As of this morning, CCNP are I!

7of97of9 Member Posts: 76 ■■■□□□□□□□
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!!! icon_cheers.gif

What's next? Maybe a couple of CCNA specializations and some R&R. icon_cool.gif


ACTUALLY...TSHOOT is next. icon_sad.gif

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

  • MrBishopMrBishop 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
  • YuckTheFankeesYuckTheFankees Member Posts: 1,281 ■■■■■□□□□□
    Awesome job! I hope to get the CCNP within the next 8 months or so.
  • MrBrianMrBrian Member Posts: 520
    Congrats!!
    Currently reading: Internet Routing Architectures by Halabi
  • vinbuckvinbuck 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...
  • jamesp1983jamesp1983 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."
  • networker050184networker050184 Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
    Congrats!
    An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made.
  • Danielh22185Danielh22185 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
  • SharkDiverSharkDiver Member Posts: 844
    Congratulations!

    How did the TSHOOT go?
  • 7of97of9 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
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