Cisco offers two routes to earn your CCNP. You can take composite exam which covers routing and switching or take the standalone BSCI & BCMSN exams. Which one is easier to take? Well its simple, the composite exam gives you 2 hours to complete 60 questions vs. the standalone exams are 90 minutes and 60 questions each… The composite is about an even split 30 routing & 30 switching questions which once you pass you are 50% the way for your CCNP certification! The single exam approach has about the same passing score necessary as the multiple exam approach. The downside is the amount of information you are responsible to recall for the composite exam. The plus side is the watering down of the BSCI material since they must ask a certain amount of switching questions.
In my experience the BSCI is an unruly exam because of the depth and breadth of the material. While the BCMSN exam is rather easy due to the lack of complexity of layer 2 switching. By combining the two in one sitting you raise your chances of success quite a bit by watering down the difficulty of the exam by sprinkling in switching questions. My vote is the composite!
Of course you still need to pass ONT and ISCW for your CCNP certification.
