Subscribe to the BradReese.Com Blog

Crisis appears brewing within Cisco's prestigious CCIE program
Fri, 05/07/10 - 8:41pm    Add your comment

I'm totally convinced there's a crisis brewing within Cisco's highly prestigious and very successful CCIE program.

And why do I think that?

Only 38 days ago on April 1, Cisco began its controversial Cisco 360 Learning Program Core Knowledge Waiver.

This month in extreme stealth mode, Cisco will very quietly remove its controversial OEQs from CCIE R&S and Voice track lab tests, beginning Monday, May 10.

Breaking news update:

According to Adrie: Cisco's Certifications Community Manager - officially posted May 8, 2010 3:42 AM:

Core Knowledge Questions Removed for CCIE R&S and Voice Lab Exams

"With more than six months of exam results now available, Cisco is able to report that the troubleshooting components of the CCIE R&S v4.0 and CCIE Voice v3.0 lab exams are performing well in validating expert level networking skills. Considering these results, Cisco has decided to eliminate the Core Knowledge questions from the current CCIE R&S v4.0 and CCIE Voice v3.0 Lab Exams. Beginning on May 10, 2010, CCIE R&S and CCIE Voice Lab Exams, in all global locations, will no longer include the four open-ended Core Knowledge questions. The total lab time will remain eight hours. For the CCIE R&S Lab Exam, this means candidates will begin with the two-hour Troubleshooting section, followed by a six-hour Configuration section. For CCIE Voice, candidates will have the full eight hours to complete the integrated exam. At this time, only the R&S and Voice tracks will be eliminating the Core Knowledge questions."

"CCIE Service Provider, CCIE Security, CCIE Storage Networking and CCIE Wireless Lab Exams will begin with a brief Core Knowledge section consisting of four, computer-delivered short-answer questions. Candidates will type in their answers, which typically require five words or less. Questions will cover topics included on the current lab exam blueprint. Candidates are allowed a maximum of 30 minutes to complete the questions and may not use the Cisco documentation which is available for the remainder of the lab. Well-prepared candidates should be able to answer the questions in 15 minutes or less and move immediately to the next section. No extra time is being added to the eight-hour exam. All candidates must pass the Core Knowledge section in order to achieve CCIE certification. For more information, access CCIE Lab Exam Q&A."

However in my opinion, the above are definitely a "red flag," how so you may ask?

Well, 38 days ago according to Cisco's own Core Knowledge Waiver FAQ:

When considering that Cisco was planning to give "60 days' notice if and when the waiver is discontinued," it certainly appears (to me at least), that Cisco has rushed into ending its "ill conceived" (again in my opinion), Cisco 360 Learning Program Core Knowledge Waiver.

An acknowledgement must go out to CCIE #5244 Wayne Lawson and his CCIE training outfit, IPexpert, for breaking this excellent story on his CCIE Blog!

Finally, I would like conclude with the results of the latest worldwide Cisco CCIE count, for the first time, the total worldwide CCIE count is dropping:

Total Cisco CCIE count drops -21, R&S count drops -66 since March

Related story: For a fee, Cisco promotes cheating on its own CCIE lab tests

View more CCIE Water Cooler Gossip.

What's your take, do you agree with me that Cisco's CCIE Program appears to be in crisis?

Subscribe to the BradReese.Com Blog

1. Cisco pays an average salary of $112K to its H-1B visa workers
2. Total Cisco CCIE count drops -21, R&S count drops -66 since March
3. How-to setup sampled Cisco NetFlow
4. Data centers: Cisco's multi-tier architecture vs. the Arista 2-tier cloud network
5. Cisco vs. Arista Networks, choosing Arista could save you $13.3 million
6. Some of the world's most distinguished and experienced Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts (CCIEs) form new consultancy, Platinum Solutions Group
7. New Enterasys B5 and C5 switches offer an alternative solution to Cisco's 2960-S, 3560-X and 3750-X switches
8. How to configure a Cisco Nexus 7000 to export NetFlow v9
9. Did Cisco fail to create new jobs for the tax breaks it received?
10. F5 Networks' stock has wildly outperformed Cisco's stock
11. At $170K, Brocade pays $34K more per year in average salary than Cisco
12. Today, Cisco's stock dipped -2% while wireless competitor Meru's IPO soared +27%
13. New Cisco Valet router has a Mac bug and other kinks to work out
14. Did Cisco bamboozle the European Commission into approving the Tandberg acquisition?
15. Publicly held Cisco gold partner INX, gets slammed financially by Cisco's product availability issues
16. Certification industry opportunity: CertGuard domain name up for sale
17. For a fee, Cisco promotes cheating on its own CCIE lab tests
18. India's telecom networks banish all non-Indian Cisco telecom network engineers as well as all non-Indian manufactured Cisco telecom network gear
19. Huawei replaced Cisco as the world's 5th most innovative company
20. View BradReese.Com Blog Archive

I see your point about removing the essay questions

By Dual CCIE on Saturday, May 8, 2010 2:26 PM

I see your point about removing the essay questions, but look what they added last October to the troubleshooting section of the test, and that comes first. These questions could come from thousands of example network failures, however the key benefits are:

• Easy to administrate
• Easy to grade
• Complex trouble shooting can be required, multiple steps to resolve a simple question "can't ping R-2 S0/0/0 from R-4 Fa0/0, repair"
• Not subjective requiring strong English skills like the essay
• Wide variety of questions that will stop the braindumps cold, just to many to know
• Can't go back once finished with this section, so you can't use the Cisco CD later on to discover why you did not get the answer
• Two hours long

Beginning October 18, 2009, the CCIE R&S lab exam will feature a two-hour troubleshooting section. Candidates will be presented with a series of trouble tickets for preconfigured networks and need to diagnose and resolve the network fault or faults. As with the configuration section, the network must be up and running for a candidate to receive credit. Candidates who finish the troubleshooting section early may proceed on to the configuration section, but they will not be allowed to go back to troubleshooting since their equipment will need to be reinitialized for the configuration portion.

Ok - Cisco listened for CCIE RS and Voice

By Darby Weaver on Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 16:02:31