From: Granofsky, Aaron (AGranofsky@xxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Sat Dec 09 2000 - 17:51:42 GMT-3
Well, I passed yesterday at San Jose on my second attempt.
I thought that this lab scenario was much harder than the scenario that I
had on my first attempt. Actually, I kind of freaked out when I initially
read through the binder. But, then I calmed down, read through it again,
and just told myself to take it one step at a time.
Once I started actually working on the lab, it started to make sense, and my
choices became more obvious.
I finished day one by 3:30 and then went back over everything again. I
found a few little things that I had missed (which would have cost me 6
points). I wasn't completely satisfied with the way that things were
working, but I felt that I had met the requirements of the questions. I
then really focused on making sure that I had documented everything that I
could. I continued to look things over until the proctor (Andy) told us
that time was up.
Five of us made it to day two. Although I should have been prepared for it,
I freaked out again when I read the day two binder. It was also much harder
than the day two binder on my first attempt. I settled down and started
working. I wasn't happy with my day two work at all. I felt that I had
only pickup up at most 18-20 of the 30 points possible.
Lunch was on extremely long hour and a half.
Three of us were called in to start troubleshooting. I then found out that
I had accumulated 60 points so far. I guess my day one work was strong
enough to get me through my miserable day two.
I didn't make it to troubleshooting on my first attempt, so I didn't really
know what to expect. My only advise in troubleshooting is to take it slow,
and methodical. I initially just explored and documented, without fixing
anything. Then I started tackling things in the order that seemed most
appropriate.
I made my stupidest mistake in troubleshooting, which is why I advise to
take it slow. I accidentally wiped out all of the routing config (for all
protocols) on one of my routers because I was in a hurry. I was really glad
that I had documented my network properly, because I had to rebuild the
router (which was doing redistribution) from scratch while troubleshooting
the rest of the errors. I fixed everything that I could find and made sure
that everything was back to full functionality, including my wiped router).
The few moments that I waited while he checked my troubleshooting seemed an
eternity. After checking our labs, he walked over with one yellow sticky
and handed it to me. I was sad for my partners, but elated for myself. I
erased my configs and got out of there quickly. I couldn't take being so
happy while others were so miserable.
During the course of the lab, I asked a lot of carefully worded questions
and bugged the proctor quite a bit. I felt that he was very fair and
helpful throughout the lab. I also relied on the CD-ROM to answer questions
that I couldn't answer. However, I went through the lab and did everything
that I knew how to do first, and then researched the questions that I
couldn't answer. I spent several weeks with the documentation CD-ROM and
knew where everything was by heart. I think that if you have to go hunting
to find information during the lab you're toast. I also feel that you need
to know different solutions to handle the same problem, because at some
point, you can count on not being able to use the solution that you are used
to.
The thing that I really want to say is to just be confidant and remember to
relax, because you can do it.
I want to thank everybody on this list for their posts, and Paul for running
it. I think that the information that I got from this list made a huge
difference. I usually didn't have the time (or the answers) to reply to
posts, but I would research every question that I couldn' t answer, until I
could answer it. (Boy, there's some smart people replying to this list.) I
actually spent the few days before the lab just looking back through the
archives and making sure that I understood as much as I could.
I initially started the quest to get my CCIE with the focus of just getting
the certification. I cannot believe the amount of information that I have
learned on the quest. I journey was definitely worth it. (Now I just have
to figure if it's worth it to take my second attempt at the ISP-Dial lab.)
I am happy that I can now spend weekends with my wife, read the new Robert
Jordan book, and relax during the holidays.
Cheers,
Aaron
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