Still CCIE #5444
After donating a nontrivial amount of my Thanksgiving weekend to studying, I am pleased to report that I passed my re-certification exam and am still CCIE #5444.
I had complained about a few books previously; now I have some empirical data to help me better evaluate them. First, let me say that I was pleasantly surprised with one Cisco Press book, Network Security Principles and Practices by Saadat Malik. Things got a little unclear when he got deep into crypto, but otherwise, this is hands down the best of the books I read this weekend.
The rest of the books were not… good. Having taken the exam, I stand by my estimate from my last post that the official exam guide addresses, at best, 25% of the subject matter. Without discussing specific exam items, I can tell you that I saw very detailed questions from a wide range of topics, including Token Ring, BGP, Ethernet, IP addressing, and lots of other non-security-specific topics, virtually none of which were covered (or at least covered adequately) by any of the books or RFCs I read.
As bad as the books were, I am pleased to report that the exam is great, from a technical perspective. For the most part, the questions were difficult, precise, and intelligently crafted. There were some very difficult crypto questions, and it was obvious that the writers of those items were waaaay more comfortable with the subject matter than any of the book authors. And we’re not just talking protocols, either - there were actual algorithm questions.
Overall, I’m happy with the certification. It’s expensive and is a bit diluted compared to the 90’s, but it still seems to me to be the best one out there. And, best of all, it’s done for another two years. Just in time, too; I’m behind on some (network) driver stuff.
Pop quiz: would I still be happy with the exam content if I had not passed? 
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