Before the Exam
After I failed the second time at the Cisco Certified DevNet Expert exam, I immediately booked my third attempt. But I had a big issue; I was extremely demotivated and didn’t want to study anymore. In the beginning I enjoyed studying when I was learning lots of new things. But now it’s just repeating and repeating and repeating…
Right after the second attempt I went through all the questions from Module 1. But in the end you just have to select a checkbox. And it doesn’t require skill to click on a checkbox. Sure, it requires knowledge, but it’s not like coding. So two or three days after I received the score report, I already knew what I would answer differently. And Module 2 went quite well, so why should I invest more time to study for that?
Now the problem is that I was bored most of the time until the third attempt. I didn’t feel like studying, and I couldn’t enjoy my spare time because I felt guilty about not studying. So I didn’t do much and I was happy when there were only a few days left before the exam. I had a pretty good feeling about the third attempt.
But a few days before the exam, things changed… What if I forgot how to code? What if I was too slow? What would I tell my boss if I failed because I didn’t feel the need to study for the third time? (Well I guess I wouldn’t write it in this blog post…) But now it was too late to do anything about it…
During the DevNet Expert Exam
Fast-forward to the exam day, there were only two of us taking an exam that day, which made it quite pleasant. The luckily (for me) other guy had already finished in the early afternoon and left. But this is something I don’t understand until today. Every time there were people who finished much earlier and left. I don’t think anyone can finish a CCIE exam 3 hours before the end. So I guess the exam didn’t go well. But why not stay longer, read the questions and try to memorize them for the next time?
For me Module 1 felt similar to the second time. I changed and tweaked some things, but I didn’t know if what I did was ok or not. Again, you just select a checkbox and you don’t receive any feedback when you go to the next question. And after I answered the last question, I knew that my score was already set. I still was a little bit scared about Module 2, but I soon found out that I was still worthy :)
Module 2 went better than expected. This time I was able to solve all the problems, even the ones that didn’t work on my second attempt. I was also very fast. When I finished the last question, I had 90 minutes left. I used the remaining time to go over all the questions again, even though I had already checked everything. But I felt bad about handing in the exam beforehand.
An Unexpected Offer
I had two proctors that day. I can’t remember the proctor from the morning. But in the afternoon Kurt Claes was the proctor. he is the DevNet Expert program manager. It was also great to get to know one of the people who tormented me the whole time.
After I submitted the exam, he spoke to me and asked me whether I would be interested in taking part in the DevNet Expert exam as a Subject Matter Expert (SME). This would give me the opportunity to work on new questions and further develop the exam. At this point I already had the idea of this e-learning. And if you write exam questions as an SME, you are not allowed to give any training for a year. So I thought I would try the e-learning here first. Because if that doesn’t work, I can still become an SME. And fast forward to today, two people have already passed the exam using my e-learning and a few promising students are well on their way!
The Moment of Truth
I knew that this attempt was going well and I assume that Kurt already knew how I did in Module 1. Why else would he have asked if I wanted to become an SME? I mean he could have done that, but he seems like a great guy. Still, I didn’t want to get too excited. I didn’t want it to be like the second attempt and fail because of Module 1.
So after the exam I went to the airport and had some dinner. I was sitting there, eating dinner, watching Netflix and refreshed my e-mail every few minutes. And suddenly I got an e-mail with notification from Cisco. Because the exam went well and I got the answer so quickly, I had a good feeling… and the score report confirmed it. Now I’m officially Cisco Certified DevNet Expert #20230004! I was extremely happy in that moment, I think the whole restaurant saw me smile. It was so relieving to know that everything is now finished.
I wrote in my family chat and work chat. Everyone congratulated me and a colleague from work even called me to congratulate. He mentioned that I will never forget this moment. I didn’t think much of it at that time, but as a matter of fact I have goosebumps as I’m writing this a year later. But I’m also glad that I passed the exam on the third attempt. I don’t think I would have had the motivation to try it a fourth time. Kudos to all the people who need more than 3 attempts and still don’t give up!
One Year Later
Right after I passed the exam, a colleague from work called me to congratulate. He mentioned that I will never forget this moment. At that time I didn’t think much of it. But as a matter of fact I have goosebumps as I’m writing this a year later. I will never forget the feeling of passing the exam. It definitely made the hundreds of hours of studying worth it. Thanks to all the people who supported and helped me along the way. I couldn’t have done it without you!
Unfortunately, Cisco does not give you a detailed score report when you pass the exam. But I would have liked to see how I performed on the different domains. All you get is a green checkmark and two sentences. In the first sentence they congratulate you and tell you your CCIE / DevNet Expert number. The second sentence tells you the date by which you must re-certify. Very charming Cisco!
If you like this blog, you may also like the post about my first and second DevNet Expert Exam experience here.
