From: Chuck Larrieu (chuck@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Wed Jan 10 2001 - 16:44:43 GMT-3
Not that I can speak from experience in the Lab itself, but I make a point
of asking everyone who has been through the lab, successful or not, for
their advice on preparation. The same themes keep recurring. I am beginning
to group these into "mindset".
Of late I am finding out how little I really know about frame relay
behaviour, as an example. A couple of test labs I have worked on in the last
couple of weeks have totally blown me away. Now the thing is I design
customer networks for a living, and have installed several quite successful
frame relay based networks. So it's not that I don't have experience with
frame. But the fact is, I design networks that are straightforward and work.
I don't design bizarre networks where one side of the link is multipoint and
the others are point-to-point or straight interface with no subinterface
using OSPF in one part of the network and IGRP in the other and
redistributing the two without using a default network on the IGRP side and
no static routes allowed on router A and no route maps on router b.
I believe there are plenty of good preparation tools for the lab, including
fatkid, ccbootcamp, and Mentor Vlab. So one cannot make the excuse that one
did not know what to expect going in. Fact is there are plenty of folks on
this list in the last couple of months who have passed first time through.
Where I believe people make their mistake is in thinking that the Lab is
about configuring routers. They memorize configurations, and practice those,
and totally ignore the advice of the many Lab experienced people who post
here and else about the deep understanding required.
To me, based on my conversations with CCIE's and other wannabe's like
myself, the lab is about THINKING and UNDERSTANDING. It is about PLANNING
and only then, after these things, is it about configuring.
JMHO
Chuck
Living in sheer terror these days, knowing what I don't know!
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
Kevin Baumgartner
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 11:22 AM
To: jeffkesemeyer; Michelle T; ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: RE: Second Attempts
At 01:59 PM 1/10/01 -0500, jeffkesemeyer wrote:
>You make an interesting point on attempts.
>
>I am getting ready to make my first attempt and I really an not sure as
what
>to expect on the difficulty of the lab. I am practicing and reading and
>hopefully I will make it to the second day. My only thoughts can be that
the
>first time will have to be a practice run so I can learn what I am weak at.
>Seems everyone makes second attempts so the level required must be more
than
>anyone can estimate.
For most people I think the first attempt is really a chance to see what
the
lab is all about. I think I saw someone post that there is only a 14% pass
rate for
the first attempt. Don't know if it's that they are not prepared enough or
it's more
difficult than they though.
>I would be interested in here about the personal weak spots others had on
>their first attempt.
>Giving others a way to test their abilities before the lab. Someone once
>mentioned that they could configure six routers in 20 minutes with 3-IGP's,
>FR, and ISDN. They passed the lab so that is a goal that I must be able to
>do as well. This does not guarantee I will pass, but I will certainly limit
>myself if I can't do it.
>
>I think if everyone knew the difficulty in the beginning that there would
be
>more passing on the first attempts and less of a lab back log. I been
>wanting to take the test since the beginning but my only books on Cisco
were
>the 9.12 IOS manuals, now there are only three Cisco Press books that I
>don't have.
Might help but also might reduce the level of the certification. After
the first attempt
you will certainly find out the level of the difficulty. I know I did and
it wasn't that I
didn't think it was difficult going in, but I guess until you actually sit
in the lab you
really don't find out what you don't know.
Kevin
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