From: Pinnacle -- Erik Freeland (erik.freeland@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Thu Feb 08 2001 - 21:48:37 GMT-3
Wow, I never though I would be writing this e-mail, but I actually made it
through the lab and got my number. I am glad this journey has a happy
ending. I have read others posting this type of message and it always
inspired me, so I'll try and do the same, if you are not interested in a
recap of my studying hit "delete"
The test Itself (Within NDA)
This was my first attempt at the lab. I had low hopes of making it to day to
and almost no hope of passing. The most stressful event was the wait and the
studying in the few days before the actual lab. I performed the day 1 tasks
and felt everything was going ok. There were some things I was clueless
about and others that had me stymied. But most items were vanilla if you
knew the tricks and traps. I was almost done with 1 hour remaining when I
began to review my work. I saw a glaring issue and tried to fix it. I made
the changes I thought would work and I rebooted a router. Before I could
recheck everything and verify time was up. I sat dumbfounded.
I went to a movie to relax but.. I was trying to determined if everything
had worked and if I did things correctly. I actually slept well, exhaustion,
that night and returned to see if I made Day 2.
I arrived in the lab and on my desk was a Day 2 book!!!!! 3 of us made it to
day two. Wonder of Wonders. I worked through the book and felt ok. Lots of
tricks and traps, but this time no surprises at the end of time. I kept
checking and rechecking and rechecking. Then that dreaded 1.5 hour lunch. It
was a living nightmare. I returned and all three of us had made it to
T-Shooting. I had to find 9 errors to pass. After thinking I found 13, I
turned in my paper and waited. The wait was short. Kathe, the proctor,
brought me a short letter with my name and my number.
I was blown away. I did it...How I did it is detailed below.
The studying
What follows is my opinion on how to study. The most important thing is to
understand how you learn and tailor your studying in that manner.
First I have been doing "networks" for about 7 years. I began doing Novell
Server work, then began doing NT server work, and finally a little bit of
LAN/WAN. My original LAN/WAN was Bay Networks specific. During this time I
read tons of networking books, Perlman, Comer, Stevens, Naugle, etc. These
books were general networking texts, not Cisco Specific. They formed the
foundation that I build everything else upon. I cant stress the importance
of knowing the foundation. For instance, an in-depth knowledge of OSPF can
be gained from reading Moy. It's not fun, but it will build the foundations
and make configuring OSPF easier.
I first touched a Cisco router two years ago. By this time, I knew IP, RIP
and routing from the Bay world, so the CCNA was a breeze. I simply had to
learn the commands. Learning the commands may take a little time, but you'll
always remember them. How many out there still know DOS :).
It took me another 6 months to get my CCNP and I passed the written in the
process. I began gearing up for a lab shot in early 2000, but I never got it
scheduled and my written expired. I didn't study much, but I kept reading
voraciously. I have almost 100 books in my library and I'm always looking
for more.
I passed my written AGAIN in October and this time registered for my lab,
Feb 7th. Now I actually began studying. I gathered a home lab, about 7
routers plus a Cat2948 (like a 5K) and a Cat3920 (Token Ring). I got the
cciebootcamp labs. Then I kinda studied until mid January. I had resigned to
the fact that my first lab would be a learning experience, so I would get
serious later.
In mid January I took ECP1 with Val Pavlichenko. This class denies
description. It was simply incredible. Val got me motivated and told me I
had a shot at passing. I worked quickly and methodically in class. It was
the best week of training I have ever had. I spoke above about the
importance of seeing the tricks and traps in the CCIE lab, well this class
shows you all the tricks and helps you through them methodically. The best
memory of the class was solving a redistribution issue using a 12.0 eigrp
network command. Val looked at this and said that it was correct, but there
were 4 other ways to fix the problem and to find them. That is the value of
ECP1.
Now I was three weeks from the lab and had a renewed dedication to studying.
I hit the routers hard. I performed lots of configs and examined lots of
issues. 5 days before my lab I began reviewing the cciebootcamp labs in
earnest. Before ECP, lab #1 took me a while to do. After ECP1, it was about
a 20 minute lab. I did the first 7 labs with my equipment as well as come
other studying before I had to leave for SJ.
I studied the night before my exam, again this is my "style". If I'm not
cramming, life just isn't fun. I learned 1/2 a semester of organic chemistry
in two nights back in college. I looked over a lot of configs to get a feel
for them. I ran the configs in my head. It got so bad that two days before
my test I saw a picture with a -1 graffittied on a wall. I immediately
started doing IPX network filters because they use a -1 instead of any (I'm
was a sick puppy). I got a terrible nights sleep, but.....didn't matter.
You can obtain the CCIE with three components, Knowledge, Confidence, and
luck. Knowledge is evident. Confidence is the thing that most people don't
have when they attempt the lab. You have to hammer in commands quickly and
be confident that they will work. For example, I configed everything in my
lab, from IP address to routing, before I worried about testing. It worked
also, I had time to test and research unknown configs. Even though in my
head I though I would fail, in my heart I was confident. I never gave up.
Confidence also helped me stay calm. Finally, luck does play a part in the
lab. Some may disagree, but I will say that if you have tons and tons of
knowledge, you can get away with less luck. But if you get a high point item
that you have never seem, that's unlucky.
I had all three. There are definitely more knowledgeable and technical CCIEs
than me, but I can hold my own. I had confidence. And I think I got a little
lucky, but damn I'm glad it's over.
Finally, the best piece of advice I can give is. The CCIE is more that just
configs. The configs are the easy part. If you know the theory, you can
build the config. Learn the theory then step through the configs. Begin
easy, then add 1 requirement. Then another. At the end, you can do this with
your eyes closed.
Wow, this was long. For those of you that made it through this
congratulations, you at least have determination.
Regards,
Erik Freeland
CCIE #5834
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