A warning for any certified Cisco individuals. I got bit by some “fine print” related to the COVID-19 exam extensions.
A bit of back story: I started down the Cisco exam path about 15 years ago and have carefully kept moving forward, taking an exam about every three years. I’ve achieved CCNA R&S, CCNA Security, and CCNP Route & Switch (now Enterprise)
The next certification I am going after is CCNP Security. In December of 2018, I passed the 300-206 SENSS, which left me the 350-701 to pass before December of 2020 to achieve CCNP Security.
I started studying in early 2020, and mid-year, when the six-month COVID-19 extension came out, I thought, “why not” take the extra time. So I slowed down a bit on studying and ended up taking the exam last week.
A few days after I passed the 350-701 I checked and saw that although all my exams extended to 2024, I didn’t achieve the expected certification. When I emailed support, this is what I received:
Your 300-206 SENSS exam expired in December 21, 2020 so you should have taken and passed the 350-701 SCOR exam by that time for it to be counted towards achieving the CCNP Security certification. Please note that cisco exams have fixed validity period of 3 years only. Although as courtesy due to Covid-19 pandemic, we have extended the equivalent Specialist certification associated of this exam which is the Cisco Certified Specialist - Web Content Security for 6 months together with all your other active certifications, we have not extended the expiration validity of the exam. The 3 year exam expiration/validity remains the same so the 300-206 SENSS exam still had an expiration date of December 21, 2020 therefore you should have taken and passed the 350-701 SCOR exam on or before December 21, 2020 for your to have achieved the CCNP Security certification.
What’s so annoying is that I could have easily passed in December had the extension not been granted. And I never saw it detailed that Cisco extended the certifications but didn’t extend the individual exams. How does that even make sense?
I’m asking support if I can speak to someone, but I doubt they will help. Posting in case this is helpful to anyone else, but my guess is it’s likely too late at this point for anyone taking advantage of the extension.
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