Least interesting CCNP exam?

tomset

So far I've passed the BSCI and BCMSN, just about to start studying the ISCW.

Which exam (BSCI, BCMSN, ISCW, ONT) do you guys think has the least interesting material? I'd say the BSCI was not quite as interesting as the BCMSN....


Also, which of the 4 would you guys say is the most interesting?

montanablue2

So far I think ISCW is the coolest because you get to understand some of the root technology behind common networking technologies that the general public uses, like cable, DSL and VPN. I didn't know how my DSL connection worked at the packet level before. Now I do!

scheistermeister

I liked BCMSN the most, then in order

ONT
BSCI
ISCW

I hate security stuff and GUI things, that's why I do not like the ISCW.

Deltah_

ONT is easy and very basic.
The QoS part is interesting to learn.

ISCW, damn I need to practice more with SDM! GUI is not a cool thing when you have no Cisco routers in home. At my job, all Cisco routers are operational and it's not the the best place to learn it. So I need to buy a router only for SDM.

scheistermeister

Deltah_ wrote:

ONT is easy and very basic.
The QoS part is interesting to learn.

ISCW, damn I need to practice more with SDM! GUI is not a cool thing when you have no Cisco routers in home. At my job, all Cisco routers are operational and it's not the the best place to learn it. So I need to buy a router only for SDM.

Not if you have an image from a router that supports SDM. You can use the image with dynamips/GNS3 and connect to it with the SDM to practice with.

_maurice

I am taking the BSCI exam first from advice I got. But in retrospect I should have started with ISCW.

networker050184

I hate the SDM exam ....er I mean the ISCW exam.....

BSCI and BCMSN were equally interesting to me. The ONT material is very interesting too as I do a lot of QoS work.

Forsaken_GA

That's actually fairly interesting. I haven't looked at the new BSCI yet (are they finally hitting ip6 now?), so I can't speak for it. I thought BCMSN was a little too easy, though I found the load balancing stuff fairly interesting. So far with ISCW, I'm finding about half of it easy (I spent years support cable and adsl installations, so other than how to actually configure it in IOS, I was already familiar with it). IPSec annoys me to no end. The SDM stuff doesn't seem too bad... it's not any worse than the couple of years I spent work with Active Directory, I am somewhat annoyed at it's tendancy to add things which it regards as helpful, but ends up breaking something.

I figured ONT was going to be the exam I liked the least. Looking over it's objectives briefly, I saw alot of overlap with BCMSN, and I don't like the wireless stuff because I can't justify the cost of getting my hands on the gear, and I hate having to learn concepts by rote, I much prefer getting my hands dirty and making it work. Then there's the OS elitist in me that doesn't like being asked questions about Windows wireless utils when I exorcised the Redmond demon from my life...

gojericho0

I love the ISCW - the SDM. Though I guess it is good to know, especially if clients are interested in it as opposed to the CLI

tomset

Well guys,

so far I have to say that ISCW has the least interesting material. I've only got through 3 chapters of the ISCW official exam cert guide, so I'm hoping it gets better from here.

So far it's been a lot of technical details on how DSL, PPPoE, and cable modems work. Ugghhhh

scheistermeister

tomset wrote:

So far it's been a lot of technical details on how DSL, PPPoE, and cable modems work. Ugghhhh

You didn't like those parts? I liked those and the MPLS the most from the ISCW. Everything else in it I hated with a passion.

networker050184

I like the MPLS and IPsec sections. The cable and DSL stuff is good to know, but I didn't find it interesting.

tomset

I think I'll like the MPLS and security sections better.......

Deltah_

MPLS in the ISCW is a little bit boring.
But maybe in the CCIP certification, a dedicated exam to MPLS would be more interesting.