From: Price, Jamie (jprice@xxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Tue May 02 2000 - 17:22:42 GMT-3
Title: Failed attempt
Well - I've been blooded so to speak,
I attempted the lab a couple of weeks ago. I've been meaning to relay
the experience to the group - not only due to "tradition" - but also
because I think some of my thoughts on it haven't really been covered
of late (nothing outside of the NDA - more the "human" factor so to
speak) but you know.......it was really nice to take a break for a few
weeks and forget about the CCIE for a while.
Anyway - now that my wife and kids remember who I am again and the
garage has finally been cleared of all items that needed removing for
the last 3 months but were left due to other "priorities", I'm back on
the bike again and ready to go. And Kinton Connelys question prompted
me.
I didn't expect to pass, although as everyone probably does on their
first attempt, deep down inside I wanted to of course, and prepared
with the intention of giving it my best shot. Although I had prepared
to what I felt were the best of my abilities I was also prepared to
leave without the golden number and use the first attempt as a
learning experience.
As many may have heard before, it is the time factor that gets you -
or at least it got me. My approach to preparation was to learn the
fundamentals of everything inside out and then you could deal with the
issues. My theory was (and still is really) that strong fundamental
knowledge will enable you to identify issues easily and in turn enable
you to find the solution quickly. I still think that that is the
correct approach - but guess what - I didn't have time to identify
issues and resolve them at the pace that I was accustomed.
Subsequently I finished the day with quite a bit of "unfinished
business", due to the fact that I didn't want to spend too long on one
problem thereby forsaking the rest. As we all know - there's no
partial credit so it was "Goodnight the fox".
The lab is not an unachievable goal at all. There was nothing in the
exam that I felt surprised by - there was just a lot of it. BAM -
like a slap in the face I read the tasks and realized almost
immediately that although, given time, I could confidently do
everything that was in both the afternoon and morning papers (and no -
I didn't get to see the afternoon paper till after lunch) - time was
not what I had. I realized I was fighting an uphill battle and was
not going to be successful this attempt.
Things I feel I did wrong:
I studied reasonably solidly for 6 months after passing the written
but I sat in my home office and overloaded on routing with 6 routers
and associated stuff from work for a month prior to lab day - I'm
talking 6pm to 2am daily after work - I work for a consulting company
so if I wasn't billing then the day time was also available to me.
10am-2am both days on weekends. Thats all well and good but I did it
up until 5pm the day before I left. I flew down on a Tuesday and
found I was completely burnt out on the day. Next time I'm going to
stop about a week before - maybe lightly study but nothing too
intense.
I still feel the "fundamental knowledge" strategy is a good approach
but I think I mistakenly relied on it a little too heavily. I had
used all the Fatkid.com labs and completed them successfully using
that approach - but in my own time. Gotcha!!! To fix this I have
purchased the cciebootcamp.com labs and will be hitting those with
vigour and, most importantly, speed.
This one I feel a bit guilty about. I placed an awful lot of family
time on the back burner by placing maximum priority on the
certification. Having attempted once I now know I will get it one day
- more family time is to be expected from here on in. If anything I
would recommend that everyone attempting the lab stay in touch with
reality and find a happy medium between study time and family time -
assuming you have one that is :) You cant get the family time back
but you can space out the study time.
However - the HUGE benefit I got from seeing the lab was that I feel I
now have a solid understanding of what it takes to become a CCIE. I
had read up on the requirements, listened to war stories much like
this, asked CCIEs I know, etc - but didn't really, truly, know for
myself what is required until I went there and tried. It was an
enlightening surpise. Believe me when I say that the experience has
now placed the term "Internetworking Expert" into a whole different
light for me.
I must say that not since I successfully passed my Clearance Diving
course in the Royal Australian Navy have I been truly "tested" in any
certification/designation that I have achieved. That was until the
CCIE lab attempt - not that I achieved it. Sure I've done a crapload
of "exams" but you know what - CCNP, MCNE, etc - learn it parrot
fashion from the books and you'll pass - you can still be a crappy
engineer. The CCIE lab is a challenge in every sense of the word
(although I must say that I have met and heard of a couple of CCIE's
that haven't seemed to have a good grip on things either - but I
digress). If there's anyone out there that has been discouraged by
their first attempt - let me say this - After seeing what was there
and what level you need to be at to pass - I am excited to think that
I will one day be at that level too. Think of how hard it appeared
and then think of how good it would feel to conquer it (ok....so its
an ego thing !!!!). To get a CCIE number is an awesome achievement -
and attainable.
There - now I've got myself all gung-ho I need to go route
somthing!!!!
Jamie Price
Systems Engineer
Integrated Systems Group
CCNP (Voice Access Specialist), MCNE,
CIARCHT, MCP
jprice@isgteam.com
(920) 8826500 ext 6505
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