years. I'm sure the new tests continue that trend.

 

[Aves]

This is not what I wanted to read right before I take the BCMSN.


My primary concern is just how much Wi-Fi will be on the exam. That's definitely my weak point since I haven't done much with Cisco Wi-Fi gear and don't really have any to use for studying purposes.

I figure the best I can do is just study A vs B vs G, LWAPP and pray if there are any specific "what's the command to do X" questions.

Well either way, I'll be giving it a shot in the next few weeks.

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: Aves
This is not what I wanted to read right before I take the BCMSN.


My primary concern is just how much Wi-Fi will be on the exam. That's definitely my weak point since I haven't done much with Cisco Wi-Fi gear and don't really have any to use for studying purposes.

I figure the best I can do is just study A vs B vs G, LWAPP and pray if there are any specific "what's the command to do X" questions.

Well either way, I'll be giving it a shot in the next few weeks.

Funny, wireless is about the only Cisco product/technology that I'm really good at

I've got the BCMSN scheduled in 3 weeks. I had booked it months ago to give myself incentive to study, hasn't worked well so far as I haven't gotten a lick of studying in. Been debating whether I should just take it anyway so I know where I stand or if I should reschedule.

Erik

 

[spidey07]

If I recall there wasn't a ton of wireless. But one should understand how LWAPP works, the discovery process, radio managment, how the controller interfaces are setup and what they mean. As well as some autonomous/IOS wireless stuff.

 

[Aves]

Well I passed BCMSN. On to ISCW!

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Aves
Well I passed BCMSN. On to ISCW!

congratulations

 

[Aves]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: Aves
Well I passed BCMSN. On to ISCW!

congratulations

Well ISCW ended up being pretty tough as well, although I think BCMSN was harder.

Just ONT to go now. I think I'll be OK on the VoIP/QoS stuff but again I'm worried about wireless. It looks like about 1/3 of the objectives are wireless related.

 

[Aves]

Well it took long enough but I finally finished the CCNP.