How Many Times Can I Take The Written?

Bardlebee

I failed today. Okay, brush that off. But the only reason I would be upset with this is because I have a limited amount of tries. However, today I looked at Cisco's site for a sanity check and I see this:

Certification Exam Policies - Cisco

"

• Effective October 1, 2015, the following policy will no longer be in effect: Candidates may attempt any CCIE or CCDE written exam up to four times per rolling calendar year. Candidates cannot retake the same written exam more than four times per rolling calendar year regardless of passing or failing the exam."

Look, I'm not saying I or anyone else SHOULD pass in four attempts. It just adds a lot of pressure to what is, in my opinion, a very difficult test. So if my tries are unlimited, that would really help me take the pressure off.

However when I get my print out of my fantastic failure, it states that I only have 4 tries.... so which is it Cisco?

How can I confirm this 100 percent to be accurate? Who at Cisco do I call? :P

networker050184

There is a certification support contact on Cisco's site you can open a ticket. They should be able to clear it up for you fairly quickly. Or, just don't fail 4 times

Bardlebee

networker050184 wrote: »

There is a certification support contact on Cisco's site you can open a ticket. They should be able to clear it up for you fairly quickly. Or, just don't fail 4 times

I'll do that, thanks. Didn't realize I could!

joelsfood

four tries per rolling calendar year. Not four tries and then done. You are just limited to 4 tries in a 365 day/12 month period. Besides, I doubt you need to worry about passing that limit

Bardlebee

Oh yeah I know that. But four tries and then sitting on my hands for a year doesn't sound appealing lol. I would hope I wouldn't need four. But you never know! Just takes weight off my chest all it is. Thing is I failed it by such a margin I feel like I can go ahead and take it again in two weeks and pass, but I also don't want to risk it.

OctalDump

Well, I am not Cisco, but my reading is that the policy (after the colon) is no longer in effect, and so the only limits are the 15 day wait after failed attempts and the 180 day wait after a pass. That 15 day wait seems odd though. That's basically 24 attempts a year. Which makes it seem like you could brute force the written.

EDIT: so a little more reading, and it seems like the previous previous policy (pre August 2014, I think) was a 5 day wait period with unlimited attempts, then they changed that to the 15 day wait and 4 maximum resits in 1 rolling year, and now it looks like they've dropped that last requirement. So, it's not as strict as it was in the previous policy, but stricter than the previous, previous. It seems like most people are passing the written fairly 'easily' (ie low number of attempts), and the attempts for the lab is still around 2 or 3 for most people.

The cost is likely sufficient disincentive for most people to attempt to brute force the exam.