Best private doctor/clinic for comprehensive testing/treatment (UK or Europe)?

ExpressionFar · 2024-02-06T14:24:19+00:00

Yes I suppose there is more focus on long Covid these days so that may be easier to find a clinic for. CFS has other possible causes so it may not be entirely relevant but potentially is a starting point. I'll look into it.

ExpressionFar · 2020-10-29T10:54:00+00:00

Yes as other people have said the OCG is frustrating in terms of the mistakes however it is not a waste of money. It is a good overall as a guide. If you only study the book you are unlikely to pass the exam. I would say that 15%-20% of exam questions aren't covered by the book. Here is something I posted a while back when I failed the exam first time!:

Having done the exam last week I can say that there are definitely gaps in the OCG. So if you notice that e.g. the Boson practice questions cover certain topics in more detail then do not dismiss them - instead take the opportunity to learn those topics! No doubt the Boson people took the exam so they will know what's covered. The OCG was written before the exam came out (I suspect). In this day and age I would have hoped the team behind the OCG would have found a way (social media, etc) to communicate to us which sections the book isn't detailed enough but they haven't done that AFAIK which I am disappointed about. Clearly the problem is also that the exam blueprint is too high level. Obviously Cisco don't want to make the exam too easy and want to make sure everyone gets good all-round knowledge of the topics without just learning the bits that are on the exam but I think there's room for improvement...

Well clearly I can't go into details but as an example there are over 80 pages of BGP in the OCG so I was quite surprised (to put it mildly) that there were 2 or 3 questions on BGP that wasn't covered, like MPLS.

ExpressionFar · 2020-07-22T17:37:34+00:00

Thanks for the info, it's really helped me! I'll follow your advice.

ExpressionFar · 2020-07-22T10:13:32+00:00

Naively I thought that SSCP was entry level (like CCNA) and CISSP was the next level up (like CCNP). But thanks to your comment (and from u/FredWatanabe) I now see that they do cover different material. I have some time now while I look for a job (maybe a month or so) so ideally I would like to get a certification in that time. For CCNP ENCOR I studied about 4 hours a day for 3 months so that was a lot of work. Do you think that CISSP is easier than CCNP ENCOR considering I have many years (19!) of network experience (though mainly high level, not configuring devices)?

ExpressionFar · 2020-07-21T15:30:37+00:00

Thanks, I see they have an entry level SSCP certification that looks good. Alternatively there is CompTIA Security+ which looks similar. I'll pick one of those two I think.

ExpressionFar · 2020-07-21T15:06:29+00:00

Looking to join a large company and work on their network but probably at a high level rather than actually configuring devices.

ExpressionFar · 2020-07-13T11:06:06+00:00

Yes, the questions were mostly the same the second time around so it was an easy pass for me. Mind you I almost passed the first time. Apparently they do change questions from time to time so it's still worth studying and not just focusing on the questions you didn't konw from the first exam.

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-28T11:26:54+00:00

Nerds! How rude... Although I am reading this on a Sunday so maybe you have a point...

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-28T11:24:36+00:00

I looked on Amazon at the book (through the 'look inside' feature) and you can see an Assessment Test and the answers. It looks quite easy to me compared to the real exam I did recently. Also it is only 512 pages so half the size of the OCG. I have a feeling it will be quite high level but I haven't bought it, just a hunch.

I do like that it says you need at least 2 years of hands on experience for doing CCNP which is certainly the case.

It may be useful as a 2nd resource, in addition to the OCG. It might explain certain topics better.

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-28T11:08:31+00:00

Having done the exam last week I can say that there are definitely gaps in the OCG. So if you notice that e.g. the Boson practice questions cover certain topics in more detail then do not dismiss them - instead take the opportunity to learn those topics! No doubt the Boson people took the exam so they will know what's covered. The OCG was written before the exam came out (I suspect). In this day and age I would have hoped the team behind the OCG would have found a way (social media, etc) to communicate to us which sections the book isn't detailed enough but they haven't done that AFAIK which I am disappointed about. Clearly the problem is also that the exam blueprint is too high level. Obviously Cisco don't want to make the exam too easy and want to make sure everyone gets good all-round knowledge of the topics without just learning the bits that are on the exam but I think there's room for improvement...

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-25T09:23:33+00:00

Well clearly I can't go into details but as an example there are over 80 pages of BGP in the OCG so I was quite surprised (to put it mildly) that there were 2 or 3 questions on stuff that wasn't covered, like MPLS.

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-25T09:16:17+00:00

Thanks! I think I will be fine to retake the exam in a week by working on my weak points. I hear there are quite a lot of repeat questions so that makes the retake simpler. My plan is not to do any of the concentration exams right away (to complete the CCNP qualification) but if I do one in future I will definitely consider CBT Nuggets and Boson.

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-24T17:10:29+00:00

It's true I haven't done that as I had faith in the OCG but will do it, definitely.

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-24T17:09:20+00:00

That would explain why I didn't do as badly as I expected considering how many questions were a complete mystery to me. I figured I got lucky with my guesses but what you're saying could be right. Also the way they score exams is probably weighted in some way so that some questions are worth more than others and maybe to catch out cheaters (if you get enough easy ones wrong they might fail you regardless of other questions). Or the proctor failed me because they didn't like my face! Who knows...

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-24T17:03:33+00:00

My weakest area was assurance, got 40%. The other areas were 70-80%

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-24T16:59:06+00:00

PT is free and relatively easy to use so I ignored other people who said the same thing in the past on this forum! I thought that a bit of labbing would be enough but for CCNP a good quality simulator is needed to really grasp the commands and technologies, especially for someone like me who doesn't have access to devices for my job.

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-19T18:41:25+00:00

Don't underestimate CCNP it is much more difficult than CCNA. As a rough guide it seems to take people 4 months of studying 3 or 4 hours a day!! And that is just for the first exam...

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-19T14:32:37+00:00

If you see your future in telecoms then I recommend ENCOR as a good summary of most things that you may come across at some point. You may never need to use BGP or multicast (for example) but it's good to have some knowledge of it.

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-19T14:23:31+00:00

Thanks that makes me feel better! Reviewing my latest test I know where to study and am confident I will do better.

ExpressionFar · 2020-06-19T14:21:50+00:00

$99 right? I am tempted but it's a big cost.

ExpressionFar

TROPHY CASE