SWITCH exam

For those who have taken the exam I have a few questions.

After reading Jeremy's review on the ROUTE exam it sounds like a pretty brutal set of new exams, but having professional experience now is the real advantage from the post he made here: Cisco ROUTE: Brace Yourselves! - Cisco Blog

So for someone who has taken this exam obviously not violating the NDA in anyway I'm asking. Is this exam just an exam based on using field knowledge held to the topics they list in the objectives? Aside from a few switch operational modes for MLS stuff, the topics are very on spot for an admins job I think. Not saying I think the exam is going to be easy because I know the Pro level exams are never a joke, but the topics make it seem that way to a point. I was a lot more nervous going into my CCNA about 3 years ago, the SWITCH exam doesn't give me the same nervous feeling other than not knowing what exactly to expect.

So mainly my question for those who have taken it, did your real world experience make or break the difficulty of the exam? My boss is paying for my exams and I just don't want to be overconfident and get a rude awakening in the exam. On the other hand I don't want to waste a ton of time reviewing the material so that I shorten my time for the other exams. My performance objective for the year is to complete at least one of the exams, but completing more then one will look a lot better come review time

Let me know what you guys think

joe

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Comments

davidspirovalentine

Hey Joe,

I haven't taken the SWITCH yet... I passed the ROUTE a couple of weeks back so if you don't mind I will attempt to answer your question.

Experience is really what helps you excel in the exam, I studied the following material before I sat the exam:

*Official Book ROUTE
*CBT Nuggets BSCI CCNP Videos
*ROUTE Quick Reference

As far as experience, I have been a network engineer for two years but I put in a massive effort after hours to read lab and practice, we run EIGRP on our core so I get A LOT of hands on with that and use OSPF and such when integrating with customer networks (were an ISP).

So back to the exam, it was good. It was exactly as the exam blueprint said it would be. I have noticed with Cisco that if you use the blueprint alongside you while your studying and ask yourself "Hmmm can I do this without referring to a book/google" you should be fine. They (Cisco) don't usually throw you questions that have nothing to do with the exam curiculum/blueprint.

Hope this helps,

David

P.S I'm starting my switch studies today!!!

BroadcastStorm

davidspirovalentine wrote: »

Hey Joe,

I haven't taken the SWITCH yet... I passed the ROUTE a couple of weeks back so if you don't mind I will attempt to answer your question.

Experience is really what helps you excel in the exam, I studied the following material before I sat the exam:

*Official Book ROUTE
*CBT Nuggets BSCI CCNP Videos
*ROUTE Quick Reference

As far as experience, I have been a network engineer for two years but I put in a massive effort after hours to read lab and practice, we run EIGRP on our core so I get A LOT of hands on with that and use OSPF and such when integrating with customer networks (were an ISP).

So back to the exam, it was good. It was exactly as the exam blueprint said it would be. I have noticed with Cisco that if you use the blueprint alongside you while your studying and ask yourself "Hmmm can I do this without referring to a book/google" you should be fine. They (Cisco) don't usually throw you questions that have nothing to do with the exam curiculum/blueprint.

Hope this helps,

David

P.S I'm starting my switch studies today!!!

Thanks for the advice David, this was not the case when I took my MCSE back then.

I also have a good 2 years experience working primarily on switches, and it's rarely that I ever have to touch our routers, this is where the issue arise, not everything is implemented or used even as a veteran network engineer, in our case we do not use VTP etc.

shednik

thanks david, I was mainly trying to gauge what the new exams were geared towards. I went to a class at cisco live about the new exams and they said it has become 80% practical and 20% theory. I look at the SWITCH exam and the technologies covered, and honestly to me with maybe a brief review of the specifics on some of the protocols, and a few labs configuring everything it looks not that bad. The part that makes me wonder is the planning and not the planning but the cisco way of planning

. I'm also worried my experience will sway me a different direction then what they are looking for. That's my main worry not the technology covered.

DevilWAH

davidspirovalentine wrote: »

They (Cisco) don't usually throw you questions that have nothing to do with the exam curiculum/blueprint.

You not been keeping up with the SWITCH reviews I see

Having been bitten by this one once, I can tell you CISCO are being nasty on this one.

As I posted in another thread don't be surprised to see a question s like this

http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccnp/52827-switch-taken.html#post442099

You need to know exactly what cisco want you to know, and don't expect it to be clear in the books.

The practical stuff is good, but the planning theory you need to know its ciscos way an no other. If you look up the cisco CCNP SWITCH on there web site and look at the comments you will see the backlash. Even some of the authors of the books mentioned have come out in support of the test takers..

Its not impossible to pass, just be sure you know cisco best practices not common sence.