At 9 questions in I was feeling good....
At 24 questions I was thinking of taking a break and warming up for the Dilbert Engineer Victory Dance -- except I wasn't wearing boxers and there were 2 other people testing...
At 50+ questions I had to remind my self to "focus."
At 70-something I was thinking I had a pass if I didn't get nailed by anything unexpected.
At 90-something I consided "punting" on the last few questions to get to my score... I was feeling good!
Oh yeah -- that "disney kid too excited to sleep" feeling was right on -- those 90s questions weren't needed!!
I'd say the exam was 65-70% CCNP.
Having done the QOS & BGP exams for practice helped a bunch.
As for the reading list -- Doyle, Doyle, um... and Doyle & Friend.
If you aced BGP in the BSCI exam.... you still might need some stuff from Halabi/McPherson (which I had re-read for the BGP exam).
I had tossed Developing IP Multicast Networks into my CCIE reading list to supplement the CCNP and Doyle stuff...... and I am now adding it to my "re-read" list for the lab (along with Doyle and Halabi). I did okay on Multicast.... but I think they were being mean with some of the questions -- if they ever offer a separate Multicast exam for anything -- take it. If this was a sample of what to expect -- I'm doubling my effort on Multicast for the Lab.
I had overstudied QoS for the CCNP..... and probably could have passed the QOS exam if I taken it right after getting my CCNP and had not been targeting the design certs next. I thought the QoS exam was a fine little exam...... but whoever wrote the CCIE exam questions was a raving maniac -- gotta wonder about "luck of the draw" on these questions. I used the Cisco QOS Exam Certification Guide in place of the supposedly old-obsolete DQOS book on the reading list -- possibly the ONLY MISTAKE I made studying for this exam. The only questions where I wasn't sure what they were asking were the QoS questions..... but I still did fine -- thanks to studying for that QOS exam
Oh -- they really need do a CCWA and maybe a CCWP. I'm glad I read the wireless books in the reading list -- but the wireless trivia questions were kind to me.
But I am adding a wireless access point to my CCIE lab.
Having taken the CCIE Security written did help with knowing the level of trivia that could be asked for the exam. I didn't take the 5 days off before the exam that I had hoped -- but going through the CCNP Flash Cards at least once might have added 5 points to my already fine score. But expecting the trivia probably did give me 5 more points than I would have gotten if I hadn't been expecting it. Hopefully the trivia I did pay attention to while studying for this will be useful during Lab Exam preparation.
Yeah.... I could find room in my schedule to take this exam every 2 years..... (to re-cert those stupid 2 year CQSs.... and hopefully a CCIE or two
).
I am off tomorrow.... so I have time for
and
I've got MPLS scheduled for next week (which will give me the CCIP).... and then I decide whether to pull the IP phones off the top shelf (where I wouldn't play with them) and the Call Manager off the living room coffee table... and knock out the CCVP before I get serious about that lab thing...
So far my only plan for the Lab -- R&S first. Go throught the Practical Studies books to burn the basics into my brain (the CCNP and then the CCIE versions, including the first 400 pages of the Security Practical Studies since it is R&S as Darby had posted). Then try the first practice lab from the Cisco Press book -- not worring about time. Then fall back and regroup from here. Other than a sample on a vendor workbook site, I don't have a clue what to expect (other than what others and Darby have posted -- which implies twisted mess). I'm sure I'll spend $ on at least one, maybe two vendor workbooks for the practice labs for my first attempt...... and then probably buy every workbook for the 2nd attempt..... and then hit the lab bootcamps for the third+ attempts.
Hopefully I'll have access to the R&S Lab schedule tomorrow.... I'm going to page through it to get an idea of availability, but I don't think it will show December yet. I'm thinking I might like to consider the possibility of maybe scheduling an attempt at the R&S lab sometime this year..... which then can be reschduled and rescheduled and reschduled up to 18 months out from today.
