As of this morning, CCNP are I!
After a weekend of being sick AND battling a bloody nose (I haven't had one of those in many years) in the parking lot before my exam AND a tropical storm blowing through...whew...I took my ROUTE exam this morning and completed my CCNP.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, I started my CCNP back in 2009 and completed the ONT and ISCW exams in the first year, then after a year, I took BCMSN, and all I had left was BSCI. Well...I procrastinated because life got in the way and the exams changed, meaning I now had to do ROUTE to complete my CCNP. I finally made that last push and completed ROUTE this morning, which is a very good thing because my CCNA and all my NP exams were set to retire and require recertification on June 1st!!!
What I noticed, from my perspective, was that the ROUTE exam was a lot more focused than the BSCI was. There was less in-depth on BGP, although it still heavily covers BGP, just not to the point I was nervous about from my BSCI studies. IS-IS is, thankfully, gone. IPv6 is strongly represented and the material on EIGRP and OSPF is very in-depth. I thought the labs were fair as well as the questions. I used CBT Nuggets, a GNS3 lab, and the Cisco Press Certification study guide (not the exam guide) as well as Routing TCP/IP volumes 1 and 2.
I passed with a respectable score of 895, which considering I have a fever, I'll definitely take!!!
What's next? Maybe a couple of CCNA specializations and some R&R.
ACTUALLY...TSHOOT is next.
I just went online to verify everything was good with my previous exams and...apparently, I took my ISCW and ONT in 2008, not 2009...so they have aged out. I now have to take TSHOOT on Thursday or else my BCMSN ages out.
Lesson learned - Keep an eye on those certs!!!!!
Any tips as I CRAM, CRAM, CRAM for TSHOOT? I think I should be in pretty good shape having come off of Route and having had extensive experience in switched networks.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, I started my CCNP back in 2009 and completed the ONT and ISCW exams in the first year, then after a year, I took BCMSN, and all I had left was BSCI. Well...I procrastinated because life got in the way and the exams changed, meaning I now had to do ROUTE to complete my CCNP. I finally made that last push and completed ROUTE this morning, which is a very good thing because my CCNA and all my NP exams were set to retire and require recertification on June 1st!!!
What I noticed, from my perspective, was that the ROUTE exam was a lot more focused than the BSCI was. There was less in-depth on BGP, although it still heavily covers BGP, just not to the point I was nervous about from my BSCI studies. IS-IS is, thankfully, gone. IPv6 is strongly represented and the material on EIGRP and OSPF is very in-depth. I thought the labs were fair as well as the questions. I used CBT Nuggets, a GNS3 lab, and the Cisco Press Certification study guide (not the exam guide) as well as Routing TCP/IP volumes 1 and 2.
I passed with a respectable score of 895, which considering I have a fever, I'll definitely take!!!
What's next? Maybe a couple of CCNA specializations and some R&R.
ACTUALLY...TSHOOT is next.
I just went online to verify everything was good with my previous exams and...apparently, I took my ISCW and ONT in 2008, not 2009...so they have aged out. I now have to take TSHOOT on Thursday or else my BCMSN ages out.
Lesson learned - Keep an eye on those certs!!!!!
Any tips as I CRAM, CRAM, CRAM for TSHOOT? I think I should be in pretty good shape having come off of Route and having had extensive experience in switched networks.
Working on Security+ study, then going back to re-do my Cisco Certs, in between dodging moose and riding my Harley
Comments
-
MrBishop
Member Posts: 229
Congrats!Degrees
M.S. Internet Engineering | M.S. Information Assurance
B.S. Information Technology | A.A.S Information Technology
Certificaions
Currently pursuing: CCIE R&Sv5 -
YuckTheFankees
Member Posts: 1,281 ■■■■■□□□□□
Awesome job! I hope to get the CCNP within the next 8 months or so. -
vinbuck
Member Posts: 785 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats on passing ROUTE....it is a tough one. I just passed TSHOOT today and used BOSON EX-SIM MAX to prepare. It is worth it's weight in gold. It is probably the most realistic exam sim I have ever used as far as format and content. Given that you just passed ROUTE, I would buy the Boson materials immediately, spend a few days going through the questions and then take TSHOOT once you're hitting 100's. I did lab up the topology in GNS3 as well as some live gear and that helped also....
Good luck!Cisco was my first networking love, but my "other" router is a Mikrotik... -
jamesp1983
Member Posts: 2,475 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats man! On to the next!"Check both the destination and return path when a route fails." "Switches create a network. Routers connect networks." -
networker050184
Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
Congrats!An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made. -
Danielh22185
Member Posts: 1,195 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats! Hopefully the other exam goes/went just as smooth!Currently Studying: IE Stuff...kinda...for now...
My ultimate career goal: To climb to the top of the computer network industry food chain.
"Winning means you're willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else." - Vince Lombardi -
7of9
Member Posts: 76 ■■■□□□□□□□
Nope...TShoot did not go smoothly, but I'm not giving up! I've already passed all the exams required for a CCNP once. I can knock Switch and TShoot out this year. I'm actually considering using them as the beginnings of a CCIE run.
You never know!
Working on Security+ study, then going back to re-do my Cisco Certs, in between dodging moose and riding my Harley
