From: Les Hardin (hardinl@xxxxxxx)
Date: Tue Jan 30 2001 - 20:04:02 GMT-3
Jen,
Hearty congratulations!!! I enjoyed reading the synopsis of your journey
to CCIEdom. Only people that have gone through this ordeal can truly
relate to the indescribable bliss of receiving four numbers! Nice job!
Les
April 18th, Halifax
CCNP+Voice+ATM/CCDP
At 04:42 PM 1/30/2001 -0600, Jennifer Joy wrote:
>For me, the CCIE has been a journey which has taught me a lot, and
>filled some those "holes" in the swiss cheese of my knowledge. The
>darned thing is, it's just a tiny piece of the networking world,
>there is much more for me to learn. But I am happy to see that
>green light glowing -- the green light of happiness, what I always
>call it when you get that "good to go status" on a piece of gear.
>It's not the end, but it's a good beginning. And I'm glad I'm finally
>at that place.
>
>A short synopsis of my journey
>
>The beginning
>When I started out 8 months ago, I really didn't have a grip on
>frame relay. I didn't know DLCIs from a hole in the ground. I'd
>been in the IT industry a good while, and ran a medium-sized enterprise
>network as well being a senior unix admin. My enterprise network
>was a lot of Catalysts, ACLs and some OSPF.
>
>So, if you're like I was then, I'd recommend the All-in-One Study
>Guide by Hutnik and Satterlee. It will get you caught up on the
>basics, but it's just the beginning.
>
>The spare brain
>Keep a notebook where you take notes on each topic, and write
>down the gotchas as you learn them. At least for me, my memory
>couldn't keep all of this in my head. It is so handy to have
>a condensed experience where you can review it. I had my notes
>in a 3-ring binder so I could rearrange easily and each page treated
>a single topic (although I had a separate folder for DLSw because
>it really ate my lunch).
>
>After doing all the labs in that book and reading Caslow from cover
>to cover, I bought the ccbootcamp labs. Do these slowly at first,
>making sure you really understand why the answers are the way they
>are. You need a rack. I had a good one, and I don't even want to
>count the numbers of hours I spent on those routers.
>
>ECP-1
>After about 3 months of lab study, I took ECP-1. This was just a
>month before my lab. My instructor was Val Pavlichenko and he was
>very good. He knows a ton, but doesn't spoonfeed you. I also
>read Halabi and a ton of pages off of CCO.
>
>SJ
>At the end of Oct. I took my first lab. I should have gone to day 2
>but I was just stupid about something to do with the rack. My only
>tip here is to really read the labels on the rack. My particular
>issue no longer exists. I had done a bunch of the hard problems so
>I was somewhat happy, but I had really wanted to see Day 2.
>
>RTP
>Thanks to a fluke with my phone call I got into the lab just over
>a month later. I then wandered through the whole lab in RTP, and
>ended up about three points short. AIIII! A draining experience.
>
>About in here, the groupstudy posts really started to seem old hat.
>I knew the answers. This is a good sign. You know you are close
>to being ready.
>
>SJ again
>I finally got a shot off a SJ wait list and got to take the lab a
>third time. Unlike RTP where I knew where I stood, I had no idea
>how many points I had lost, or even which sections I got wrong at
>any point in the whole thing. But in SJ they did tell me about
>how many broken things I needed to find on troubleshooting, while
>RTP was just a mystery. I preferred the SJ way for troubleshooting
>but I was nervous the whole time about how many points I missed.
>
>I don't think this is easy, not if you've got any emotion in your
>body. The waits are hard, especially day 2 lunch. Day 2 is hard,
>there isn't a lot of time if you get the least bit bogged down. The
>topics individually aren't too bad, but mixed together with time
>pressure and nerves, it's a challenge. At the very end after I had
>turned in my troublesheet I freaked the most. My proctor was
>frowning and staring at her screen. I was thinking, "oh man, did I
>blow troubleshooting again?" After an eternity I saw the orange paper
>being picked up. My pulse quickened. She was bringing it to me!! I
>passed!!! She said, "I was having trouble with the database..." and the
>wait made sense. I was so delirious I almost walked out with my
>drawing accidentally. I didn't know what to do. I stumbled out (with
>some navigational difficulty) into the bright San Jose sunshine just
>floating with happiness. You might think it was stupid, but
>it was extra special for me to get my number from Kathe, who has been a
>CCIE a long time, and yes, a woman even longer. :-)
>
>Random thoughts:
>-I used the CD a lot, I don't have a great memory, so I knew where
>to go to double-check a few things
>-I open up lots of browser windows, so in case I want to go back to
>something while reviewing I don't have to find that page in the CD again
>-be sure to review your work at the end of each day ... you will
>put some hysterically funny stuff in there and forget about it,
>and you need to remove it (otherwise it doesn't seem so funny)
>-groupstudy is great, although I will people would quit posting stuff
>off the exams
>
>And all I can say is thanks to all my email buddies, however briefly
>we chatted, you kept me going. To Tony, Earl, Steve, Sal, Julie Ann
>and Michelle ... you guys are awesome. Thanks for talking to a stranger
>and keeping me sane.
>
>Jen
>CCIE #6759
>
>
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