From: Kevin Baumgartner (kbaumgar@xxxxxxxxx)
Date: Wed Sep 20 2000 - 02:11:32 GMT-3
That means he would have to invalid his NDA that he signed when
he took the test.
Kevin
>
> Congratulations!
> My lab test is scheduled a week later from now, at SEp 27th. Helps from new
> CCIEs are definitely needed. Could you tell me what kinds of questions on
> ipx routing and ip multicast routing you were asked during the test?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Lei
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David H. Brown" <DHBrown@PipeLine.com>
> To: <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2000 9:29 PM
> Subject: CCIE #6231
>
>
> > Today I was awarded CCIE # 6231 in RTP, NC!!!!
> >
> > Since I don't have a web site to refer everyone to, I will post my story
> > here. Feel free to delete it... I have been looking forward to writing
> > this note, and I must have created 25 mental post-it's of things I wanted
> to
> > be sure to include. All of that memory was reclaimed and filled with IOS
> > commands, so now I'm going to have to wing it after all.
> >
> > I started this adventure last October when I passed the written exam. I
> > then bought and read Caslow, Doyle and Hutnik, and I found this list and
> > joined in January -- clearly a good move. I found out how little I knew,
> > and how much more I have to (even still) learn. I bought a rack and
> filled
> > it with routers, an ISDN simulator and a phone line simulator. This was
> > beginning to be fun! I configured the rack with any scenario I could
> find.
> > I strongly recommend ccbootcamp.com, Marc's labs are an excellent
> > preparation tool for the real lab. I also used labs from fatkid.com, and
> > then any scenarios that popped on the list. Being with a Cisco partner, I
> > was able to have access to the ASET program, which was also a huge help.
> > After all of that preparation, I failed badly on my first attempt in
> March.
> >
> > Feeling whooped by the ten-to-floor-ya lab, I avoided touching my rack for
> a
> > few weeks. My next attempt was set for June, so I figured I would start
> up
> > again a few weeks before then. Bad choice -- avoid waiting until the last
> > 'few weeks' to study. Take a look at some of the posts of people looking
> to
> > trade dates to get more time -- I would venture to say some of them should
> > have not waited for the date to come so close to prepare for it. I went
> in
> > to the second attempt thinking I would see something close to what I saw
> the
> > first time, and I could just skate through no problem. Time to interject
> > that I have been certifying for quite some time. I passed the CNE in
> 1990,
> > I had been working with NetWare since 2.0a was the cat's meow. MCSE was
> not
> > a terrible challenge, nor was Citrix, Checkpoint was not hard -- I even
> > passed the CCNP and CCDP. The CCIE lab is nothing like any of those
> > certifications, and may it never be. With the other certs, there are
> study
> > mechanisms and a limited number of potential questions. Well, I suppose
> > there are a limited number of questions that can be asked on the lab, but
> > that number is much much higher than the pool of 150 questions that are on
> > the other tests. Needless to say, I was quite surprised to see a
> completely
> > different exam. I did well, making it to day 2 but not to
> troubleshooting.
> >
> > I had scheduled to go again in September, and I apparently didn't learn
> from
> > previous experience NOT to wait around. See, I learned even more than how
> > to properly route and switch packets. I bought a bunch of Cisco Press
> > books, and read through most of them. I also read the Cisco Voice book by
> > Robert Caputo, it seems to have all the basics -- though nothing replaces
> > hands on. There was a problem with my new lab date, and I was able to
> move
> > up quite a bit and get in in August (thanks Christine!). That was only 2
> > weeks away!! I figured I could slam the routers full time nights and
> > weekends, like I did before, and I would be fine. Nope. Another
> completely
> > different test, with a twist I could not figure out (until I got back
> home).
> > I was again able to make day 2, but a few careless mistakes and I went
> home
> > again before troubleshooting. This was getting old. I realized I must be
> > worse than average, since the average pass was on the third attempt. In
> > reality, I was just not an expert yet -- since experts don't make careless
> > mistakes like I did.
> >
> > This entire time, I was trying to balance having a life along with working
> > full time and studying for the exam. There were vacations to take and
> > church functions to prepare for and attend that would take much of my
> > non-working time. After reading other's posts about not having a life and
> > reading the "what will I do now that I passed" posts, I realized that
> there
> > is something more important than passing this exam. It's about
> priorities:
> > God, Family, THEN occupation. When you mess these up, life gets messed
> up.
> > Although I tried to get my priorities straight before my third attempt, I
> > was unable to because I felt the short time I had to prepare should be
> spent
> > completely on the routers. Ehhhnnnt, wrong. After the third failure, I
> > changed the priorities back to where they should have been right along. I
> > was blinded for months by the allure of gaining the medallion, forgetting
> > that all this will be gone someday, and that day could be any day for any
> > one of us. Oh, I did keep studying in every moment I could, but my
> attitude
> > was changing. It was not an overnight change, but a process that I am
> still
> > dealing with daily. When the children asked me to play a game with them,
> my
> > February answer was "don't bother me now." I did mellow that response
> after
> > a while to "I can't right now, but after June 17." For the last few
> weeks,
> > the answer became, "sure, let's play -- but you need to be in bed on time
> so
> > Daddy can get his studying done." Oh, that was much sweeter to them as
> well
> > as to me -- since I love to play games with my children. I came home
> > tonight to a small congratulatory reception, and we proceeded to play a
> > game. To me, that is the right way to be. This experience has been a
> > tremendous period of growth for me -- not just technically, since even the
> > exam is not just about knowing the IOS. It's about the pressure you are
> > under at any time, can you do it in this very limited amount of time? And
> > can you get it right the first time, because when you go over it with the
> > proctor, it's too late to fix it. Speaking of the proctors, I have seen
> > messages that have said bad things about the RTP proctor Alan Lanier.
> Could
> > it possibly be enjoyable to have a job where every day you have to tell
> 80%
> > (or more) of the candidates that enter the room that they have failed?? I
> > think not, after seeing his joyful demeanor while presenting me with the
> > coveted yellow sticky note. I think THAT is the fun part for him. After
> all
> > of my tests, I say that he was always fair -- although I really would have
> > enjoyed passing on my first attempt, it was not Alan's fault. I have only
> > my poor preparation to blame for my (yes MY) failures. Now I will be able
> > to reap the rewards of my successful completion of the lab exam. Lesson
> > learned: keep your priorities straight.
> >
> > For this fourth and final attempt, I again had a completely different test
> > (they seem to have lots of different tests.) I was able to manage my time
> > well and complete the lab very early, leaving myself time to go over it to
> > find and fix anything I may have misinterpreted. I was ecstatic to reach
> > troubleshooting, quite sure that at least one of the other two that
> started
> > day two with me would make it before I would. Sadly, it was just me. The
> > last section is very stressful, but I was able to gather enough points to
> > reach the mark.
> >
> > In the final part of my note (one of my mental post-it's came back to me),
> I
> > wanted to say thank you to the ones who helped me in some way to reach
> this
> > goal of mine. Some helped me technically, others were my non technical
> > support:
> > God
> > My wife and five children
> > Jay Thompson
> > Meredith Davison
> > Mark Martin
> > Christine Jeffrey
> > Lori C.
> > Ron P.
> > Angelo M.
> > Jomi S.
> > The DNE Team
> > Paul S. & family
> > Pat & Jeff
> > CCIElab@GroupStudy.com
> >
> > David
> >
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