training

My first CCNP exam is coming up soon - BSCI 642-901

Hi folks, so my first exam is coming up soon, exam # 642-901 otherwise known as BSCI - Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks. Rumour has it that this exam is at least 10 times harder than the other 3 exams in the CCNP series so it’s going to be interesting.

Some of the things I’ve been really focusing on in the exam are BGP, IPV6 and multicast as those are my weak points. The exam guide on the Cisco web site states that they can quiz you on anything from EIGRP and OSPF, to IS-IS. I feel fairly comfortable with EIGRP, OSPF and IS-IS which is why i’m focusing on BGP, multicast and IPV6. Those are 3 areas I haven’t had as much experience in as the other stuff.

I built a lab at home out of some of my equipment to help me test stuff out. I also rented rack time through the Bryant Advantage. The question is will this be enough for me to pass? I sure hope so! We’ll see if my focus yields the results I want. Stay tuned!

-RP

The Bryant Advantage

So now that I’ve been at the bootcamp and it’s time to buckle down and get ready for the exams, I was looking for some extra training material. I wanted to find some good study guides and labs that would help me prepare. I was also looking for some rack time (renting Cisco hardware and logging on to it remotely to do labs on) since I don’t own enough equipment myself.

Well I was doing some digging and I came across this thing called The Bryant Advantage. Chris Bryant is a certified CCIE and he created his own study material which is 100% legit and is great for studying for the exam. He also provides rack time if you need it.

So I figured I’d take the plunge and I bought the Bryant Advantage materials with the rack time. I have to say the material is just great! I’ve been reading his ebook and he really does a great job of explaining everything. Also Chris is extremely helpful for any questions you might have. I can highly recommend buying his material to prepare for the CCNP.

-RP

IPV6 and what it means to you

So after all this training at Boson for the CCNP, I have come out of there with a lot of Cisco knowledge bouncing around in my head. Over the next little while you will see me blogging about a lot of things Cisco related as that is what I’m currently working with a lot and also preparing for exam-wise.

One of the things that is prominent in my CCNP training is IPV6. As most of you know the problem witih IPV4 is that we are quickly running out of IPV4 addresses. We will probably run out of addresses between the years 2011 to 2012. That is not that far away. Companies need to seriously start thinking about how to address these issues now.

Luckily Cisco is one of the companies that has actually forseen this as an issue and has taken the pro-active step to include IPV6 training in their certifications. I commend them for that and realistically how could they not when their routers are largely responsible for running a good chunk of the Internet’s network.

Already desktop operating systems are giving you the ability to setup IPV6. I encourage you to setup some test labs and try it out. I find that a lot of people are afraid of it because they are not familiar with it. But if you take some time to sit down and learn it, it’s actually not that bad.

-RP

I’m back from the boot camp!

Hi folks, I’m back from the Boson CCNP Boot Camp! It was 2 weeks of very intense training and great Florida weather! It kinda sucks to be back in our crappy Winnipeg summer up here in Canada.

Anyways, the training was absolutely amazing. It was 2 weeks filled with very informative material regarding exam preparation, true learning, and real world situations. Bryan was very good and showing us All the Boson employees were great and made us Canadians feel very welcome down there.

We had a small class of just 5 people and each of us had our own racks of equipment to play with. The instructor created some awesome labs for us to go through which really reinforced our learning. Bryan was very good at answering all of our questions.

Now to start the long hard road of writing the exams. Wish me luck!

-RP

IT Industry Certifications and Standards

Hi folks, this is going to be a bit of a rant. Over the years I’ve written many exams and certifications and the one thing that is common amongst them is that they have almost nothing in common in terms of quality and standards.

I have written many an exam and done quite well on them in my IT career but I still feel that there needs to be some sort of governing body that should manage quality control and insure consistent testing standards across the board just like we do for Universities and High Schools.

All to often I find exams full of spelling and grammatical errors, or just plain wrong answers that would make the beginner test taker panic out right if they were dipping their toe into the waters of certification for the first time. By having a governing body to ensure that these certifications are created and done properly, I think we would eliminate a lot of the crappy tests out there and also eliminate a lot of the “paper” certified people out there as well.

Also all to often companies use certifications not as a point of learning but as a point of marketing instead. Hoping to prod the people who have the certifications into becoming drones of pushing their product just because they have the certifications.

-RP