From: Tony Olzak (aolzak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Wed Jan 10 2001 - 17:02:09 GMT-3
As I promised, here's the story of my CCIE experience:
I failed on my first attempt in November. I made it all the way to =
troubleshooting but needed to max it out. I missed one or two stupid =
things and obviously failed. The lessons I learned from my first attempt =
were:
* Take something to help you sleep the night before. I didn't get to =
sleep until 4:30AM.
* Don't cram on the night before. By now, you either know it or you =
don't. Cramming will only keep you up all night instead of sleeping.
* Stay calm. The first day I was so nervous, I was literally shaking at =
the keyboard. I knew how to do everything but I made some careless =
mistakes.
* Be thorough. I couldn't get one thing to work and spent the rest of =
the day working on it instead of rechecking everything. I went to sleep =
on day one thinking I missed maybe three points; I ended up missing =
fifteen. They were stupid mistakes that I never would have made if I =
wasn't so nervous.
* Know the basics cold. On both attempts, I finished so early that I had =
enough time to actually find things on the CD and implement them in the =
lab.
* Know the Doc CD. Both times I was able to use the CD to either learn =
something new, or verify certain commands.
* Skip over things you don't know. If you don't know how to do =
something, or if one thing gives you too many problems, skip it and come =
back after you have everything else working. You'll waste too much time =
otherwise.
The day leading up to my second attempt was horrible. My flights were =
delayed (lesson learned: fly out two days before the lab), my luggage =
was lost, and my shower was broken in the hotel room. I couldn't believe =
all the things that were going wrong. I didn't have a change of clothes, =
or toiletry, and didn't notice the shower was broken till the next =
morning. I had to wear the same clothes and not shower the morning of =
day one. That was pleasant.
For some reason, people at RTP were still going to the Hardwood =
building. The lab has moved to the Lake building. Make sure you go =
there. It's the third building on the left.
I finished day one at about 11:30AM. This gave me enough time to recheck =
everything multiple times. I also took the time to take excellent notes =
on my diagram. You want to list everything you possibly can on the =
diagram because you won't believe how much stuff they mess up in =
troubleshooting.
I went to bed feeling pretty good, but didn't get too confident because =
of what happened on my last attempt. I came in the next morning and =
found out I had missed about three points. Now I was feeling good. I =
knew from my last attempt that I could buckle down and use that padding =
to my advantage.
I saw some things on day two that I didn't know, but was able to use the =
CD to learn some things. Another topic I just skipped altogether and =
missed only another three points.
After you are all done, it's the waiting that kills you. You have to =
wait all night on day one to find out how you did, Then you have to wait =
at lunch on day two to find out how you did. Then you have to wait for =
them to break your network. then you have to wait for the results. At =
the end of the day, the proctor came in with a post-it in his hand. It =
had my number on it. I had finally passed.
I must note that the two proctors I had, Allen and Howard, were great =
guys and treated me more than fairly both times I took the test.
These are the books I read and the tools I used to help me in my quest:
Routing TCP/IP by Jeff Doyle
Bridges, Routers, and Switches by Bruce Caslow
The Halabi book for BGP (can't remmeber the name at the moment)
I also read most of the CCIE prep books from Cisco, but these were the =
best for prep.
Labs from ccbootcamp.com
Home lab consisting of five routers and a switch. I can't emphasize =
enough the importance of practicing with frame-relay and ISDN.
I never took a single Cisco class, but I work with the stuff at my job =
and I had a home lab. I think buying a home lab is worth more than going =
to a class.=20
Email me if you want some suggestions on prep, but do not email me =
asking for details of the test. I won't even reply.
Tony Olzak, CCIE #6689
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