Rick's CCNP Voice Log

Today I start my official prep for the CCNP Voice + UCCX exam. I'm going to keep a log of my progress. I haven't done my CCNA Voice, and I figure I'll throw that in somewhere after my core exams)

My gameplan:

Time:
2 1/2 months per exam (more time if needed).

Study Material:
Cisco v8 Student Guides
Cisco v8 Lab Guides
Quick Reference v8 Guides
Wendell Odom v8 Labs
(I may also throw in CBT Nuggets before each exam in order to get my feet wet, but it's v6 material and I don't want to spend the time figuring out whats relevant and whats not)

Exam Order:
CVOICE
CIPT 1
CIPT 2
TVOICE
ICOMM
UCCX
CAPPS

Lab:
INE CCIE Voice lab topology
(I plan to move onto the CCIE after I complete these exams, so I've already built my full lab.)

Experience:
Aside from building a CME VoIP network for my dad's business, I have no voice experience.

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Comments

pitviper

Welcome to the madness!

Good Luck!

xmckinzie

CVoice is out. ICOMM will get you the CCNA Voice though.

Certification Exams - IT Certification and Career Paths - Cisco Systems

hermeszdata

xmckinzie wrote: »

CVoice is out. ICOMM will get you the CCNA Voice though.

Certification Exams - IT Certification and Career Paths - Cisco Systems

CVOICE is not out. CVOICE v6 Retired EoD 2/28/2011. Now replaced by CVOICE v8

RickRandhawa

So today I read the first 60 pages in the student guide. My plan is to read the student guide on weekdays, memorize on saturdays, and lab on sundays. This will switch over to mostly labbing and ocassional reading as I get closer to the exam.

RickRandhawa

xmckinzie wrote: »

CVoice is out. ICOMM will get you the CCNA Voice though.

Certification Exams - IT Certification and Career Paths - Cisco Systems

Ah, I should have clarified. I'm aware the CVOICE won't get me the CCNA Voice and I need ICOMM for that.

Since ICOMM is based on an "already configured" voice network, and you learn how to actually configure a network in CVOICE AND CIPT...I figure it's easier to just throw ICOMM in later. Seems like it'd be a peice of cake after having done the cvoice, cipt 1+2, and tvoice course anyways.

RickRandhawa

After going through the first 200 pages of the CVOICE student guide, I realized that this voice stuff is a totally different beast.

I got myself a copy of the Voice over IP First-Step book and decided to start there, I'm about halfway done with that. Will pick up cvoice again after going through this book.

Hazlewoodb

Rick, where did you get your lab guides?

RickRandhawa

I had an aquaintance who took the cisco bootcamps for the full CCNP Voice track. He loaned me his books.

sieff

RickRandhawa wrote: »

After going through the first 200 pages of the CVOICE student guide, I realized that this voice stuff is a totally different beast.

I got myself a copy of the Voice over IP First-Step book and decided to start there, I'm about halfway done with that. Will pick up cvoice again after going through this book.

CVOICE is definitely a different beast. I took the CVOICE v6.0 exam after having over 10 years VoIP experience and 5 years of implementing & consulting on the Cisco UC product line and I failed my first attempt. The CVOICE book was very dry and mostly theory. This may sound odd, but it took me failing the CVOICE exam the first time in order to ace it the second time.

hermeszdata

sieff wrote: »

CVOICE is definitely a different beast. I took the CVOICE v6.0 exam after having over 10 years VoIP experience and 5 years of implementing & consulting on the Cisco UC product line and I failed my first attempt. The CVOICE book was very dry and mostly theory. This may sound odd, but it took me failing the CVOICE exam the first time in order to ace it the second time.

I think the thing that help me with CVOICEv6 was I also used the IIUC material for cross reference. I covered all the CVOICE Cert Guide in 28 days, taking the exam on the last day. I passed with a 918 and 40 minutes let on the clock!

I won't do that again. My wife was ready to divorce me!

RickRandhawa

Theres no pressure on me to get this stuff done, so I have 0 sense of urgency. While this may seem like a good thing, I've been moving at a real slow pace, with a lot of dilly-dallying.

*sit down to learn about gateways*
*10 min later* "i wonder how much ccie's make in voice, can't wait to get ccie, lemme google it"
*4 hours later* "4 hours?? i should study, ok gonna study!"
*30 min later* "i wonder if anything new has happened on techexams"

I set my cvoice exam date for May 16th. That gives me 6 weeks to knock out this exam.

sieff

strive as hard as you can on CVOICE. for me, it was a sleeper exam. i under estimated it the first attempt ... and on the second attempt i passed it surprisingly pretty easily. i read chapters over and over 2 or 3 times on the sections i scored poorly on in my first attempt.

GT-Rob

I also found CVOICE kind of dry, but I guess it depends on your background. I've only really had to deal with 1 voice environment so it was interesting learning more about that, but not so much all the other options that we don't use.

CIPT1 is better (im scheduled next week for it), and CIPT2 looks good too. Too bad the printed books won't be out for a few months yet, but the roughcuts are decent.

drkat

Did you ever get the NP Voice?