Studying for CCIE can get a little bit boring. It's a fairly constant rotation of reading, more reading, re-reading, labbing, bit more labbing, and then loads more labbing.
So, I decided to take a little side-road down this long path towards CCIE-dom, and get my CCDP. Because I don't have the CCIE yet (which would fulfil one of the prerequisites), I have got to do the CCDA first. FYI the prerequisites are a valid CCENT, CCNA Routing and Switching, or any CCIE.
So I did it.
Arrived about half an hour early, did all the paper work and pictures, triple signatures, sat the exam, and passed.
I really do not think that it is a hard exam - certainly not when I am in the midst of CCIE-study. There are a number of questions about routing protocol specifics, which are very easy, many of the questions just need a bit of logic to get through them, the rest were all answered by reading the study guide.
The study guide is very well written, it's clear and concise and I finished it within a week.
You can grab it from Amazon by clicking the picture above.
So now I have this, I can sit the CCDP exam, which should be a little bit more fun.
By the way, when did Associate level exams cost the same as Professional level? The CCDA exam cost £151 as does the CCDP. It was £135 for a CCNP exam back in 2012. CCNA was £123 in 2009, are all associate and professional exams the same cost now?
Anyway, I am off on a tour of the US offices for a few days, so lot's of time in planes and airports, armed with my Kindle. I have already started reading the "simplified guide", which is pretty good so far. I wouldn't say it's got all the depth I will probably need for the CCDP exam, but its a good place to start.
I also have the Cisco CCDP guide:
I have been skimming through this at work, and again it's very good. I should be able to finish the the simplified guide on my first flight (London to Philadelphia), and then get through the official one when going from Philly to Arizona, and then from Arizona to Boston. If that's not enough time then I can finish it on the flight back to the UK (though that's a over-night flight, so I might sleep instead).
Anyway, plenty of time to get up to scratch for the CCDP exam at the end of this month, before it's back to the CCIE studies. Then it'll be three months of labbing before the CCIE lab exam in July.
I really should start packing for my trip now. Have a good weekend all.