Retake waiting time exception/work-around and September 24 deadline?

raymor

Does anyone know of any exceptions or work-arounds for either the five day waiting period to retake a failed exam or the September 24th deadline to take ICND v2? (I'm not talking about simply cheating, but something more legitimate.)

I've spent the last few months studying for ICND2, the second half of the CCNA. The last day to take this version is September 24th.
The new version is a very different exam, with a lot of different topics added and removed. I've been studying for version2, the old/current one.

Because I wasn't fully confident, even after all of this preparation, I decided to take the ultimate practice test - the actual exam.
Cisco's site says if you fail you have to wait five days to take it again. So I figured I could take it on September 19th, possibly fail and find out where I need to focus my studies for the final few days, then retake on September 24th. In fact it says "five days starting the day after you fail", so if I failed it on Sept 19, day one would be September 20, day 5 would be September 24.

With that plan in mind, I took it today, and missed passing by half of a question.
No problem, I'll study hard on the areas I was weak and retake in in five days, right. Then I see on my score sheet "first day retake allowed: September 25". Oh no! Apparently when Cisco says you have to wait five days, they really mean six days!

So now I'm really in a jam. I'm not allowed to retake until Sept 25, but the test I've been studying so hard for ends on Sept 24.
Normally when I find myself in a jam, I find some work-around, some way to make things work out. As example of the kinds of things I thought of that *could* work:

If the ICND2 v2 were gone, but the full CNNA combined test v2 were available for another week (no such luck).
If there were a policy that employees of Cisco partners can skip the waiting period under certain conditions?
If students of partner educational institutions had an extended deadline.

Any exceptions, workarounds, or other ways of resolving this, other than throwing out half of what I learned and learning a ton of new, completely different stuff, including Cisco's software defined networking philosophy and implementation?

ypark

• Candidates who fail an Associate, Professional, or Specialist exam must wait a period of five (5) calendar days, beginning the day after the failed attempt, before they may retest for the same exam.

Cisco retake policy is pretty darn clear though.. above quote was taken straight from their retake policy section. I would say give Cisco a call and see if they would make an exception. I highly doubt it though.

Cisco Exam Policy: Certification Exam Policies - Cisco
Cisco Certification Support: Support Home Page

raymor

For anyone else interested in this topic, I did speak to a supervisor at Cisco. No luck.
Just so noone else has the same confusion I had, the text of Cisco's policy doesn't exactly match what they've implemented.
it says "must wait five days". In fact, you must wait MORE THAN five days. In other words, you must wait at least SIX days to retake.
You may NOT retake for five days.

PsychoData91

that sucks raymor. Better luck next time, eh? Just makes me want to cram every last minute of studying I can in. Maybe I'll just stay up until the night before my test and sleep then?

I found out there's a posting coming up at work and I wanted to stand out so I thought I would finally finish my CCNA. I only heard about it last thursday and figure V2 is a lot more inline with what I already know, so I would shoot for it.

I'm scheduled for Friday 9/23 morning around 9:30 am, but if I fail, I have no chance of retaking V2 and will have to go with V3.

Also, from what I've seen you're lucky to find ANY testing center open on 9/24 (a saturday) anyway!

raymor

Here's a funny snippet from my conversation with Cisco. I just thought it might be entertaining.

Cisco Rep: You have to wait five days. If you took the test Monday, you can retest Sunday.

Me: Five days, Monday to Sunday?

Cisco Rep: Yes. Five days, Monday to Sunday.

Me: Monday to Sunday is a week, right?

Cisco Rep: Yes.

Me: And a week is seven days, right?

Cisco Rep:

Mind. Blown.

vfr clown

raymor wrote: »

Here's a funny snippet from my conversation with Cisco. I just thought it might be entertaining.

Cisco Rep: You have to wait five days. If you took the test Monday, you can retest Sunday.

Me: Five days, Monday to Sunday?

Cisco Rep: Yes. Five days, Monday to Sunday.

Me: Monday to Sunday is a week, right?

Cisco Rep: Yes.

Me: And a week is seven days, right?

Cisco Rep:

Mind. Blown.

5 days in between the day you failed and when you can retake. I took my first attempt on 9/17 so I had 2 days if I had to retake, which I did so glad I did the math. The retake date is on the report if you fail also.

sillymcnasty

The wording is indeed incorrect. They gave an example on the site when I was planning to take the test, and yeah, it was either 6 or 7 days. Definitely not 5. They should just word it from the date you fail, not the day after.