Good afternoon all, just wanted to tell everyone a quick story that I hope
all exam takers will take heed of. I had scheduled the 350-001 R&S exam for
Friday the 22 of December (right before xmas) almost a month in advance at a
local prometric site (RTP, NC area) so that I would have plenty of time to
prepare and then (pass or fail) could take a breather during xmas and
hopefully start focusing on the lab next year. My exam was at 11:15 and I
had a 2pm flight immediately afterwards. I'm one of those folks that likes
to feel not only like he's studied and ready with the material but also
mentally prepared or focused or in the zone or whatever else you want to
call it. I got a good nights sleep the night before, slept in the next
morning and arrived at the prometric site around 9am. I figured I'd casually
go over my 800 pages of notes one last time, and slumber into the exam room
a little early if they could fit me in. Problem. Locked door. I start
knocking on the window and finally some admin chick comes up and opens the
door. She asks what I want, I explain "I have an exam at 11" to which she
replies "not today sir we're closed". CLOSED! To make a long story short the
testing center had told Sylvan Prometric they would be closed this
particular pre-xmas Friday but Prometric forgot to put it in the calendar. I
spent the next hour to hour and a half on the phone. First, Prometric
apologized and said they would gladly reschedule me for the following week.
I explained that that was not good enough as my brain would be saturated
with laced eggnog and whatever else and that the week between xmas and
newyears was just not suitable. I told them this was their mistake and they
needed to reschedule me same day at another location. After getting approval
from some manager they finally agreed to reschedule me just to tell me that
all the sites it the Raleigh, Durham area were completely booked. If this
wasn't the Friday before xmas rescheduling for a later week would be fine,
but I felt that I had spent so much time preparing that if I went on
vacation and then came back it would be the end of January before I would be
ready to take it again. I went to the prometric website and printed all the
addresses and phone numbers for all the testing centers in my area and
called one by one. I got about halfway down the list before finding someone
who said they could fit me in. The only catch was I needed to get over there
as soon as possible. I jumped in the car and raced over to the new site.
When I got there we got back on the phone with prometric and after 40
minutes of arguing with the new customer service rep finally got the exam
downloaded. I had just enough time to throw out my bubble gum before sitting
down infront of the computer. Obviously due to the NDA I can't talk about
the exam other than to say it was tough, deserves it's reputation, and
really evaluates whether you have a clear understanding of the fundamentals
or not. Anyway, I failed. Score: 67. Am I displeased at the score? Not at
all. It was my first time taking the test and I feel I gave it a fair effort
and I got a fair result. I had bridging and dlsw down pat but was week on
some other key areas. Do I blame the mess before the exam for my failure?
Not completely. It is obvious to me that I still have some skill sharpening
to do before I consider this exam again. I do wonder, however, if I hadn't
spent the morning running around in circles and on the phone with people and
had gotten a good hour or so to go over my notes and focus on those weak
areas if I might have passed it. Once again, I don't blame Sylvan prometric
for my failure completely. I just wonder if it may have been influenced by
my lack of focus in the exam room. LESSON LEARNED. Don't make assumptions
about the communication process between Sylvan Prometric and these local
testing centers. call them up and make sure the scheduling is correct. The
CCIE written is the biggest exam I've taken to date and I was very
optimistic. It's a shame that I spent the morning scrambling to make it
happen instead of sitting in a quiet room, going over my notes and "getting
in the zone". Just my two cents.
Charles Henson
CCNP +S, CCDP, MCSE
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