CCDE Written Round 2 - passed

I passed the CCDE written today with 945 / 1000

Failed it at the start of July with 618, but I was so busy at work for the 2 weeks in build up to it and didn't get enough time to revise all of the notes I had already made.

That was in addition to my car getting broken two days before the exam....wasn't ideal prep and probably wasnt in the right mindset.

This time I felt good going into it although tired. Long days of work then study are catching up but need to keep momentum going.

I booked the practical in London for 19th Nov and attending Jeremy Filliben's CCDE class in Orlando this October.

Other than that I intend to write down every design I can think of relating to tech included in the exam and come up with different deployments and plenty more reading of RFCs and books on safari that I have already read.

This has been a mentally gruelling experience for me to date but I'll keep going until I reach the intended goal of becoming CCDE.

I will update later about my thoughts of the exam within NDA and resources I used, but for now I am just happy to be a step closer. All I will say is the written exam is quite DMVPN, routing and service provider Layer 2 heavy so I expect more of the same in practical.

Significant amount of hard work ahead in next few months!

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Comments

phantasm

Congratulations!

NetworkNewb

Gratz! You plan on going all the way to CCAr?

malcybood

Thanks guys.

NetworkNewb,

Probably not in the immediate future - it's too expensive and I'm not sure it's worthwhile for me at this time based on that unless you work for Cisco.

It costs $15,000 to attempt and is based on a panel's opinion as to whether you meet the requirements. It sounds like being on The Apprentice and I'm still unsure as to what the value add would be for this certification above CCDE or CCIE when working for a partner, who develop architectures for customers every day, based on Cisco best practice (where possible)!

Overview
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/community/certifications/cisco_certified_architect/board_exam

Case Study
https://learningcontent.cisco.com/cln_storage/text/cln/tech/CCAr/CaseStudy_CCAr_ErrolRobichaux.pdf

Most employers are not aware of the certification and I doubt you would ever see it in a job advert - again unless it was for Cisco. There's only about 10 certified according to the HoF website anyway!

CCAR Hall of Fame

joelsfood

Congrats!

gorebrush

Well done that man.

Whereabouts are you based to take the DE in London?

malcybood

Thanks joelsfood.

gorebrush wrote: »

Well done that man.

Whereabouts are you based to take the DE in London?

I live just outside Edinburgh gorebrush.

My options were London Holborn or Frankfurt!...Think there may actually have been another in Enfield on the Pearson Vue site but would need to check again.

I know someone else who sat the practical exam at Holborn last year so thought I'd go with that!

jamesp1983

Great work! Congrats!

Dieg0M

Good job man. Keep it up.

Alex90

Ah I work like 5 minuted from Holborn - buy you a beer if you pass

gorebrush

Nice! - I'm in Wales

Shoe Box

I have to wonder if $15,000 for the CCAr isn’t essentially buying it. They charge $3750 of that for the preliminary exam, and if someone were to be told ok then spend the remaining $11250 on the test, then get told no, it could be a bad time.

Essendon

Grats mate! That's a pretty good score on a DX level test. Inspirational stuff!

malcybood

Shoe Box wrote: »

I have to wonder if $15,000 for the CCAr isn’t essentially buying it. They charge $3750 of that for the preliminary exam, and if someone were to be told ok then spend the remaining $11250 on the test, then get told no, it could be a bad time.

I was on a CCDE webinar at the weekend and the trainer talked a bit around the CCAr. He knew a student that attempted it and failed and decided that they were not going to pursue it as they did not think they would have answered anything differently.

As I mentioned above, I think it's largely related to the panel's opinion if you are an experienced designer or not.

Unless there is more structure to it and definitive criteria that must be met, in addition to a compelling driver to actually pursue it in the first place, I can't see it ever taking off or even being in demand to be honest.

At the end of the day, what does having a CCAr over say a CCDE with 20 years experience in networking / telecoms at board level actually prove?

malcybood

Essendon wrote: »

Grats mate! That's a pretty good score on a DX level test. Inspirational stuff!

Thanks, it was my second attempt though! I really studied hard in the 3 weeks or so on what I thought were my weak areas first time around (DMVPN, GET VPN and IPV6) which made a difference I think.

Right back into study for the practical now and tunnelling / QoS are the focus this week.

ccnpninja

cool man!