Passed ARCH
Forsaken_GA
Member Posts: 4,024
in CCDA & CCDP
Some may recall that I had a decidedly negative opinion of the CCDA exam, and I hoped that ARCH would provide me with a better experience.
Well, I just passed it about 20 minutes ago, scored a 961.
I will say that studying for ARCH did teach me alot of things I didn't know before, which was my biggest criticism of DESGN, so in that regard I give ARCH much higher marks than the Associate level exam.
That being said, the exam was still easy, and I still feel like I may have wasted my time. I essentially just spent about 6 months and ~$450 to add some letters to my resume. Mostly I guess it's just a career path thing I guess. I'm of the opinion that the Design track prepares you to be a Cisco Sales Engineer, not a Cisco Network Engineer, which is not really something I'm interested in becoming.
Only thing I used to prepare was the Authorized Self-Study book, which I honestly feel overprepares for the exam. There were a good many things covered in the book that weren't represented well, or at all, on the actual exam. I sold my CCDA book as soon as I passed the exam, but I think I'll be keeping the ARCH book around. If nothing else, it's a pretty good general reference.
I was actually pretty surprised at my score, as there were some questions that made me go 'WTF?'. So either I got a bunch of beta questions, or my educated guesses were good ones. There were many more drag and drop questions than I'm used to seeing.
At any rate, I'm glad it's behind me, and I will be very happy to move on to the CCIP and, what I feel, is much more operationally relevant learning.
Well, I just passed it about 20 minutes ago, scored a 961.
I will say that studying for ARCH did teach me alot of things I didn't know before, which was my biggest criticism of DESGN, so in that regard I give ARCH much higher marks than the Associate level exam.
That being said, the exam was still easy, and I still feel like I may have wasted my time. I essentially just spent about 6 months and ~$450 to add some letters to my resume. Mostly I guess it's just a career path thing I guess. I'm of the opinion that the Design track prepares you to be a Cisco Sales Engineer, not a Cisco Network Engineer, which is not really something I'm interested in becoming.
Only thing I used to prepare was the Authorized Self-Study book, which I honestly feel overprepares for the exam. There were a good many things covered in the book that weren't represented well, or at all, on the actual exam. I sold my CCDA book as soon as I passed the exam, but I think I'll be keeping the ARCH book around. If nothing else, it's a pretty good general reference.
I was actually pretty surprised at my score, as there were some questions that made me go 'WTF?'. So either I got a bunch of beta questions, or my educated guesses were good ones. There were many more drag and drop questions than I'm used to seeing.
At any rate, I'm glad it's behind me, and I will be very happy to move on to the CCIP and, what I feel, is much more operationally relevant learning.
Comments
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mikej412
Member Posts: 10,086 ■■■■■■■■■■
Congratulations!!
:mike: Cisco Certifications -- Collect the Entire Set! -
miller811
Member Posts: 897
CongratsI don't claim to be an expert, but I sure would like to become one someday.
Quest for 11K pages read in 2011
Page Count total to date - 1283 -
Firemarshalbill.com
Member Posts: 128
Congratulations on the pass. The I am currently studying the ARCH for my DP cert. And I do agree, sales engineer/architect is the target of the design exams. I am currently a Senior Sales Engineer and use the design stuff all the time in my converstions with customers -
Forsaken_GA
Member Posts: 4,024
Yeah, I prefer not to talk to customers at all if I can avoid it hehe
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Firemarshalbill.com
Member Posts: 128
Forsaken I do understand the not talk to customers - sometimes it ain't fun LOL
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nel
Member Posts: 2,859 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats on the pass man.Xbox Live: Bring It On
Bsc (hons) Network Computing - 1st Class
WIP: Msc advanced networking
