Cisco Certification Pyramid

Last Friday I passed my first test for the CCIP (Cisco Certified Internetwork Professional) certification. I passed with a 900 after about two months of studying and a year of almost daily work experience.

The 642-661 (Configuring BGP on Cisco Routers) can be taken on it’s own or in a composite version, 642-691 (BGP+MPLS). I decided to split them up since work had some Cisco Learning Credits and I could take the BGP class online. I ended up getting the online class through NIL who were excellent. In fact another coworker went through the same online class and also passed with a 900 about three weeks before I did.

The actual class (here’s the link to it if you’re interested) went over all of the content very thoroughly and each fundamental topic was accompanied by a cool lab that you could schedule or load on the fly if it was available. Each module had a review test at the end that helped make sure I had grasped all of the material. The only thing bad I have to say about the tests is it would be nice if there were a larger base of questions it could draw from so the tests could be randomized each time. Some of the questions were flat out wrong and I found myself getting them right anyway because I had memorized them.

The thing I liked the best about the class is that it was designed so each topic built on the preceding topics and reviewed the key points from the previous topics. This method of learning is really effective for me as it serves to drive home the key points and also helps me zero in on the things that will definitely be on the test.

I don’t want to play up the class as the be all end all of my study preparation. I knew a lot about BGP before I ever started studying for the test as I’ve been managing our IP transit policies at work for the last year and have had a lot of hands on training configuring and operating a transit network for a Service Provider. The class did fill in a fair few gaps in my understanding of BGP and has given me several ideas for some clean-up work I already had under way.

Now with a self imposed two week break before I start studying again I don’t know what to do with myself. When you go from 20-30 hours of studying  a week to none it always feels like I am forgetting to do something. After new years I am going to get to work on 642-611 (Implementing Cisco MPLS) which is the other half of the composite test. With any luck I’ll finish that in February and can move on to the last two tests.