Prepare for CCIE certification with Cisco's new assessment lab

by David "Davis CCIE, MCSE+I, SCSA" | Jan 05, 2006 8:00:00 AM

Tags: Quality, David Davis CCIE, MCSE+I, SCSA, lab exam, Cisco Systems Inc., Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert, certification, Cisco Routers and Management Newsletter

Takeaway: January is a great month to take stock of your career and your goals. If your New Year's resolutions include earning a Cisco certification, you'll be happy to learn that Cisco hopes to help you out. David Davis introduces you to Cisco's new assessment lab, which helps you prepare for the CCIE lab exam, and he looks at this offering's pros and cons.

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to take stock of your career and your goals. Not all resolutions are about weight loss or exercising—many people vow on January 1 that this will be the year they find that perfect job, finish up a degree, or earn a certification.

If you fall into the latter group, there are resources out there that can help turn your resolution into reality. And why not start at the top? Considered by most to be the pinnacle of networking certifications and dubbed the "worldwide doctorate of networking" by Cisco, the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) certification offers five different areas of focus:

• Routing and Switching track
• Security track
• Service Provider track
• Storage Networking track
• Voice track

By far, the most popular track is Routing and Switching. If you've decided to pursue this CCIE track, you're in luck: Cisco recently unveiled a new resource to help you prepare.

Last month, Cisco announced its CCIE Assessor Lab for Routing and Switching, an opportunity to assess strengths and weaknesses and improve exam readiness using Cisco equipment and lab scenarios—all from your own computer. This is a unique offering because it's the first service offered by Cisco to help certification candidates prepare and practice for the CCIE lab exam.

Earning a CCIE certification requires passing two tests—a written exam and a lab exam. The written portion is a computerized exam that costs $300. It's basically a summarization of all the exams required to pass the Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification. You must pass the written test before taking the hands-on lab exam.

You can only take the lab exam at specific Cisco offices; there are only 10 sites throughout the world. Known to be especially grueling, the lab exam is also rather expensive. The test itself costs $1,250—and that's not counting travel costs.

So, while earning a CCIE certification can offer many benefits to your career, it doesn't come cheap. That's why you want to make sure you're as prepared as possible before you handy over that hefty check. Enter the CCIE Assessor Lab.

While there are a variety of resources available to help you prepare for the written exam—including Cisco Press books, simulation tests, and quick prep guides—it can be much more difficult to study for the hands-on lab portion. According to Cisco recommendations, the best preparation for the hands-on lab exam is years of real-world experience on complex networks.

However, if you don't have that kind of expertise, don't give up hope. First of all, real-world experience isn't a requirement for certification. And even those who have such experience would be unlikely to encounter every situation that's on the lab exam.

Because of this, several companies have begun offering services to help candidates prepare for the lab exam. One example is certification boot camps, where you spend a week either online or in a classroom working out scenarios meant to model the lab exam.

Alternatively, some candidates buy their own rack of Cisco equipment to model the lab exam. They can then buy practice labs for studying purposes. In fact, Cisco Press now offers a book of its own CCIE lab simulations.

One of the most popular options for CCIE candidates is to rent a rack of CCIE lab equipment, connect to that rack over the Internet, and use practice labs to simulate the real exam. (Check out my 2002 TechRepublic article, "Rent Cisco practice racks from online providers," for more information.) Expect to pay up to $150 or more for 24 hours usage of these racks.

In addition to cost, using online practice labs have a couple drawbacks. One main problem is the lack of assistance. If you run into a problem that you can't solve, you have no one to help you. And there's no way to tell if you missed anything. Another concern is the fact that they are still simulations—not the real thing.

When preparing for my CCIE certification, I purchased a mock test from an online provider. For about $750, this package included eight hours of rack access, a mock test, and a CCIE-certified mock proctor. The mock proctor answered my questions throughout the day just as a real proctor would, graded my test when I finished, and gave me an in-depth review of how I did, what mistakes I made, and what I needed to work on.

And that brings us back to Cisco's new CCIE Assessor Lab, which is similar to the package I just described. With the Assessor Lab, you get four hours, a rack of equipment, and an automatically generated computerized score report when finished. While Cisco currently only offers this package for the Routing and Switching track, it plans to add packages for the Security and Voice tracks soon.

This package costs $349. However, Cisco is currently offering a discounted price of $279 for each CCIE Assessor Lab scheduled before March 31, 2006.

In conclusion, let's look at the advantages and drawbacks of Cisco's new CCIE Assessor Lab.

Pros

• Real Cisco proctors write these labs and update them periodically, which presents a big advantage over other third-party offerings.
• The graded report offers much more detail than the actual lab exam.
• This gives you an idea of what the lab exam will be like without the exorbitant cost and time that taking a trial run at the real lab would entail.

Cons

• The package is only four hours long, while the real lab exam is about eight hours.
• The test is computer-graded, and no real proctor is available while taking the test.

What's your take on this new offering from Cisco? Post your comments in this article's discussion.

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David Davis has worked in the IT industry for 12 years and holds several certifications, including CCIE, MCSE+I, CISSP, CCNA, CCDA, and CCNP. He currently manages a group of systems/network administrators for a privately owned retail company and performs networking/systems consulting on a part-time basis.

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