Lethe's Ccielogs

Hello all, I've already talked about this in another blog post and even if this is not properly a "fresh" news I think a lot of people can benefit of this and may find it useful and I had a chance to dig deeply into the new CCNP 6.0 Curriculum. 

I've already said I was really excited to see that the new exams will be more "real world" focuses, this is simply great as I love everything that is more real world oriented, I'm a trainer myself but usually in my classes I try to talk about what my students will really benefit of (aka I don't like to "…comment slides on a computer screen…") like real world/administration problems, real world tools, tips and tricks.

Enough words, in short in the new track we'll have lot of improvements and some good and some bad news :

• CCNP will now be three exams, ROUTE, SWITCH, and TSHOOT – As I've already written
  
• Exam price will increase from $150.00 to $200.00 per exam – Ouch!
  
• Classe, as exams, will be more real word and as per Cisco's words TSHOOT course will be 92% hands-on – Cool!
  
• ROUTE and TSHOOT official courses will now be supplemented with e-learning material (nearly 8 hours for ROUTE and 9 hours for TSHOOT) which will be part of the examination – Simply WOW lot of fun to cover!
  
• QoS almost gone from the CCNP Curriculum – Basically they removed the overlap with the CCVP track, too bad I've loved my ONT examination
  

New exams will be publicly available between march and april of this year, ROUTE and SWITCH exams will be available in March while TSHOOT will be available in April, and in general I think they'll better prepare both to real world Network Administration adn to the CCIE R&S Examination. If you've already started your CCNP track or want to take an alternative route to the certification you can also substitute exams as follows :

• ONT and ISCW exams can substitute for TSHOOT
  
• BSCI and BCMSN can substitute ROUTE / SWITCH

All the above remain valid for all the 3 years certification period, just keep in mind July 31st all "old" CCNP Curriculum exams will be retired, so you won't be able to schedule them anymore.

Even if it is too early to talk, I wish I had the time to schedule a beta exam in the new track , I'm really impressed and happy with the changes to the Curriculum I'm just worried as I would not like to see Cisco take the VmWare path (aka attend a course to get certified) or the Citrix one (you're not forced to undertake official training but due to lack of resources you end up anyhow attending one…).

We'll see, I can't wait to put my hands on the rough cuts of the new study material.

Cheer Lethe.

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Hello all, as it is my costume this will be a long post, so if you’re like me and too lazy to read everything here’s the short version, this morning I’ve passed Exam 642-845 “Optimizing Converge Cisco Networks” or if you prefer ONT with a score of 965.

Ok if you’ve read so far it means you want to read more, wise decision let me thank you about this. First of I’m sorry if I’m kinda disappeared, I’ve been answering to mails and RHCE Mailing List questions but that’s it, this is mainly due to the fact that the wheel of my life keeps turning in the wrong direction and I’m still trying to come to pacts with this… I survive, I smile but yet I can’t accept. Ok enough whining don’t want to bore you more than this.

Going back to topic, as I’ve already written today I’ve sit and successfully pass my ONT exam which was the last in my CCNP certification track. I think this is an important goal both in my personal and in my professional life of which I’m really proud of as it took a lot of effort (yeah real sweat, effort, time, sleepless nights and MONEY to setup a complete CCNP/CCVP almost CCIE rack) and I’m sure it brought my professional skills to the next level specially if you think that I knew very little about the networking architectures (well actually nothing more of what MS teaches you and that you use as an MS Architect *cough* very little *cough*) and nothing and I mean absolutely NOTHING about the Cisco world and its caveats.

It took me one year (well to be exact 350 days) to complete the whole track from the CCNA level as I still remember sitting my CCNA exam July 25th back in the summer of 2008, I still remember how nervous I was then… Even after more than 60 exams successfully completed I was totally scared about Cisco stuff and well known simulations I knew I had to solve in the exam. Too much time? Too less? Yes we all know I’m not the smarter IT guy out there so maybe I took some time to complete all the required exams but please again consider I was a total 0 in the Cisco world and I wake up everyday at 5:30 AM in the morning, commute at least 3 hours a day to go work, work 10+ hours a day while trying to have a life and yes during this year I had a lot more exams in the middle (certification update to Windows 2008, Linux and much more stuff!) I don’t mind. I’m proud of myself for completing this even if life is hitting hard on me and I’m happy I had a lot of special people who helped me a lot in this (even if indirectly), you’re too many to name everyone but I want to say thank you to one for all, Gordon thanks a lot for all the information, support and kind words in my moments of down! To the rest (Andy, Charger, 13th… and many many more) THANK YOU GUYS you’re simply GREAT! Ok enough of emo

The exam was… EASY! I met and talked to a lot of people who said QoS and Voip stuff is difficult to grasp but, even if I know what’s covered in the ONT exam is just the tip of the iceberg, I’ve found it a fascinating and easy topic. The exam itself was not difficult at all, at least for me, as I’ve already stated I’ve studied all the material with great enthusiasm and more important of all no lot of SDM in this exam In all the track I’ve found ISCW being the hardest of all exams… all the topics in that exams are ok (I’m seriously considering doing MPLS exam) but I simply don’t like SDM, what I mean, I have a wonderful CLI there why use SDM eheheh

Most of the preparation was done with the CCNP Ont Certification guide but as I’ve already did in the past I’ve used other books (mainly QoS certification guide and Routing TCP/IP volumes I &II) to go deeper in some arguments that I felt weak in, I’ve solved a lot of doubts using Cisco’s website and a few other blog you can find around the net.

So what’s next? Well in November I’ll sit my RHCE exam (drool finally it is scheduled) so I think most of my time from now on will be spent on my RHCE lab but before that I need to spend some time with my GF (the Best Certified Girl Friend in the world!) as she’s been indirectly involved in this as well… so a special THANK YOU goes to her as well.

Anyhow I’m really interested in the CCVP track as well (wow voice is simply fantastic!) so probably I’ll side RHCE study with CCNA Voice study as well (I can easily do this… I think….) as I don’t want to waste all the work done in the Cisco world (plus I don’t want to waste all those FXS, FXO, Gatekeeper dusting in my lab). In the middle of this I’m going to complete the MCITP – Database Administrator certification as well as my company asked me to do it which I think it’s the easiest part of all this mess

Well it’s time to relax a little, I really need and think I deserve it. I’m sorry if I bored you with all this auto celebration but I’m so happy about this accomplishment that I feel the need to share it with you!

Best of luck with your professional life and, as a good forum mate always says, NEVER GIVE IN!

Lethe.