12/10/2003 -- Cisco recently made several announcements regarding discounted beta exams available this month.

In November Cisco announced two new specialist beta exams that are now live: Optical SONET (SONET 643-311) and Cisco Optical SDH Exam (SDH 643-321). Both apply to Cisco Optical Specialist 1 certification, part of the company's Cisco Qualified Specialist program.

A spokesperson for Cisco told CertCities.com that these betas are the result of a new "theater" approach to testing for this certification. "Cisco describes different regions of the world as theaters. For instance, EMEA would a theater. Asia-Pacific is another theater," the spokesperson explained.

"Cisco Optical Specialist Certification currently has only a single global exam," he continued. "This [certification] will soon have a revised recommended curriculum path, updated course versions, new content, and two theatre exams rather than the current single exam. Passing one exam will award the certification.

"In the analysis and requirements phase of re-designing the current exam it was determined that the EMEA and U.S. theaters had very different needs in assessing competencies and technology knowledge for SDH and SONET. Hence the soon to be released theater exams."

Each beta is currently available at Pearson Vue and Prometric testing centers for $50. When live, Cisco exams cost $125 each. The beta period for these exams will close Dec. 31.

Cisco also announced another beta that will launch Jan. 29: QoS 2.0 (QoS # 643-642). This is an update of the current QoS exam to go along with new courseware.

Debuting Dec. 15 will be two new CCIE qualification betas: Security (#351-018) and Content Networking (#351-026). These will be available for $50 through Jan. 6 for $50 (U.S.). When live, the CCIE written qualification exams will cost $250 U.S.

Two other previously announced betas are still available from Cisco: 643-531 CSIDS and INTRO 641-821. The CSIDS beta is scheduled to close Dec. 15, and INTRO is scheduled to close Dec. 31.

Cisco has yet to announce live dates for any of these exams.

More information currently available betas can be here. For the official announcement of the QoS beta, go here. For more on the CCIE written betas, go here. -Becky Nagel