The musings of an IT Consultant » BCMSN

Cisco CCNP Certification Changing

Raj Perumal — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:05:23 +0000

Hi folks! So as you know I’ve been working on the CCNP certification for the past while. Well recently some new information came to light about how the certification is changing.

Word on the street is that Cisco will be making an official announcement at the end of January 2010. What I’ve heard is that they are changing it from the current format of 4 exams down to a 3 exam format. This will consist of one routing exam, one switching exam, and one troubleshooting exam.

After the announcement they will retire the old exams this year, but will allow people who are in the middle of completing their CCNP to finish off their certification with the old exams (BSCI, BCMSN, ISCW, ONT).

You can read more about it here.

-RP

Passed the BCMSN!

Raj Perumal — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:08:03 +0000

Hi folks! As you can probably tell from the title of this post, I passed the BCMSN! Yay! It was a hard exam but not as hard as the BSCI in my opinion. Before I had written either exam, I had heard that the BSCI was 10 times harder than the BCMSN. I don’t think that’s quite correct. It was probably more like 2 times as hard as it.

In any case, they both are difficult exams! The BCMSN had lots of different questions on redundancy, voip, wireless, STP, inter-vlan routing etc. Basically all the stuff they list on the exam guide in the Cisco exam curriculum on their website.

What did I use to study? Well I used what I learned from Bryan Baize at the Boson CCNP bootcamps and I also used the Bryant Advantage study guides again along with the normal Cisco self study guides. Combining all of that together got me the information I needed to pass!

Two more exams left in the CCNP for me. Next exam up will be the ISCW (Implementing Secure Converged Wide Area Networks) 642-825. Wish me luck!

-RP

CCNP – BCMSN Next!

Raj Perumal — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:18:33 +0000

Hi folks, so I’m almost done preparing for the BCMSN exam which is part of the CCNP certification. The exam is called Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks. I’ve already written the routing one and this is the next one on my list.

These Cisco exams are pretty tough and sure take a lot out of you but with enough practice and preparation you should be able to do them. I find that using simulators and real equipment (real world experience) helps a ton to pass these exams. A combination of both is just great.

After the BCMSN is done I will only have two more exams left to get my CCNP and then it will be on to my CCIE training. Right now I’m just focusing on passing the CCNP but if anyone has any good suggestions for CCIE training feel free to post and let me know. I know everything is changing this year with the CCIE in October I believe, so there probably won’t be as much study material out there for it as there is for the current CCIE.

-RP

CCNP Boot Camp

Raj Perumal — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:10:35 +0000

Hi folks, so for the last week I’ve been in Florida at a CCNP boot camp studying and training day in and day out. I have one more week to go and I have to say it has been quite intense. The CCNP ain’t anything to take lightly. This certification will chew you up and spit you out!

Luckily the great folks at Boson have a boot camp available and i’ve been lucky enough to get a great instructor, Bryan Baize. Bryan Baize (CCIE 16139) is a CCIE (the PHD of network certifications in my opinion) and a fabulous instructor. His ability to recall the most obscure facts and answer all of your questions and his ability to convey concepts to the students is just great.

As a former IT instructor myself, I can wholeheartedly recommend using the Boson boot camps as part of your training regiment for the CCNP. I will keep you guys up to date on my progress in my quest for this certification. One more week to go!

-RP