From: Kenneth Sacca (ksacca@xxxxxxxxx)
Date: Wed Sep 20 2000 - 13:13:04 GMT-3
Lei Chen,
So far today this is the 2nd time you have broken the NDA
or asked someone to break the NDA. As a Cisco Employee,
you aren't setting very good examples. Now I'm not the
most vocal Cisco person on this list, but some guys will
turn you in for this type of behavior. Please reread
the NDA and adhere to it as a Cisco employee.
Regards Ken
Cisco Systems
IOS WAN Development
Lei Chen wrote:
>
> 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
> >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Thu Jun 13 2002 - 08:24:58 GMT-3