The first section of my Cisco cyber security scholarship program started in late June. I have been investing much of my time into the material to glean as much as I can from this course. Overall, I am impressed with the course material. They have provide webinars, mentors, course readings, end of section quizzes and hands on labs for each section.

Content Based Training has come a long way and Cisco has nailed the hands on offering of this course. Each section has a lab associated to it. Each lab is discovery based, meaning there isn’t an end goal or objective you need to meet. It is simply up to you, on how far you want to take the lab. There is of course directions for the lab to assist your learning. Each lab has multiple virtual machines, examples, and topological representation of how the virtual machines are connected and communicating.

After completing the first section in mid to late July, I started to study for the 210-250 SECFND exam. I sat for the test 8/7/17 and passed.

It’s clear that the test is still in the design and development phase. Nonetheless the test is completely passable with the course content that Cisco is providing to the scholarships students. Although walking the blueprint did provide some structure for passing and is worth doing, I found myself somewhat neutral on the relevance of the blueprint and the questions that were asked on the test.

For those of you in the scholarship program, or for those that will be in the scholarship program in the future. Use your time wisely, stay focused, and most importantly, don’t be afraid to fail.

Thank you Cisco.

Mike