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PACKET MAGAZINE: "PROFILE OF CCIE EXAM PROCTOR" First Quarter 2004 Ben Ng, who manages the CCIE Voice lab in San Jose, Calif., offers a behind-the-scenes look at the CCIE lab exam and offers tips for interacting with proctors. The CCIE® is the highest certification that Cisco grants, opening new career opportunities for recipients and inspiring confidence in prospective customers. The first stage of certification is to pass a two-hour multiple-choice exam. Those who pass qualify to take an eight-hour hands-on lab exam. It's tough: since the program was introduced more than ten years ago, less than 3 percent of Cisco certified professionals have earned CCIE certification. In September 2003, Cisco added the CCIE Voice track, which joined the three other tracks: Routing and Switching, Security, and Service Provider. The Voice track certifies and recognizes experts in configuring and maintaining IP telephony solutions. The demand for such knowledge is significant: more than 800 professionals sat for the Voice written exam in the first month, a record for any track in the CCIE program to date. On the day of the hands-on portion of the exam, the candidate's world inevitably narrows to the lab where his or her own knowledge will be put to task, and at the front of the room, sits that mysterious lab proctor. PacketŪ recently caught up with Voice Lab Proctor Ben Ng to find out what his job entails. Ng is intimately familiar with intricacies of the CCIE exam. He earned his CCIE in Routing and Switching in October 2000, and in Voice in August of this year to prepare him for the role of proctor. What does a lab proctor do? My official job title is customer support engineer. It fits because my primary role is to provide support to candidates taking the lab exam. This support takes a variety of forms. One is to clarify the lab exam questions for candidates--so long as their query isn't really an end-run to find out the answer! Also, I fix equipment should a hardware or software failure occur. Basically, I view my job as doing whatever is necessary to make the exam less stressful for candidates, short of providing beer and cigarettes. How many people have taken the Voice lab exam? Currently I can accommodate up to three candidates a day. That works out to about 15 a week or 60 a month. We've been very busy since the lab opened. Most candidates are from the United States, but I've tested candidates from virtually every part of the world. How many of them passed the exam? So far [mid-January 2004], 31 people have earned their CCIE Voice certification, which is less than 10 percent of those who passed the qualifying written exam. Some pass on their second try, and already I am testing some who are on their third try. It's a very rigorous exam, and that is why the CCIE certification is held in such high regard. What's so special about the CCIE? CCIE certification recognizes network engineers for in-depth knowledge of networking protocols--specifically, the ability to configure networking equipment so that it works together, and to troubleshoot and recover if anything goes wrong. The objective isn't training; it's identifying experts who are capable of understanding the subtleties and snares of end-to-end networking. We don't have formal prerequisites to sit for the exam, but we strongly encourage candidates to have at least three to five years of hands-on job experience before they attempt the lab exam. What type of equipment is in the lab? We select the equipment and compose questions based on what candidates are likely to encounter in real-world scenarios. A full list of equipment that might be used is posted on the CCIE Website. We provide basic network connectivity, and candidates are asked to build an IP telephony system, including establishing parameters for quality of service, virtual LANs, gateways, gatekeepers, and so on. We present problems that people actually run into when they're building voice networks. My prior life as a technical lead in the Cisco TAC [Technical Assistance Center] prepared me well for this job, because I know the areas where people are most likely to make mistakes. Do you change the exams? Yes, frequently. Describe a typical work day. The other proctors and I arrive at the lab between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. I make sure the equipment racks are ready for use and the equipment is working, and set out the examination books and scratch paper. When everything is ready, I greet the candidates in the lobby and bring them to the lab to give them their seat assignments. During a ten- or fifteen-minute briefing, I go over the exam do's and don'ts, when they'll break for lunch, and other matters like that. During the course of the exam, I answer questions from candidates who are unsure about something on the exam, basically to clarify the meaning of the questions for them. Sometimes they approach me because they think the equipment isn't working correctly. In those cases, I'll check to make sure the hardware and software are free of problems. When things are quiet, I grade exams from the previous day by verifying that the configuration is correct and that it actually works. Grading is based on results only, so if the configuration looks right but doesn't work, the candidate might not earn the point. First I troubleshoot and try to find out why the configuration didn't work. I only deduct points after I can confirm that the problem was the configuration and not a hardware or software failure. I want to make sure candidates get credit if they're entitled to it. After the exam, I like to take some time to chat with the candidates and find out how they're feeling. I realize they've spent an intense day. When proctors aren't monitoring or grading exams, we generally spend our time learning, working with new equipment, and creating future lab content. We work with the rest of the CCIE team to make the lab a better experience for candidates. What's an example of the type of question candidates shouldn't ask? Candidates are entitled and encouraged to ask any questions if they feel the wording of the exam content is not clear. However, generally I will decline to answer a question if it is formulated for me to choose or confirm a specific solution. We can't give candidates a direct reply if they're trying to narrow down the answer. But we don't mind clarifying the questions if they ask. The worst that could happen is I tell them I can't answer. What are some of the stranger incidents you've encountered? I take candidates out for a 30-minute lunch break. One candidate cussed me out during lunch, which was quite a surprise. Another guy attempted to simulate a successful fax transmission by physically inserting the original upside-down into the receiving fax machine, as if it had been sent. Then there was a person who tried to use a fake ID to take the exam for someone else. And once when another proctor called "time's up," a candidate fainted, and within a few minutes stood back up as if nothing had happened. Do people have misconceptions of lab proctors? Yes! The main one I would like to dispel is that we're unapproachable. It's true that being a proctor implies a certain degree of authority. Whatever we say in the lab goes. However, we very much welcome questions as long as they're appropriate. And we're very committed to making the candidates comfortable. For example, recently a candidate was shivering from the cold, so I offered him a jacket from our rather large collection of jackets and sweaters left behind by preoccupied predecessors. If someone starts to feel ill during the exam, we try to offer a remedy or something to help them relax, such as hot tea. Candidates are welcome to make brief visits to the lab days before the exam to help ease their anxiety, so they can better focus on studying. What's the hardest part of your job? By far the biggest challenge is resisting the urge to solve problems for candidates who are struggling--a mindset that's especially strong for me because my previous job was with Cisco TAC. I also have to be very mindful of answering people's questions about the exam in a way that simply clarifies the question instead of answering it. This sometimes requires careful thought because English is not my first language. It's also emotionally taxing to have to fail people. I often remind myself that it's a challenging examination that recognizes only the top few percent of engineers, so some excellent engineers won't pass. I also like to remember that regardless of whether a candidate passes or fails, the exam is a valuable learning experience. Candidates must solve a real-life problem under time pressure, so they're better prepared to cope when they encounter the same experience on the job. I'm convinced that going through any of the CCIE labs helps make people better engineers. So what's a little suffering! And your favorite part of the job? I enjoy meeting people from diverse backgrounds. Everyone who passes through my lab is in the networking industry, but they all have unique experiences and challenges. I especially enjoy our lunchtime conversations because I get fresh perspectives on what's going on in real production networks. Our customers implement and maintain some really innovative and complex networks. Definitely the best part of the job is when candidates make positive comments about the lab. If someone says that studying and preparing for the lab and then solving problems in a stressful environment has made them a better engineer, I know my hard work is making a difference. And every time a candidate passes, I get a boost. Some people think that proctors are mean-spirited nerds who enjoy failing people! They couldn't be more wrong. Whenever a Voice candidate passes, I immediately share the good news with the other proctors and send out an e-mail of congratulations. Really, we're just engineers who love networking technologies and are excited about how such technologies are changing our everyday lives. |