Cisco’s CCIE certificates have established for themselves a strong reputation on the IT market, as everyone who has one is generally regarded as highly proficient in their field and with more knowledge about their technology than the average worker. Subsequently, those who become CCIE certified get various attractive job opportunities. The CCIE Voice certificate is one of the more recent ones, and also one of the most difficult to obtain. At the beginning of 2009 there were less than 1000 people in the whole world with one!
The difficulty arises from various aspects of the examination. The exam is divided into two parts like Cisco’s other CCIE exams, a theoretical one as well as a practical lab test. The lab is what makes the CCIE Voice certificate so difficult to obtain – with a large number of unpredictable tasks and a limited amount of time to solve them, most candidates need at least 3-4 attempts before they finally manage to successfully complete the lab. And with the high costs attached to each attempt, you should value yours highly!
In addition, candidates for a CCIE Voice certificate are also required to be knowledgeable in working with various operating systems – often, the lab test involves them setting up a network on a number of computers, each running a different operating system, requiring candidates to have good knowledge of everything they may come across – all the way to an IOS command line interface or web-based interfaces for various devices.
A good tip for those taking the CCIE Voice exam for the first time is to take a few minutes to go through all the tasks in the beginning – assess what you’ll have to do and allocate time to each task accordingly – knowing how much time you’ve got left on each particular task can be a huge life-saver when the clock starts ticking down its last few minutes.
And of course, don’t despair if you don’t get it on the first few tries – like I said above, this is a common occurrence with most candidates and you should approach your first attempt as more of a test run, giving you an overview of the examination procedure and what you could expect. Then, you could come back prepared and obtain your CCIE Voice certificate a lot more easily and confidently. And all the time and money you’ve invested into the process would pay itself back when you get those good job offers coming your way!
The key to passing the lab, as with most exams, is to practice the material over and over again. There are two effective approaches that have been proven time and time again to help you pass the exam. The first approach is to start with a full scale lab, like the ones in INE’s CCIE Voice Workbook Volume II, and go through step by step figuring things out as you go. This approach is similar to jumping off the deep end when learning to swim. As you encounter technologies that you’re unfamiliar with, thats when you read the documentation, do a small task in Workbook Volume I and watch a video like INE’s Deep Dive series to find out more information. This approach is perhaps the most efficient, but it does require more technical proficiency to get started.
The second approach to successfully passing the CCIE Voice exam is to start at the basics. If you are like some candidates, you might need a good refresher course before starting. I recommend watching a CCNP voice video such as INE’s CCNP Voice Bootcamp as a good way to cover the basics you might have missed. From there the steps are simple, start with the labs in Workbook Volume I in concurrence with watching the CCIE Voice Deep Dives. Next try your skills on the labs in the CCIE Voice Workbook Volume II. When you are able to successfully complete these labs, it’s time to get in the final stages of preparation, refinement.
The lab exam is not all about knowing the right things to do or configuring things properly. Your success also depends on how fast you are able to recognize and correct errors. The best way to do this is to spend time on our rack rentals going over and over tasks in Workbook Volume I. Spending as much time as possible doing repetitive tasks will not only increase your speed, but will all greatly increase your confidence.
Getting certified doesn’t have to be difficult. Go to www.ine.com right now to find out more and get started on your path to certification today. Remember, the most important part of passing the lab exam is using the right equipment, don’t accept any substitutes, always use GradedLabs.
















![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6d6d3bcd-a9cc-4ede-b49a-a48d7186331b)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1923caad-ca41-4432-ad48-d8de11cc7cfc)





