Timeline for CCIE

jmoorse · February 2008

Hi folks,

I am just curious what type of timeline I should expect to prepare for the CCIE. I am thinking 2 years or so before my first attempt.

Does this sound feasible?

ajs1976 · February 2008

What kind of experience do you have? Do you work with Cisco Equipment daily? How much time do you plan on dedicating to preparation?

jmoorse · February 2008

I have been taking classes form the Cisco Academy for the past 2 years, have my CCNA, am working towards my CCNP and I work with cisco equipment for work, say, monthly. Albeit mostly on mundane problems.

I am planning on dedicating about 10 hours/week or so to CCNP > CCIE studies.

remyforbes777 · February 2008

10 hours a week? That's nothing for something as extreme as the CCIE. You will need to basically kiss your social life goodbye if you plan on doing the CCIE. Do you think you could complete a Masters Degree in 2 years with only 10 hours a week studying? That's basically the equivalent.

jmoorse · February 2008

Well, perhaps that's why I was asking.

dynamik · February 2008

I don't think hours per week is as important as total hours. 10 hours per week over two years is over 1000 hours. I really don't see that as an unreasonable time frame. Also, you don't need to let your social life go. It's just a matter of priorities. You can buckle down and do it in a year, or you can pace yourself and do it over a few years. Making yourself miserable and burning out is counterproductive. There's nothing wrong in making this a long-term goal. Remember, you have three years to pass the written before your professional and associate-level certifications expire.

You should read Turgon's thread about his journey towards his CCIE: http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23875

That might help shed some light on what's involved.

jmoorse · February 2008

dynamik,

Thanks for a constructive answer.

And after reading the responses I expect something more like 4 years to be reasonable.

mgeorge · February 2008

I guess you can say everyone's timeline is different and how well they feel they
know the material.

The question to ask your self is are you quick at learning this material? If you practice
something now will you forget it in 3 months? Do you get side tracked very easily?

There is alot of stuff that will play a roll in your studying. Hours on the lab does not matter
if you have a job in the field, everyday at work is lab time. Its not as much so your study
time that matters as much as your ability to learn and retain the material, otherwise
what good will it do you if you practice it and forget it 3 months later? that of which is 9
months before you take the lab? I'm sure ya see where I'm going with this

Some people have been known to study 6 months and pass the lab(s) with flying colors on
the first attempt, others have studied for years and failed it 22 times in a roll...

Well hadda put my 2 sense in the pot.

remyforbes777 · February 2008

Wasn't trying to be critical just realistic. 10 hours a week seven days a week is like 1.5 hours a day. To me that doesn't seem like enough. He said that he works on the equipment like "monthly" and its mundane work. I could see if he worked with it everyday intensively but that's not what he made it sound like. Again I don't mean to discourage you, just doesn't seem like a realistic time frame when you are only doing it for 1.5 a day.

mikeeo · February 2008

If you stick to it, on average it will take 18 months of non-stop studying and 3 lab attempts.

I passed the written 4/10/2006 and passed on my 4th attempt on 5/18/2007.

AlexMR · April 2008

OP, I dont understand if these results from higher level certifications include the time it took since the beginning of the studies to the acquisition on the certification. It it does, then for most people it is a 2year race.

If that is the case then the CCIE is a little overrated when they call it the "Ph.D" of the certifications. It is more like a Master's.

http://forums.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/PrepCenter?page=pop_temp5

Im after it. I started studying for the CCNA in January 22nd. I should be taking the exam before May 1rst. I could take it today because i already covered all the topics but i want to be super confident when i sit there. I have been studying several sources because i was not very confident. If i had kept studying from the sybex book since I started i wuld have probably passed the exam already. It is very important to have a good source of studies before you commit to certain certification specially if your part of your goals is making it fast.

GL.

Slowhand · April 2008

To answer the initial question: no, I don't think ten hours a week spread across two years is unreasonable. However, you'll find yourself doing more and more studying as you get closer to the test, that's just the nature of the beast. Ten hours a week now, up to fifty or sixty the month before you go in for your lab.

Another thing I've seen is the semantics-debate over the term "CCIE is like the PhD of networking". It's true, it is. . . in a manner of speaking. No, it might not take you eight to twelve years to go from newbie to CCIE, and it is definitely a tougher trek to get a PhD from an accredited and respected university than it is to take a professional certification from a corporation. However, the journeys are similar, the dedication people put in is similar, and the proportions of work and effort required when comparing lower-level certs to the CCIE is similar.

Comparing CCNA to CCIE is kind of like comparing how difficult getting an Associate's degree is to taking a PhD. Comparing CCNP (and the other pro-level certs,) to CCIE is like comparing a Bachelor's degree to a doctorate. The comparison isn't in time or sheer difficulty, it's to give a frame of reference against a more commonplace scenario. Why do we compare the CCIE to a PhD, and not to a Master's degree? Because CCIE is the highest-level cert, (along with CCDE,) that Cisco offers. In a parallel way, a PhD is generally the highest-level graduate obtainable degree that people readily recognize. I suppose we could call CCIE "the D.P.S. of networking", but most people wouldn't get it.

danlai2004 · July 2008

mikeeo wrote:

If you stick to it, on average it will take 18 months of non-stop studying and 3 lab attempts.

I passed the written 4/10/2006 and passed on my 4th attempt on 5/18/2007.

Then how many hours per day did you study during the non stopping study in the 18 months ?

jbaello · July 2008

danlai2004 wrote:

mikeeo wrote:

If you stick to it, on average it will take 18 months of non-stop studying and 3 lab attempts.

I passed the written 4/10/2006 and passed on my 4th attempt on 5/18/2007.

Then how many hours per day did you study during the non stopping study in the 18 months ?

Yeah how many hours on the weekdays and on the weekends?

Timeline for CCIE

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