Starting next year Cisco will be offering the CCDE Practical Exam at many more locations beyond San Jose, Chicago, London, etc., and registration for the practical will be open up to the day before the exam. Another nice change is that candidates can take lunch break on their own time after finishing the second scenario in the exam, where previously they were required to wait until the set lunchtime was finished before continuing on with section 3. The specific announcement from Cisco is below, along with the link to the CCDE page which outlines exactly where the new locations will be.

Starting with the February 20, 2014 exam administration, the CCDE practical exam will be available at all Pearson Professional Centers (PPCs) worldwide. The ability to conveniently take the CCDE practical exam at a local PPC testing center eliminates the stress and expense of traveling to a remote exam location.

The overall exam administration experience has improved giving you more flexibility in the following areas:

Choosing your exam location:

• The number of locations where this exam can be administered will  increase from 8 to 275

Registering  for the exam:

• Registration will close one day before the test date
• However, candidates are encouraged to register at least 45 days in  advance for most locations to guarantee PPC sites will be open for the required  nine hours to administer the CCDE practical exam

Breaking  for lunch:

• Candidates can only take a lunch break after they finish section 2
• Candidates are no longer required to take a lunch break simultaneously

There are no changes to the exam content, scoring methodology, or modular testing approach. See the FAQs for more detail