My first reaction when I receive an email from my proctor informing about the result was "What the hell? Perhaps he wrongly sent the result email for another candidate to me since he stated that I have a blackhole in my bgp configuration at the exam." I can recalled very clearly that I didn't have any blackhole since last thing I did before I went home is pinging every possible ebgp destination prefix from any routers and all are success.
So I reply the proctor's email asking about it. And he replied as we can see below :
Stevanus,
We have verified that you did indeed receive accurate exam results. We are unable to provide you with any additional feedback or comments, as it would provide no significant detail without violating the integrity of the testing process.
Prior to your next JNCP Lab Exam, we strongly recommend carefully reviewing the exam objectives and recommended study material available at http://www.juniper.net/us/en/training/certification/mt_series_track.html#jnciem
Then suddenly I get the idea. It's an exam purposing not for educating people. But an exam for something else (you can guess, right?). Since Juniper cannot provide me a correct feedback because Juniper doesn't want any candidates learn from their mistakes and then -hopefully- success at the next attempt.
It makes me lose my spirit to attempt the exam again. Why?
First : because I have failed 2 times in a row and the last attempt has cost me 50% of the exam fee :(.
Second : because next attempt must be paid by myself and there is no local jncie lab being scheduled at the moment (so the lab fee + travel fee is too expensive for me)
Third : because of the wording of exam objectives, it can lead to several solutions which, of course, Juniper can say as failure if the network configuration is not what they expected to be.
Yes, I have failed because of the third reason this time :(. Because when the exam is finished, I feel like this gonna make me pass the test since on my network, there has not been any routing loops, hidden routes, blackhole, etc. And I have configured all the requirements in all sections.
But unfortunately, it still isn't enough to pass the test. And then I wonder what may make me fail the test. After getting the feedback above, I realize that my bgp design is not optimal. Even in my opinion, it doesn't violate the objectives stated in the exam, there is apparently better design. So they may take point loss badly from it.
And the second place where my point loss would be is mpls sections. Because the wording of the exam objectives is too general that I can think several possible alternative ways to solve it, and it's definitely bad for me. Why bad? Because there is only one best solutions according to Juniper and if your configuration is not the same as what they expect, then sorry, you fail!
At least this is what I can think of now. Why do I think that way? Because on the replied email, Juniper states that I must review the exam objectives very well. And then they advised me to enroll to their bootcamp course from the URL provided.
Okay, I admit bootcamp is the source of enlightment for all problems we may encounter in the JCNIE-M exam. But for me, if I have already taken bootcamp, then the exam would have had no meaning at all, more like having a paper certification. Now tell me, what is the purpose of having a paper certification? If you have been told the solutions before the exam, then will you have the capability to analyze and design the network as desired from JNCIE holder? I think it is not necessarily true!
And when think the opposite way, will you in any single real world task, will be limited by 8 hours to do all the analyzing and designing your network? No! Real world task will be more complex and sophisticated than the exam and requiring days even months for gathering the data and then analyzing and designing it appropriately.
Another reason for me to oppose bootcamp is the very expensive price tag they give. $5000 for me is not a little money to ditch. I have thrown out the idea of taking next JNCIE-M attempts because it would cost me approx $2000 for exam and travel fee, so if I can afford bootcamp fee then I must be crazy =)).
Okay, okay so I failed again. But what's the big fuss about that? I think it's normal since I'm in a process of learning something. Sometimes our opinion is not the best opinion and in a short time I have in the exam, I have to make decision. And when the decision I make cost me my failure, then let it be. At least I know what I have done (and the proctor should too, if he checked my exam manually. Maybe if he did, he can understood some of my thought in the exam. But I doubt it, I heard the proctor use some kind of script to generate the result).
The only things that make me regret it is that I'm losing money for the second attempt but it's inevitable. And next time when I take the Juniper lab again, I hope I can overcome the Acer laptop keypad used in the exam. Since I realize I also lost much time because of uneasy feeling with the keypad make me make a lot of typos mistakes. The delay of remote lab connections problem is another issue since it's also inevitable. But the typos mistake, I think it can be improved.
Nevertheless, we are human. We are not perfect. Often times we make mistakes. And the good things is we can always learn from our mistakes and make us better and better every each days. I have done many mistakes, countless I think, to be able at the stage where I am right now. And to be here for me is a special things. It's so rejoicing!
Thank you for reading this :).
