As I took the CCIE lab exam four times in Brussels, I am happy to share my experience of the exam location, the test room, how to get there, and the nearby hotel.
No, I will not share any information about the exam content, so please don’t ask about it.
Before leaving
Book your exam, your flight or train, and your hotel well in advance!
As with any Cisco exam, your identity will be verified at the entrance, so be sure you have two IDs with you. Take a written copy of the exam confirmation. At my last attempt, even though I had registered months before the exam, I was not on the list. So, I needed to show my confirmation. They told me this could happen sometimes.
My advice is also to take earplugs with you. In the exam room, there are also candidates who take the CCIE collaboration exam, and they must play around with phones and make them ring a few times. It can help you to isolate yourself.
Except if you live close to Brussels, I would not recommend going by car to the exam. First, because you never know what can happen in the morning: flat tire, car breakdown, accident, traffic jam, and you cannot arrive late for the exam! Furthermore, for this very special day, you should make your best to have nothing to worry about except the exam itself; this is very important! And after the exam, you will be totally exhausted, so driving is not safe.
Travel Airport – Hotel
As I live close to Italy, I took the plane to go to Brussels. There are many direct flights to Brussels, but be sure you arrive at the Brussels international airport. Be careful because there is a second airport in Brussels: the Charleroi Airport, and it is really far away from the Cisco building.
From the airport, if you book a room at the NH hotel, they have a free shuttle service. Call them or visit the website to know the schedule. This is a very good service; they pick you up from the front of the airport and drop you at the entrance of the hotel. It takes around ten minutes, and you don’t have to look around for a taxi.
If you book another hotel near the Cisco building, and they don’t have a transfer service, do NOT take the train from the airport! I made this mistake at my first attempt: after I bought the ticket, I discovered there is no train from the Airport to Diegem. Even though the Diegem stop is 5 minutes from the airport, the only way to go to Diegem is to take a direct train to Brussels-Midi and change onto another train to come back to Diegem. Total travel time: one hour! So it is much better to take a taxi.
The hotel
Like most of the people, I stayed at the hotel NH Brussels Airport. The cost was between € 80.- and € 200.- for one night, depending on the season. It seems the hotel is much cheaper in summer, because it’s a business area and it’s a very quiet period there. The room is quite big, modern and clean, no noise at all, so perfect for relaxing before the D-day. There is a free Wi-Fi service, and the Internet speed is quite good.
I ate at the hotel. Again, this is a business area, so I don’t think there are many restaurants around. The food was good, nothing spectacular, but good, for a reasonable price.
Travel to the Cisco building
The Cisco building is at 3 minutes walk from the NH-Hotel, so don’t go too early, otherwise you must wait too long there and begin to stress.
When you arrive at the entrance, the main door may be closed. Ring the bell, and the receptionist will open and check your ID and registration. Then you can wait for the proctor in the lobby and see the stress on the faces of the other candidates…
Then the proctor arrives and takes the entire group to the exam room.
If needed, there is a YouTube video explaining how to get from the NH Hotel to the Cisco building here.
The exam itself
First, the proctor explains the exam schedule and rules. Then, you must leave all your personal belongings in a locker. You can close it by key and keep the key during the entire day. The only thing you can take with you at your desk is this key and your ID. You have to leave your ID on your desk, and the proctor will check it again later.
Then, I am not sure I’m allowed to give too many details here: outside the room, there is water, a coffee machine, and the toilets for the candidates. At each seat, there are two 24″ screens and a US keyboard. On the PC, there’s an IE browser, the terminal is a customized Putty, and you have paper and pens.
The exam interface is fast and very responsive. The annoying point is the putty terminal; there is no tab like on SecureCRT, for example, so after a while you have maybe 20 terminal windows open, and then it is difficult to navigate between the devices, the topology, and the questions.
At lunch time, the proctor takes all the candidates to go to lunch together. The lunch is very good, you eat at the Cisco restaurant with the other employees and the proctor. You receive a voucher to take a main dish, drink, and dessert. But do not eat too much! Otherwise, the digestion will slow you down for the afternoon.
Travel back
The exam is finished at around 4:30 PM, so you should leave the Cisco building by 5:00 PM. If you stayed at the NH hotel, you can use the shuttle bus to go back to the airport. If everything goes well, at 6:00 PM you are at the airport, so there is absolutely no problem taking a flight at around 7:00 PM.
The official Cisco information about the Brussels exam location is on this page: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications/certifications/pop-exam-locations/brussels.html
Good luck with your future exam!
Hey Jerome,
Thanks a lot for your time and consideration.
Thank you!
Hi Roula,
Yes, as I remember, it was a mousepad and a laser mouse.
By the way, I remember my first attempt in 2014, the was theses old mouse with a ball. And the ball was so dirty that it was working very badly. At a certain point, I stopped to work on the exam and dismounted the mouse to clean the ball and mechanism. It took me 5 minutes but saved me a lot of time and frustration later on. 🙂
Good luck for your exam!
Jerome
Thank you Jerome.
Hey Jerome…
thank you for the explanation. I will be traveling from the US to take my routing/switching exam in Brussels. Since version 5 is expiring very soon, no seats are available for 2019. In my first attempt, there weren’t any mouse pads so it was a huge problem for me to copy/paste from the notepad. Do you recall if mouse came with a pad?
Thanks a lot for your brief and clean information.