6/6/2002 -- Late yesterday, Cisco announced via its Web site that the company has completely updated five of its professional-level certification exams, adding flash-based simulation questions to three.

Effective immediately, candidates for Cisco's CCNP, CCDP and CCIP titles can register only for the new versions of the following exams:

Although the new versions are effective immediately, those who have already registered to take the previous versions of the above exams will be allowed to do so if their testing date is within the next six weeks.

Cisco said that anyone working toward the above titles can combine 640-6xx and 640-5xx exams for their requirements.

Cisco introduced the Flash-based simulation questions in its CCNA exam in April. At that time, many candidates were upset by Cisco's lack of prior warning about the change. According to various reports, it appears that this time around Cisco e-mailed at least some candidates last week alerting them to the upcoming switch.

For more information and to view the official announcement, click here.

To read what Cisco had to say about its simulation questions when it released the updated CCNA exam, click here. - B.N.