Tuesday, January 24, 2012

February 2012 CCDE Practice Exams

Cisco Certified Design Expert Program Changes

It has been quite some time since Cisco last offered the CCDE Practical exam. During this time they have updated the exam to version 2.0 and made several noticeable changes to the covered technologies. Cisco has also updated the online CCDE Practical Demo. Here are links to the new resources Cisco has published:

CCDE Written Exam Topics - This link lists the technologies covered on both the written and practical exams. This is the only Cisco-published listing of technology for either exam; Cisco does not publish a separate technology document for the CCDE Practical exam.

CCDE Practical Exam Demo - This has been updated from the initial version. I do not know if all the bugs have been removed (ie, Is a perfect possible?)

CCDE Practical Exam Checklist - This lists the types of questions you will face on the exam. It also provides general guidelines on how to answer the questions. I've spoken with several CCDE candidates who found this document to be less than useful, but I highly recommend spending time reading each line item. This links to the more detailed version, which is somewhat buried on the Cisco Learning Network.


February CCDE Practice Exam Offering

I have scheduled the next CCDE Practice Exam offering for February 25th and March 3rd. These dates will give participants sufficient time to incorporate their practice exam results into their study plans before the actual Cisco exam on March 29th. This offering will utilize the same base content as my previous practice exam offerings. I have updated the exam results presentations to identify the category of each question. I have also significantly revised the CCDE Practical overview presentation to include the following:

  • Differential analysis of the CCDE version 1.0 and 2.0 blueprints
  • Removal of all CCDE version 1.0 specific information
  • Listing of all new technical content on the CCDE Practical exam, as listed in the Written 2.0 Blueprint

I want to reiterate what I've said in previous blog posts about this offering. I do not cover all the technical content that candidates will face on the CCDE Practical exam. That would be impossible to do in two (or even ten) practice scenarios. The goals of this offering are:

  1. Provide an experience-based overview of the CCDE Practical exam
  2. Familiarize candidates with the depth and breadth of individual CCDE Practical scenarios
  3. Share my methods for determining the correct answer for each type of question on the exam

I am confident that my practice exam offering meets these goals. I encourage candidates to use the links below to register for this offering. As always, previous participants are encouraged to attend these sessions at no cost. Just drop me an email and I will send you the Webex link.

If you have any questions about the offering or the CCDE program, please write me at jeremy@filliben.com.