Juniper Exam cost update

[Bl8ckr0uter]

I saw this on the juniper site today:

Effective March 1 2010, the associate-level JNTCP exams will be lowered to $100 per certification. Take advantage of this low price point to begin your certification track with Juniper Networks. At the same time, the price of our Specialist level JNTCP exams will be raised to $200 each to compensate for increasing program costs and to align more closely with industry-standard pricing. JNTCP lab exam prices (current JNCIP and JNCIE exams) will be raised to $1,400. New pricing will go into effect March 1 2010.

Does anyone know the current price of the test?

[hoogen82]

All the exams were 125$... The lab exams were 1250$... Well the lab exam cost seems to now reflect the same price as the cisco lab exam... But I am surprised about the specialist exam costs being increased to 200$..

[Bl8ckr0uter]

All the exams were 125$... The lab exams were 1250$... Well the lab exam cost seems to now reflect the same price as the cisco lab exam... But I am surprised about the specialist exam costs being increased to 200$..

So these JNCIA exams are gonna be 100 Dollars. Ok. I am totally on Juniper next year.

[hoogen82]

Yep the associate level has got a price reduction...Go for it... The price reduction is good.. but you will love the Junos cli too...

[TheShadow]

I wondered how long we would have retro prices. Well I guess there is no hurry to push for that JNCIE-ER then but I can save a whole $75 (wow) by going for the JNCIS-M to match the -ER and -SEC. My typing speed has to return to a lot better status before attacking a live lab anyway.

[Bl8ckr0uter]

I wondered how long we would have retro prices. Well I guess there is no hurry to push for that JNCIE-ER then but I can save a whole $75 (wow) by going for the JNCIS-M to match the -ER and -SEC. My typing speed has to return to a lot better status before attacking a live lab anyway.

How difficult was the -ER and -SEC? What did you use to study?

[zoidberg]

hmmmm, that's weird pricing. a bit of a bummer really.

here's my quick comparison. alu included out of pity oh alu, how i love to hate you... hehe

juniper associate = 100
juniper specialist / lab prereq = 200
jncip = 1400
jncie = 1400

cisco associate = 150
cisco professional = 150
ccie written / lab prereq = 350
ccie lab = 1400

alcatel-lucent exam = 125
alcatel-lucent nrs lab = 725
alcatel-lucent sra lab = 1275

so, even with the price hike, it's still cheaper to get a second level certification (assuming you pass) from juniper (jncis) vs cisco (ccxp), since the cisco track usually has 3-4 exams vs 1 with juniper. cheaper than alu as well, but alu is just a whole nother story as their roadmap includes 11 exams, 2 labs, and i don't know anyone that loves them that much. i paid my dues and did 2 exams and contemplated the nrs lab, but that's as far as that's going.

the juniper lab hike is a bit of a kick though seeing jncie-m requires 2 successful labs at 1400 each now. maybe alu is onto something with their lower level lab only being 725, but it is also only a half-day lab. i guess this means we'll start seeing more jncie-er's now as there's only 1 $1400 lab you need to pass instead of 2 for the jncie-m.

guess this is motivation for me to get off my butt and start renewing my juniper stuff. i need the jncis-m by march and was going to wait on the jncis-er till summer, but may as well nail that off too and save a few bucks. damn, i can't believe it's been two years already! where'd that time go.

actually, there's a good point. juniper, if you're giong to raise the prices, can you make it easier to keep everything active.

switching
security
firewall
enterprise routing
service provider routing
erx
etc

keeping these active and rewriting them every two years is going to get expensive; both in time and in money. sigh. i've already let my erx slip away, but it's also looking like i may need some ssl and uac as well. this is going to get insane!

[zoidberg]

How difficult was the -ER and -SEC? What did you use to study?

SEC is on the todo list, so I can't say just yet. Ask me in a month.

ER wasn't too bad, but that's all relative to your experience. Compared to the -M I hated it, but that's just cuz I'm better friends with MPLS than I am with IPSEC :P

The study guide from the fast track website is what I used. The ER book wasn't released when I wrote that exam, but I read it after, and as you would expect it is a good resource for the ER exam. The study guide and ER book will both cover the topics needed for the exam. The study guide would be faster and more to the point, the book more enjoyable to read with more detailed information.

[TheShadow]

How difficult was the -ER and -SEC? What did you use to study?

Lets see I did not think the -er was too bad at all, it also has a low pass bar 70% but Juniper may raise it. There is a free downloadable student guide from their pay for classes. The -sec gave me fits, pass bar is 80% but if you don't have the -ER you must pass jncia-junos first with a pass bar of 85 %.

I let -sec slip up on me. I took the previous exam 330 and had passed that with a 94 earlier in the year so I decided to take the new 331, since I had a free voucher, and failed with a 79%. Being seriously ticked off I got a discount voucher and took it again in early November and scored 92. It didn't give me a different cert, only bumped the renewal date out about 8 weeks but it sure made me feel better. Juniper is different from Cisco and a lot of things but I really like it.

I think the difficulty level was kicked up a notch with several questions having correct and almost correct answers. I assume that Juniper has discovered that they have shown up on the dumpers radar. Some idiot actually had the nerve to ask for a dump on Jnet of all places because he didn't think he could pass without one. Amazing.

The syntax for doing many things has changed slightly from ScreenOS so don't confuse yourself with that. They have an online video to tell you about the differences. I would give that a not so quick watch, it is 3+ hours. Then there is a student guide that you can download.

If you get lost in those or have more questions you can plunder the web site for some intense downloads

junos-security-cli-reference.pdf
junos-security-swconfig-security.pdf

These are 1000 page monsters and I just used them for the "how come" questions but I did get buried in the a few times with "how come how come" questions. Nothing lost I guess. There is a much smaller 470 page junos-security-admin-guide.pdf

[Bl8ckr0uter]

Thanks Zoid and Shadow for the responses.

I went onto the fast track site last night and downloaded everything, thats right everything for all the fast track certs. There were about 8 pdfs that were between 500-1000 (and more) pages. Also something that was VERY interesting to me was that there were lab guides, that is pdf with practice labs. Very Very Very cool. I downloaded all of the videos as well.

I know ScreenOS is different and depending on whether or not I can/want to find someone to vouch for me towards the end of the year, I may end up doing the JNCIA:FWV instead of SSCP. I may end up picking up an old NetScreen Firewall (even though we only use ASAs at work) to learn on. I think I read somewhere that the ScreenOS is going away and everything will be JUNOS but I could be wrong.

Whenever I get around to building my olives (Maybe March or So) I hope I can at least do everything I need to do for the ER and Sec. I cannot afford even the cheapest ebay J series .

Thanks guys.

[TheShadow]

Yes I forgot to mention the lab books, you would have to be in the 360 program to get books of that quality from Cisco. However Juniper does not have a lot of third party material available like Cisco does.

I don't know how long they will make them available because you can only get them through the fast track path. If you enter from general training they are not available, you must go to a physical class. I assume that is why they all have not for reproduction watermarks.

Good luck with your studies, it should be fun.

[Bl8ckr0uter]

Yes I forgot to mention the lab books, you would have to be in the 360 program to get books of that quality from Cisco. However Juniper does not have a lot of third party material available like Cisco does.

I don't know how long they will make them available because you can only get them through the fast track path. If you enter from general training they are not available, you must go to a physical class. I assume that is why they all have not for reproduction watermarks.

Good luck with your studies, it should be fun.

That is why I downloaded the lab books and everything else

But yea I did email the Juniper Fast track folks about what is going to happen. I didn't get a response so I am assuming that they either havent decided or they will keep the material. My thought process is that if they were going to get rid of it they should have a log on banner saying so. But I digress, no one at work knows I am doing juniper (execpt for my bosses) so it will be my little secret, like my 3rd nipple

*I don't have a 3rd nipple*

[densma]

What about people who scheduled the lab before march 2010, confirmed with old price but the lab exam is actually on march or after march?
Juniper dont charge fee untill 10days to the lab date.