From: Brad Ellis (bellis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Mon Nov 05 2001 - 00:02:58 GMT-3
Hey gang! I never sent a post the first time I passed, so Im going to write
a two-for-one with this post.
I'll start with my R&S attempts. It took two attempts. The first attempt,
I didn't study at all, and wanted to see what the lab was all about. I
thought I knew enough to at least make it to day two. I was very mistaken.
I had my lunch handed to me in SJ that day! Even though my first attempt
was before voice or ATM, it was still a lot more than I bargained for. A
year passed between my first and second attempt. For my second attempt (in
April of 2000), I studied hard. The three-six months prior to the exam, I
read and re-read through Halabi and Caslow. The two to three months prior
to the exam, I did the ccbootcamp labs (which is how I met Marc; prior to
that I did not know him). The last month prior to taking the test I was
studying 6-8hrs/day during the week and 8-12 hours/day on the weekend. I'm
surprised my girlfriend and I are still together!!! I actually bought her a
dog to keep her occupied while I was studying. The first day of my second
attempt (which was a Saturday) I thought went pretty well as I finished two
hours early. I came back for day two in SJ, and I had a day two test
booklet sitting on my desk (small sigh of relief). I also thought the first
half of day two wasn't too bad either as I finished a couple hours early
once again. There were two of us that made it to day two. We went to lunch
together and both thought we had done well enough to make it to
troubleshooting. After lunch, the proctor came out, and called the other
guy into the back area. I was left sitting out in the lobby for 20 minutes
wondering if I had made it or not! I was going crazy sitting outside in the
lobby wondering what was going on. The 20 minutes seemed like 3 hours! I
was so sure I had done well enough to make it to troubleshooting. Finally,
the proctor came out and got me. He told me I did NOT make it to
troubleshooting. I can go into details without breaking the NDA, but
needless to say, there were some mistakes made while grading my test. The
mistakes were corrected and I had plenty of points to continue onto
troubleshooting. Troubleshooting went by pretty quick, and I was handed my
number! I felt such a sign of relief to know all my hard work had amounted
to something special.
For my CCIE Security, it was a much difference story. My consulting and
other work related issues were seriously consuming my time. Fortunately,
the majority of my consulting gigs have been security related with lots of
VPNs and PIXs. The scariest part of the whole CCIE Security exam was flying
down to San Jose on Halloween after Attny Gen. Ashcroft announced a higher
alert of possible terrorist attack. I hadn't gotten much sleep during the
prior three nights knowing that I would have to fly from Detroit to SJ.
Thursday morning rolled around and I woke up bright and early to get to
building C around 7:30am PST. I can't go into details without breaking the
NDA, but it was quite an interesting experience with the fire-alarm going
off during the afternoon portion of the exam. Talk about a real
concentration killer! The two proctors on duty were extremely professional
handled the situation very appropriately. After I left the exam, I didn't
think I had enough points to pass. I was mistaken when I got an email from
Kathe on Saturday congratulating me on obtaining CCIE Security status.
The one-day lab was a great experience and was definitely different than the
old two-lab format. It was more challenging than I thought it would be.
You definitely have a better grasp of your layout with the two-day lab
format after spending the first half day constructing the lab. The one-day
lab got ride of the "dumb" stuff just like Cisco said which really makes a
lot of sense. However, there is nothing like the feeling of going home
after the first day of the old two-day lab wondering if you made it to the
second day. I think the one-day format was really good by removing the IP
addressing and troubleshooting areas, but I feel there should still be a
second day to test more topics and other complex issues. Don't
misunderstand, generally speaking, I actually think the one-day approach is
HARDER than the older two-day approach. Cisco did a great job in combining
the two days into a one-day scenario. For the ultimate CCIE lab exam, I
think a combination of the current one-day lab and the old two-day lab would
really do the trick!
And to answer quite a few emails I have received during the past few
months - Your study approach should be the same as for the two-day lab. I
would make sure you have a really good understanding of the technologies and
be certain of your speed. For the one-day lab, you really need to be fast
on the keyboard! Good luck!
thanks,
Brad Ellis
CCIE#5796 (R&S / Security)
Network Learning Inc
bellis@ccbootcamp.com
used Cisco gear: www.optsys.net
CCIE Labs, racks, and classes: www.ccbootcamp.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Jun 21 2002 - 06:45:03 GMT-3