A CCIE provided the following gossip to yours truly:
"Hello Brad,"
"I have been reading all of the dire new rules for test taking with Cisco and Microsoft."
"I was wondering. In the last 12 months Cisco has minted about 2,598 new CCIEs."
"Will the volume of CCIEs start to go down, with the new testing program? It will be interesting to see if Cisco CCIEs and Microsoft MCSE numbers start to slide."
"The second group of CCIEs; are the sitting CCIEs. They need to re-certify every two years by passing the written again. Will that number start to drop too?"
"If the numbers do slide downward, will Cisco relax the Braindump filters to maintain the growth in high level certifications to support worldwide sales? Will end-users and VARs see certain numbers as weaker than others?
"You are a CCIE 21xxx that was Cisco Pre-Braindump filtering, so we..."
"Another unknown of the change in the rules is documentation. Cisco Press focuses on what sells, that is fair. Except if you are interested in anything other than CCIE R/S. Go to Amazon.com and look for CCIE Voice, CCIE Security, (very dated), CCIE Service Provider, CCIE Storage. What will Cisco do to make sure that the candidates have all of the resources necessary to pass the written and the Lab?"
"The last group is the CCIE training organizations. The rumors have long been that they use the Braindumps, ex-students, and their own staff’s testing experience, to help assure that their training material is relevant. Not teaching the test, but understanding what is on the test."
"Your Frame-Relay cloud will have OSPF running across it. So you want to..."
"Would this training material trigger a failing grade?"
"My bet is that the number of CCIEs minted each year will start to drop as students cannot pass the written to even sit for the Lab. At $350 a pop for the written, and $1,290 for the Lab. What do you do if you are looking at 3 written and 5 Labs,($7,500 without air travel, hotel, car, food, training time for each attempt, etc.) You just might pass on the whole proposition."
"For sitting CCIEs things might be looking very rosy in the next few years. Cisco would have to start being nice to us again. Maybe some raises in the works!"
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Cisco declined to comment.
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Has anyone taken the new
Has anyone taken the new written exam? Russ White apparently had a hand in re-writing the exam questions...
My recommendation to your readers: Buy the *second* edition of the CCIE study guide from CiscoPress and run through those practice exam questions. The third edition's practice questions were *terrible.* In fact, they weren't even completed!!!
The new format is better: it reads like the question-maker can speak english and is asking a question relevant to network engineering. Far less "if not a and b then what is not the way to not get to C" sort of questions where you have no idea what they are asking, because they are trying to trip you up just reading it... surely a $350 worthy way to verify someone's engineering acumen.
The new format is harder: they are actual questions that test your ability to apply your knowledge.
New Cisco no-braindump program
Yours truly received the following email message from a CCIE in response to your excellent comment above:
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"It looks like we are seeing the first wave of a new Cisco no-braindump program."
"New tests, new structure, new tracking."
"I suspect in the next CCIE update count we will see fewer CCIEs."
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Sincerely,
Brad Reese
http://www.BradReese.Com