CCNP Composite Exam

[lerdalt]

Anyone taken the Composite exam lately, and have any tips on taking it? Been through BSCI and BCMSN courses from Thompson NetG and read the cisco press books. I've been close on the BSCI test, and with the changes to the program decided to shoot for the composite.

Just hoping someone might have some tips on what sort of simulations to expect. I think I have a rough idea from a routing side, just wondering about the switching.

Thanks
TL

 

[KiscoKid]

My colleague sat this exam recently - said it was tougher than the last time he sat it 3 years ago.

He had 4 simulations. One on EIGRP/ISIS redistribution, one on setting OSPF multiple areas, one on setting up VTP and portfast, one on inter-vlan routing.

 

[lerdalt]

Passed this morning. Not by as much as I'd have liked, but passing is passing.

Had 4-5 sims just like KiscoKid described. Was a little surprised with the amount of multicast that I got asked about. Really needed to know multicast and port security better than I did.

Can't really compare with the separated exams for BSCI and BCMSN, I attempted the BSCI a couple of times and was close to passing both times. Part of me thinks the composite was easier than trying to separate them out, but there is still a lot of information that you have to know for the combined exam.

Multicast, Dynamic Trunking Protocol, and Etherchannel were probably the 3 items I feel I got hit on harder than I would have expected.

I used the following books:
From CiscoPress
1.) CCNP Self-Study: Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks by Catherine Paquet and Diane Teare
2.) CCNP BSCI Exam Certification Guide by Clare Gough
3.) CCNP BCMSN Exam Certifiaction Guide by David Hucaby

Also was able to attend an online class from Thompson NetG for the BSCI. All the material was good (recommend reading the BSCI book by Paquet and Teare before the one from Gough) but I do not think they prepared me enough for the exams on their own. Really glad I sat down and setup some of my own labs for routing and switching. Run through as many show commands and debugs for everything as much as possible. The theory is the foundation, the debugs show it in action.