Finally done
Passed BSCI about 30 minutes ago.
Score was 877. Not exceptional, but better than when I took it when it was still 642-801... that one I passed by the skin of my teeth.
Didn't score as well as I would have liked with multicast and ISIS, both were 75%. My BGP score was abysmal at 54%. All other testing domains were acceptable (85%+)
This exam is still hard. I began my CCNP a little over 4 years ago with the previous BSCI exam, and the damn thing was so hard that I didn't so much as look at Cisco material for another year. A few real life events transpired that kept me from getting back to my CCNP for another couple years. Early last year, I was faced with my CCNA expiring in April, so I busted my chops to pass BCMSN. Waiting so long meant that I would have to retake BSCI, and I left it for last for a number of reasons... chief among them being that I also have plans to finish CCDP and CCIP, and since BSCI is required for both of those, I wanted the maximum amount of time where my BSCI pass would be valid for them, in case I hit another long patch where I just can't study for exams. But I admit that part of the reason I left it until last was that I dreaded retaking it.
The current exam is much better than the previous one. I felt 642-801 was heavily slanted to EIGRP, and there were topics with EIGRP which the exam asked about but which were not covered in any of the study material I used. This taught me to pay close attention to the topics in the exam blueprint, and to reinforce my learning with white papers from cisco.com. The current exam's material is very evenly distributed, I didn't feel that they skimped on testing any one domain. I only spent about a month preparing for the current BSCI, as the majority of it was review for me, but the damn thing is still hard. I went at the exam with a respect for it, because I knew what I was in for. I finish most exams with half of my time left over. I had less than 15 minutes left for BSCI.
I didn't use the Cisco Press Exam Prep guide for this one like I did with the other 3 CCNP exams, I went for the Authorized Self-Study guide instead. I didn't feel like getting ambushed with questions asking about topics I'd never seen before again, and I wanted the most amount of material I could get my hands on. The Authorized Self Study guide covers the material well, just have to make sure to download the other appendixes from the Cisco Press website, as they cover some fairly relevant material. Anything I didn't feel was clearly explained enough, I used white papers from cisco.com to reinforce. I used Transcender as my exam simulation. Normally, when I can score 90% consistently with Trancender, I will beat the snot out of the exam, but in BSCI's case, I felt Transcender was a little lacking. It's still good prep material, but it's not as good an indicator that I was ready for the exam as it normally is.
All told, I am glad to finally be done with CCNP. After I take about a week off, I'll start studying for the CCDA. My goals for this year were to finish my CCNP by July, and I've beat that by two months, which should give me ample time to finish the CCDA and CCDP this year. Then I can spent the first half to 3/4's of next year working out the CCIP, after which it will be time for serious CCIE study.
For those of you preparing for the BSCI, I wish you the best of luck. Unless you work with routing protocols in a production network on a daily basis, this will likely be the hardest exam of the CCNP you'll face. Once you are past it, you can relax a little bit in knowing that while the other three exams might be challenging, they're not likely to be as challenging as the one you just passed.
