Customer Reviews

CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide (Exam Certification Guides)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I passed the new format CCIE written in January 2003 with a 69. I am hardly surprised that so any people fail considering the lack of detail in this book that Cisco Press market as a "essential tool". I normally like Cisco Press titles - they are great. However, this book is FAR TOO BASIC. In fact the so called "test exam" (which, according to the book is "more difficult" than the real thing) is a joke that would not tax even a CCNA. The material is simply too basic and let me assure you that this is one heck of a difficult test.

In fairness to the book though, it is impossible to cover the vast array of objectives in the CCIE written test in one volume. The book makes a good attempt at fleshing out the written a lot more than the Cisco Blueprint on the CCIE website. However, I am surprised that Cisco Press have put their considerable authority behind such a flimsy attempt at assisting people towards the CCIE. Every paragraph in this book needs to be backed up by a few hundred pages of reading in other "proper" books.

I'm sad to give a book such a slating. As a general networking book for intermediate level people, it is actually quite nice to read - factual and concise - and you can certainly learn a lot from it. However, this book has very lofty ambitions - to help you pass the CCIE written test. It is just way too basic for that purpose. If you buy only this book to study from in the hope of passing the CCIE written, I am very sorry to say that I believe you will fail the test. In fact if CCIE were 100 and the passing score is 58, I'm afraid this book will get you no further than 15. That is the opinion of three of us where I work who HAVE passed the test and have viewed this book.

Save yourself this purchase and buy yourself both the Jeff Doyle volumes (routing TCP/IP) and the kennedy/Clarke Cisco LAN switching. Make sure you read the URL's on CCO too.
Very Best of luck.

The entire coverage of OSPF consists of only 25 pages, a fraction of one chapter. Bruno only spends half of one page going over the various OSPF LSA types. This is the sort of inadequate coverage which exists for every topic in the book.

Don't take my word for this. Browse thru a copy at your local [store] and see for yourself. That's what I should have done, but my recert date was coming up, I was in a hurry to get back on the road, saw the CCIE number behind the author's name, and purchased a copy thinking how bad could the book be? Well, now I know the answer to that question.

As a CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, and someone who has passed a CCIE Recert exam, I would strongly recommend that you _NOT_ buy this book. There is no excuse for Bruno, a fellow CCIE with a relatively low number, to keep quiet while his book is being sold (check the front cover) as the "official" prep guide for the R & S written exam. One wonders why Bruno didn't use Doyle's excellent books as a guide to how a CCIE prep book should be written.

I disagree with those reviewers who are excusing the inadequacies of this book by arguing that no one book could prepare you for the CCIE written. I think one book could, it just hasn't being written yet. Until it is, let's all agree to stop making excuses for inadequate, over-priced, books such as this one.

I had no problem with the format of the book as a tool to review the information; however, the review all applies to an old version of the test. This book has little to no value as a tool to review the current version of the CCIE written examination. It was a major waste of money.

There are are couple of major issues with this book:
- It is riddled with errors. It needs a thorough technical review. As one example, many of the acronyms are expanded wrong (e.g. VTP is expanded to virtual terminal protocol instead of VLAN trunking protocol). Another example is the discussion of IGMP, where the descriptions for the query and report packets are reversed. This book was obviously rushed out the door without careful editing (sadly this is the case for far too many technical books these days).
- It does not address the topics in nearly enough depth for the CCIE written exam. Nor do the sample questions require the kind of in-depth reasoning and understanding that the CCIE exam requires.

Preparing for the CCIE written definitely does require multiple books. Unfortunately this book adds little value. You will be better off by going to Cisco's web site, printing out the exam blueprint, and finding the "best in breed" books for each of the subjects listed.

Listen up. Any certification you can get by reading one book is not saying much about the exam, unless the text is very thick (in the case of the CCIE written exam). Passing the CCIE written, and then the lab, should say something about where you are in your understanding of internetworking and the use of the Cisco IOS and gear. This book is a guide that was more like a 'table of contents' for what could be on the exam - most of the practice questions are too easy and the material lacks necessary content and depth.

Anyone who is a serious CCIE candidate should be plowing through the CCIE exam blueprint reference materials (listed on the web site) and other well-known texts to pass the written exam. What it takes to pass the lab is also well documented.

The idea was good, but the execution falls short. The coverage of technologies is just not deep enough. You still have to buy several books to come even close to attaining the knowledge you need to pass the CCIE written exam. For a deeper coverage of IP routing protocols check out "Cisco IOS for IP Routing" by Andrew Colton. That book should give you enough information on most modern routing protocols (RIP, EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, and BGP) to pass the test.

No book by its self can possibly prepare someone for the CCIE Exam, if there was such a book it would be several thousand pages. But what this book does provide is a detailed outline of exam topics, intoducing you to each topic and providing info at the end of each chapter on were to find out the details. After checking with Cisco Press and looking at the New Exam blueprint this book touches on all the topics listed on the blueprint. A great place to start preparing for the new R&S exam or as a final brush up. This book along with the Doyle books, the CCIE LAN Switching and the Halibi BGP book and your all set.

I'm really dissappointed with this so called official preparation guide for ccie routing and switching qualification (CCIE QE) exam. It's true that to become a CCIE, sitting down and reading a prep. book is not enough; this is what makes CCIE certification different than others. But a book announced as the official prep. guide, should have given more than an a poor overview of each topic. For those people who are preparing for the exam, I suggest the URLs on Cisco's web site, the TAC documents, which are invaluable, richer in content and most upto date in addition to books already wellknown an mentioned in previous reviews; but not this book.

Hi,
I'm a CCNP and CCDA and I've always used CiscoPress Certifications books to prepare my exams.
I bought this book hoping that, as the others, it would give me all the elements to pass the test. Oh...if I was wrong.
Soon after starting reading it I realized that this book wasn't teaching anything. Each topic was just mentioned and not really unfold as the exam requires.
I wasted a week reading it and...you know what? At the end I studied on my CCNP books, integrating what was missing with documents on Cisco CCO. I passed the written test this morning at the first try.
Don't waste you money on this. Please

This book does nothing more than a quick overview of a few protocols. It reads more like it should be a last second review that you read 2 or 3 days before the written exam. The first 100 pages are more or less a ccna review for OSI and tcp/ip. If that's what you want, then this is your book I guess...

Besides that, it's about 580 pages of material, maybe 400 of it actual information if you don't count the question and answer and "do I know this already" pages.

I read it all the way through just because I bought it and figured I might as well since it was already too late. I had no idea CiscoPress put out books this bad. All the others I've read have been great.